Ribchester, Lancashire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes

View a "List of Chapelries in the Parish of Ribchester"



Parish History
Ribchester is an Ancient Parish in the county of Lancashire.Other places in the parish include: Hothersall, Alston, Hatherall, Dutton, and Dilworth.

St Wilfrid's Church is an anglican church in the village of Ribchester in Lancashire, England; it is situated close to the site of a Roman fort. It is an active parish church in the Diocese of Blackburn. It has been designated a Grade I listed building by English Heritage.

St Wilfrid's dates from the 13th century, built on a site close to that of a Roman fort, Bremetennacum. A chapel and porch were added in the 14th century. A tower was added to the west in the late 15th century. In the 16th century, the roofs were removed in order to increase the height of the chancel walls and new windows were added to the aisle wall. Major repairs to the building took place in 1685–6 and 1711. A west gallery was added in 1736. The church underwent restoration in 1881 that included the rebuilding of the north wall of the chancel.

In November 1966, it was designated a Grade I listed building by English Heritage. The Grade I listing is for buildings "of exceptional interest, sometimes considered to be internationally important". St Wilfrid's is an active Anglican parish church in the Diocese of Blackburn, the Archdeaconry of Lancaster and the Deanery of Preston.

The Diocese of Blackburn is a Church of England diocese, covering much of Lancashire, created in 1926 from part of the Diocese of Manchester. The Diocese includes the towns of Blackburn, Blackpool, Burnley, and the cities of Lancaster, and Preston, as well as a large part of the Ribble Valley.

RIBCHESTER St Wilfrid, a parish, in the union of Preston, partly in the hundred of Amounderness, and partly in the Lower division of the hundred of Blackburn, N. division of Lancashire; containing, with the chapelry of Longridge, and the townships of Alston, Dilworth, Dutton, and Hothersall, 6 miles north by northwest of Blackburn. At Longridge is a separate incumbency (chapel of ease) that was established by the year.

There are a place of worship for Independents, and two chapels for Roman Catholics: one of the latter at Dutton, was built about a century ago.

Civil Registration
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. There are several Internet sites with name lists or indexes. A popular site is FreeBMD.

Online index of Lancashire Births, Marriages and Deaths Lancashire BMD

Lancashire Online Parish Clerks
An extremely useful resource for research in Lancashire Parishes http://www.lan-opc.org.uk/

Church records
Include here information for parish registers, Bishop’s Transcripts and other types of church records, such as parish chest records. Add the contact information for the office holding the original records. Add links to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection

Census records
http://www.1881pubs.com/ for details of public houses in the 1881 census

Poor Law Unions
Preston Poor Law Union, Lancashire

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Lancashire Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

Maps and Gazetteers
Maps are a visual look at the locations in England. Gazetteers contain brief summaries about a place.


 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain