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England Cheshire  Cheshire Parishes Woodchurch

Woodchurch, Birkenhead Holy Cross.JPG

Parish History

WOODCHURCH (Holy Cross), a parish, in the union, and Lower division of the hundred, of Wirrall, South division of Cheshire; with the townships of Arrowe, Barnston, Landican, Noctorum, Oxton, Pensby, Prenton, Thingwall, and part of Irby.^[1]

Woodchurch, Holy Cross (Church of England). An ancient parish church, originally serving the townships of Arrowe, Barnston, Claughton cum Grange (part), Irby (part), Landican, Noctorum, Oxton, Pensby, Prenton, Thingwall and Woodchurch.

The cross probably stood intact in the graveyard until the 17th century when many such crosses were destroyed by the Puritans it has been said. In the 14th century the south aisle, chancel and tower were added. The south aisle was rebuilt in the 16th century and a south porch was added. Heavy diagonal buttresses were added to the tower in 1675. The vestry was built in 1766.  The north aisle by Hubert Worthington was added in 1964–65.

From the Ancient parish two later parishes were created:

Barnston, Christ Church (C of E). The parish church since 1880.
Pensby, St. Michael and All Angels (C of E). Founded 1958 as a chapel to Barnston. Registers of Baptisms from 1958 and Marriages from 1964 are held at the church.

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.

Online registration events post 1837 can be searched at Cheshire BMD

Registration Districts

• Wirral (1837–1974)
• Birkenhead (1974–1998)
• Wirral (post 1998)
  

Church records

Woodchurch 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.

Registers of Baptisms 1571–1945, Marriages 1571–1951 and Burials 1571–1913 have been deposited at the Cheshire Record Office Microreproduction of originals at the Cheshire Record Office in Chester, England. Includes some Latin
Cheshire Record Office call number: P50/4765/1-3, 5-17, 20-22.

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

Bishop's transcripts for Woodchurch, 1581-1894. Record are not arranged in strict chronological order. Some intermittent years are missing. Cheshire Record Office number: EDB/226. The Family History Library has copies of the following records.

The above records can be searched in online indexes of Cheshire parish registers and Bishop's Transcripts  at FamilySearch Historical recordsThe parish is also included in the online transcript collection Cheshire Parish Register project.

Woodchurch- Holy Cross
Baptisms-1571-1945- MFPR 475
Burials-1571-1812- MFPR 475
Burials-1813-1913- MFPR 476
Marriages-1571-1759- MFPR 475
Marriages-1760-1930- MFPR 476

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)

Nonconformist Records

• Woodchurch, St. Michael & All Angels (Roman Catholic). Founded 1952.
• Woodchurch, Methodist Chapel. Founded 1957, Built in 1963.

Census

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 241254. 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.
  

Poor Law Unions

• Wirral Poor Law Union, Cheshire

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

http://www.achurchnearyou.com/woodchurchholycross/ For details about the parish

Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Holy-Cross-Church-Woodchurch/139286336089311

Wikipaedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Cross_Church,_Woodchurch

Gen UKI page http://www.ukbmd.org.uk/genuki/chs/woodchurch.html

Bibliography

• Salter, Mark (1995), The Old Parish Churches of Cheshire, Malvern: Folly Publications, pp. 81, ISBN 1871731232 
• Richards, Raymond (1947), Old Cheshire Churches, London: Batsford, pp. 364–367
• Morant, Roland W. (1989), Cheshire Churches, Birkenhead: Countyvise, pp. 193, ISBN 0 907768 18 0
• Pevsner, Nikolaus; Edward Hubbard (2003) [1971], The Buildings of England: Cheshire, New Haven: Yale University Press, pp. 105–106, ISBN 0 300 09588 0

• This page was last modified on 19 April 2013, at 18:02.
• This page has been accessed 554 times.