Read St John,Lancashire

History
The parish church is dedicated to St John Evangelist by Henry Ross of Accrington, 1884, with the west steeple dating from 1911.

The Diocese of Blackburn is a Church of England diocese, covering much of Lancashire, created in 1926 from part of the Diocese of Manchester. The Diocese includes the towns of Blackburn, Blackpool, Burnley, and the cities of Lancaster, and Preston, as well as a large part of the Ribble Valley.

The name "Read" is a contraction of an Old English term meaning "roe (deer) headland."

The old village developed in the 16th century along the main mediaeval road between Whalley and Padiham.

The Battle of Read Old Bridge was fought in 1643 between a Royalist force and Parliamentarians, resulting in the downfall of the Lancashire Royalist cause.

Read Hall and Park was the seat of the Nowell family from the 14th century and Roger Nowell was a magistrate at the time of the Lancashire Witches in 1612 sending them to Lancaster for trial and eventual execution.

In the 1870s Victoria Mill, together with a few houses for employees, was built alongside the turnpike road by the Kemp family and this area of Read became known as Newtown.

The civil parish is linked to Simonstone, Lancashire.



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 Free BMD. Online index of Lancashire Births, Marriages and Deaths Lancashire BMD

Lancashire Online Parish Clerks
An extremely useful resource for research in Lancashire Parishes http://www.lan-opc.org.uk/

Church Records
Include here information for parish registers, Bishop's Transcripts and other types of church records, such as parish chest records. Add the contact information for the office holding the original records. Add links to the FamilySearch Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection

Poor Law Unions
Burnley Poor Law Union,Lancashire

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
Maps are a visual look at the locations in England. Gazetteers contain brief summaries about a place.


 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Websites
Add any relevant sites that aren't mentioned above.