Norwood St Luke, Surrey Genealogy

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Parish History
NORWOOD, a district, partly in the parish and union of Lambeth, E. division of the hundred of Brixton, and partly in the parish and union of Croydon, First division of the hundred of Wallington, E. division of Surrey, 6½ miles (S.) from London; containing 6046 inhabitants. The village derives its name from an adjacent wood, which borders on a common formerly a noted resort for gipsies. Its elevated situation, the beauty of the surrounding scenery, and the salubrity of the atmosphere, have of late years caused the erection of many elegant seats in the vicinity. A mineral spring, called the Beulah Spa, was discovered some years since, and inclosed within an ornamental building; and a large tract of ground with a favourable undulation of surface has been laid out in a variety of walks and shrubberies, tastefully adorned with grottoes and fanciful buildings, which attract numerous visiters during the summer months: a convenient hotel has been built at the entrance to the gardens. Some coarse earthenware is made in a pottery here. There are two churches in the district. That dedicated to St. Luke, in the parish of Lambeth, a large edifice in the Grecian style, with a Corinthian portico and a tower, was completed in the year 1825, at an expense of £12,897, of which the commissioners gave one moiety, and lent the other, together with the sum of £4325 for making a cemetery, furnishing the building, &amp;c.: the living is a district incumbency; net income, £303; patron, the Archbishop of Canterbury. The district church dedicated to All Saints, situated at Beulah Hill, in the parish of Croydon, is in the English style, with four turrets, and was completed in 1829, by a grant from the commissioners: the living is a perpetual curacy, in the gift of the Vicar of Croydon; income, £285. There is a place of worship for Independents. A burial-ground here, called the South Metropolitan Cemetery, covering forty-one acres, laid out in the most tasteful manner, and adorned with appropriate buildings, was consecrated on the 7th of December 1837. It is principally on the north and north-west acclivities of a commanding eminence, upon which two chapels stand, and from which the views of Norwood, Penge, Herne-Hill, and the adjoining country, are very fine; the chapels were designed by Mr. Tite, and are in the style that prevailed in the time of Henry VI. On Westow Hill, which has a splendid panoramic prospect, are some Industrial schools for training the pauper children of numerous London parishes: the premises occupy four acres.

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel A. Lewis (1848), pp. 446-461. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51187 Date accessed: 01 December 2010.

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.

Church records
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Census records
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Many archives and local history collections in public libraries in England and Wales offer online census searches and also hold microfilm or fiche census returns.

Images of the census for 1841-1891 can be viewed in census collections at Ancestry (fee payable) or Find My Past (fee payable)

The 1851 census of England and Wales attempted to identify religious places of worship in addition to the household survey census returns.

Ancestry UK Census Collection

Find my Past census search 1841-1901

for details of public houses in the 1881 census

Prior to the 1911 census the household schedule was destroyed and only the enumerator's schedule survives.

The 1911 census of England and Wales was taken on the night of Sunday 2 April 1911 and in addition to households and institutions such as prisons and workhouses, canal boats merchant ships and naval vessels it attempted to include homeless persons. The schedule was completed by an individual and for the first time both this record and the enumerator's schedule were preserved. Two forms of boycott of the census by women are possible due to frustration at government failure to grant women the universal right to vote in parliamentary and local elections. The schedule either records a protest by failure to complete the form in respect of the women in the household or women are absent due to organisation of groups of women staying away from home for the whole night. Research estimates that several thousand women are not found by census search.Find my Past 1911 census search

Poor Law Unions
Lambeth Poor Law Union

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Surrey 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
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Web sites
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