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England  Cheshire  Cheshire Parishes Witton

Parish History

WITTON, is a township and parochial chapelry, in the parish of Great Budworth, union of Northwich, South division of the county of Chester, ¼ of a mile (E.) from Northwich. The chapelry lies partly in Eddisbury hundred, and partly in that of Northwich. In the former are the townships of Castle-Northwich, Hartford, and Winnington; in the latter, those of Witton-cum-Twambrooke, Northwich, Birches, Hulse, Lach-Dennis, and Lostock Gralam.^[1]

Witton, St. Helen was an ancient chapelry in Great Budworth parish, originally serving the townships of Birches, Castle Northwich, Hartford (part), Hulse, Lach Dennis, Lostock Gralam, Northwich, Winnington and Witton cum Twambrooks.

The church was originally a chapel of ease to St Mary and All Saints, Great Budworth and the area was then known as Witton. The present building dates from the 14th century, with additions in the 15th, 16th and 19th centuries.A tradition that Witton had a chapel as early as the 13th century cannot be verified, but by the mid-14th century a church (technically a chapel of ease) stood on the present site.

Gradually this evolved into the church as it is today. North and south aisles, narrower than those currently present, were added in the 15th century. The present porch however is certainly no earlier than 1500 and possibly much later: an inscription on its beam commemorates a substantial repair in 1756.

The aisles were rebuilt and widened between 1536 and 1549, bringing what had been a side chapel (now the Lady Chapel) into the body of the church. The chancel was embattled soon after 1624, when Thomas Farmer, the master of Witton Grammar School left money for the purpose in his will.

Although there have since been further changes to the interior (including the addition of screens at the east end of the aisles and new coloured glass windows), by the 1890s the church looked much as it does today. It formally became a parish church when "the District Chapelry of St Helen Witton, otherwise Northwich", came into being on 7 August 1900.

Resources

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. Registration District

• Northwich

Registration events can be searched online at Cheshire BMD

Church Records

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

To find the names of the neighbouring parishes, use 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.

Parish registers for Witton-cum-Twambrooks, 1561-1973 Chester Record Office call number: P53/1/1-6, 2/1-10, P53/4690/1-4, P53/3/1-4, 8/1-2, 4/1-11, P53/4690/5-20, P53/5/1-2, 6/1-9, P53/7/1-3. Witton-cum-Twambrooks was a chapelry in Great Budworth parish.  An index for Cheshire Parish Records can be found in FamilySearch Historical Records.

The Family History Library (FHL) has copies of the following records.

Witton (Northwich)- St Helen
Baptism Index-1813-1851- 929.342715 No2
Baptisms-1561-1767- MFPR 427
Baptisms-1768-1858- MFPR 430
Baptisms-1858-1903- MFPR 431
Baptisms Auxiliary-1813-1862- MFPR 432
Burials-1561-1767- MFPR 427
Burials-1768-1873- MFPR 433
Burials-1874-1912- MFPR 434
Burials Aux.-1813-1862- MFPR 435
Marriage Index-1754-1792- 929.342715 No1
Marriage Index-1792-1851- 929.342715 No1
Marriage Index-1837-1857- 929.342715 No2
Marriages-1561-1754- MFPR 427
Marriages-1754-1837- MFPR 428
Marriages-1837-1895- MFPR 429

For original registers of above please enquire at Cheshire Record Office.

The Manchester Room and Greater Manchester County Record Office
Email: archiveslocalstudies@manchester.gov.uk

The Manchester Room@City Library (Local Studies)

Bishop's transcripts for Witton-cum-Twambrooks, 1597-1893 Records are not arranged in strict chronological order. Some intermittent years are missing. Cheshire Record Office number: EDB/225

An index of Cheshire Bishop's transcripts may be found in Family Search Historical Records.

Non-Conformist Churches

Refer to Northwich, Cheshire to see relevant churches and chapels.

Cheshire Record Office Document Reference EMC 13

• NORTHWICH METHODIST CIRCUIT Date 1793-1999
• Description SUPERINTENDENT MINISTER Registers of baptisms MISCELLANEA CIRCUIT MEETING SECRETARY Minutes of quarterly and half yearly meetings General Purposes Committee minutes Property Committee minutes Returns of members
• CIRCUIT STEWARDS Circuit Steward Accounts Preachers Travelling Fund Accounts Minutes Plans Accounts Circuit Schedules Circuit Property Schedules
• LOCAL PREACHERS' MEETING SECRETARY Minutes
• CIRCUIT PLAN SECRETARY Circuit plans
• YOUTH COUNCIL Minutes MISCELLANEA NORTHWICH BOURNE CIRCUIT
• CIRCUIT STEWARDS Accounts Circuit reports and schedules
• SUPERINTENDENT MINISTER Membership register
• CIRCUIT MEETING SECRETARY Quarterly meeting and circuit committee minutes
• OVERSEERS MISSIONS CIRCUIT COMMITTEE LOCAL PREACHERS' MEETING SECRETARY Minutes
• MISCELLANEA CIRCUIT PLAN SECRETARY Circuit plans
• NORTHWICH UNITED METHODIST (CENTRAL) CIRCUIT CIRCUIT MEETING SECRETARY WOMEN'S FELLOWSHIP Accounts Miscellanea

Northwich Wesleyan Methodist Circuit was formed in 1792, and following Methodist Union in 1932 was designated Northwich London Road Circuit. In 1935 London Road Circuit amalgamated with Central (former United Methodist) circuit to form Northwich (London Road and Central) circuit. In 1956 the Winsford section of this circuit was transferred to Winsford Methodist Circuit, and the remainder amalgamated with Northwich Bourne (former Primitive Methodist) circuit to form Northwich Methodist Circuit. URL http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/records.aspx?cat=017-emc13&cid=0

Poor Law Unions

• Northwich Poor Law Union, Cheshire

Census records

Census records from 1841-1891 are available on film through a Family History Center or at the Family History Library. The first film number is 241250. To view these census images online, they are available through the following websites for a fee ($) or free:

• FamilySearch has some of the British Censuses available.
• FindMyPast ($) has all available census records including images, and is free at Family History Centers and the Family History Library and some public and academic libraries.
• Ancestry.co.uk ($) has now all available census records but free at Family History Centers and the Family History Library and at numerous public and academic libraries. The library versions are known as AncestryInstitution.com.
• The Genealogist.co.uk ($) has all available censuses and is free at Family History Centers and the Family History Library and various other libraries.
• FreeCen is a UK census searches. It is not complete and individuals are always asked to consider helping out with transcriptions.
  

Probate records

Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Cheshire 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

Web sites

References

This section requires expansion with: any additional relevant sites that aren't mentioned above.

Bibliography

• Clifton-Taylor, Alec (1974), English Parish Churches as Work of Art, London: Batsford, ISBN 0 7134 2776 0
• Harries, M.; Lynch, C. (1981), An illustrated history of the Northwich Parish and Church, Northwich: St Helen Witton Church, ISBN 0950764809
• Richards, Raymond (1947), Old Cheshire Churches, London: Batsford
• Salter, Mark (1995), The Old Parish Churches of Cheshire, Malvern: Folly Publications, ISBN 1871731232

• This page was last modified on 19 April 2013, at 18:05.
• This page has been accessed 1,441 times.