Littleborough, Lancashire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes

Chapelry History
LITTLEBOROUGH, a parochial chapelry, in the parish and union of Rochdale, hundred of Salford, S. division of the county of Lancaster, 3½ miles (N. E. by E.) from Rochdale. This place is supposed to have been the site of a small Roman station. The Roman road from Manchester to York skirts the village, and several relics have been found in the immediate vicinity; among them, in 1793, the right arm of a silver statue of Victory, which Dr. Whitaker conjectures, with much probability, from the inscription upon it, "Victoriæ leg vi vic val rvfus vslm," to have been the arm of a votive statue of Valerius Rufus, broken off, and lost by the Roman army in one of their marches from York to Manchester. Littleborough lies on the road from Rochdale to Halifax, and is intersected by the Rochdale canal. The Manchester and Leeds railway, also, has a station here; and at a short distance attains its summit level, 330 feet above the Manchester station, and 440 feet above the terminal station at Normanton, in Yorkshire. It proceeds through a tunnel in Calderbrook, 2869 yards in length, 24 feet wide, and 22 in height, and having 14 shafts ten feet in diameter, varying from 50 to 300 feet in depth: in the formation of this tunnel, 1000 men were employed, and more than £251,000 expended. The population is chiefly employed in three flannel-mills, four cotton-factories, in bleachworks, six coal-pits, a stone-quarry, and in brick-making. About a mile east of Littleborough is Pike House, the ancient seat of the Halliwells, and now of their descendants, the Beswickes: the oldest remaining parts of the house were built in 1609, and the more modern alterations were made in 1703; the situation is remarkably picturesque, and the grounds are laid out with much taste. Town House has been the seat of the Newall family from the reign of Henry VI., and is now occupied by Mrs. Newall. The living is a perpetual curacy; net income, £190; patron, the Vicar of Rochdale: there is a parsonage-house. The chapel, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, was licensed for mass by the convent of Whalley, in 1476; it was rebuilt about 1815, in the early English style, and a gallery has since been erected. There is a place of worship for Wesleyans, and another for Association Methodists. A free school founded by Theophilus Halliwell, barrister-at-law, in 1688, was endowed by him with lands at Haugh-End, in Sowerby, in the parish of Halifax; and was further endowed in 1699 by the will of his brother, Capt. Richard Halliwell. It affords instruction to about 30 children, who, and the master, are nominated by the founder's representative, now a minor, of Pike House. Day and Sunday schools have also been built here.

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 101-104. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51111 Date accessed: 01 July 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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http://www.1881pubs.com/ for details of public houses in the 1881 census

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
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 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Web sites
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