Bollington, Cheshire Genealogy

England Cheshire  Bollington

Parish History
Bollington owes both the churches of St John the Baptist (Church of England) and St Gregory (Roman Catholic) to the donation of land by the owner of the Shrigley Estates, Mr Turner.

St John The Baptist was created as a parish in 1842 from Prestbury Ancient Parish. Bollington is one of the 35 townships in pre-Norman Prestbury parish.

St Gregory's Roman Catholic Church was built after some years ministry of Father Hall using rented cottages form 1830.The chance to build a permanent church came in 1834: Mr Turner, a non-Catholic, who had acquired the Shrigley estates from the last of the Downes family and built a new Hall, gave land for Anglican and Catholic churches - St John's and St Gregory's. Finance came from the Cheshire Fund, helped by the generosity of John, Earl of Shrewsbury, whose donation of £100 was allocated to St Gregory's in 1835. Fr Hall ministered to the people of Bollington, travelling by horse from Macclesfield. On one occasion, to the consternation of all, the horse returned on its own - Fr Hall had been attacked and thrown into a pond. This intrepid priest, who was to remain in Macclesfield for 55 years, until his death, served the people of Bollington for about ten years, though other priests gradually came on the scene: Fr Roger Glassbrook, Fr Edward Kenrick and Fr John Reah , this last-mentioned being the first resident priest in 1845.

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

Registration Districts

 * Macclesfield (1837–1998)
 * Cheshire East (1998+) Registration events may be searched online at Cheshire BMD.

Church records
Bollington parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials have been indexed by the following groups:

To find the names of the neighbouring parishes, use maps.familysearch.org/ England Jurisdictions 1851. In this site, search for the name of the parish, click on the location "pin", click Options and click List contiguous parishes

Prestbury, St. Peter (C of E). The ancient parish church for Bollington. Bollington, St. John the Baptist (C of E). Built in 1834, becoming the parish church in 1842. Registers of Baptisms 1834–1975, Marriages 1838–2003 and Burials 1835–2004 have been deposited at the Cheshire Record Office. Transcriptions of Burial registers 1835-2004 and memorial inscriptions 1835 to 2012 can be searched free on the parish website http://www.stoswaldbollington.org.uk/pages/Research.html Bollington Cross, St. Oswald (C of E). Built in 1892 as a chapel of ease to St. John the Baptist (and now the parish church following the closure of St John's in 2003). Registers of Baptisms 1908–2001 and Marriages 1937–1988 have been deposited at the Cheshire Record Office. (There are no burials at St Oswald's.)

Bollington is a chapelry in Prestbury parish. Cheshire Record Office call no.: P184/1/1-4, P184/2/1-4, P184/3/1-5. Here is a list of church records on microfilm at the Family History Library (FHL) in Salt Lake City.

St. Oswald's Church, Bollington-Cross, was a chapelry in the parish of Bollington-St. John, near Macclesfield. Cheshire Record Office call no.: P184/14, P184/15/1-2.

Bishop's transcripts for Bollington, 1841-1893 Formerly a chapelry in Prestbury parish. Called St. John's Church. Cheshire Record Office Call Number: EDB 30

Non-Conformist Churches
St Gregory's church served the parish until1952 saw the arrival in Bollington of Fr Thomas Osbyrne. He is described as 'perhaps the most dynamic of all Bollington's parish priests'. Notably, in 1957 he pulled down the old church and presbytery and built the present church. In 1962 he also replaced the old school, which reverted to cottages, with a new building in Albert Road. Finally he placed an old army hut behind the church to serve as a parish hall. When he finally left the parish in 1963 he told the people: 'I have always been hard on you. My last act will be a hard one, too: to attend Mass at 6.30 am the day I leave. Many did!

Church registers of St Gregory's Catholic Church (Bollington, Cheshire), 1834-1927 Text in Latin. Cheshire Record Office call no.: Ref. ERC/21/5242/1-3.


 * Bollington, Methodist Chapel (Primitive), High Street. Built in 1859, closed in 1956. Registers of baptisms 1941–54 amd marriages 1901–1952 are at the Cheshire Record Office.
 * Bollington, Methodist Chapel (New Connexion), Grimshaw Lane. Built c1887, closed in 1956. Registers of baptisms 1889–1956 are at the Cheshire Record Office.
 * Bollington, Methodist Chapel (Wesleyan), Wellington Road. Founded 1808. ReBuilt in 1837 and 1885. Registers of baptisms 1841–1923 are at the Cheshire Record Office.
 * Kerridge, Methodist Chapel (Wesleyan). Built in 1895, closed in 1982.
 * Bollington, United Reformed Church (Independent/Congregational), Palmerston Street. Built in 1867, closed early 1980s.

Church registers, Bollington Wesleyan Methodist Chapel (Cheshire), 1812-1837 Microfilm of original records at the Public Record Office, London. Bollington Chapel is in the parish of Prestbury. London P.R.O. nos.: RG-4 series nos. 711, 2148.

Church records for the Wellington Road Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, Bollington (Cheshire), 1841-1923 Bollington is in the Prestbury parish. Cheshire Record Office call number: EMS 16/1-2.

Church registers for Grimshaw Lane New Connexion Methodist Chapel, Bollington (Cheshire), 1889-1956 Bollington Chapel is in the parish of Prestbury. Cheshire Record Office call no.: EMS 193/1.

Church records for the High Street Primitive Methodist Chapel, Bollington (Cheshire), 1901-1950 Bollington Chapel is in the parish of Prestbury. Cheshire Record Office call number: EMS 194/2/1-3.

Church registers for Grimshaw Lane New Connexion Methodist Chapel, Bollington(Cheshire), 1889-1956 Bollington Chapel is in the parish of Prestbury. Cheshire Record Office call number: EMS 193/1.

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to &lt;a href="Cheshire Probate Records"&gt;Cheshire Probate Records&lt;/a&gt; to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

Poor Law Union

 * Macclesfield

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