Woodhead, Cheshire Genealogy

Guide to Woodhead, Cheshire ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
WOODHEAD, a chapelry, and a division of the township of Tintwistle, in the parish of Mottram-in Longdendale, union of Ashton-under-Lyne, hundred of Macclesfield, N. division of the county of Chester, 6 miles (E. N. E.) from the village or town of Mottram. There is a place of worship for Calvinistic Methodists.

Woodhead St James was a chapelry created in the Parish of Mottram in Longdendale, Cheshire. It became a parish in 1724.

Standing almost eight hundred feet up at the head of the Longdendale Valley, with fewer than forty people living within a four mile radius this must be one of the most desolate chapels in the country. It may already be well over 500 years old, since 1487 is usually given as its foundation date.

Local rumour suggests that the fifteenth century building - probably wooden - was at Robin-i-Meers, about three quarters of a mile further up the valley by the River Etherow; the dedication seems to have changed from the Blessed Virgin to St. James some time later, which might imply a new building.

The churchyard is notable for the burial of navvies involved in the construction of the Woodhead Railway Tunnel (1845) to connect Manchester and Sheffield by railway.

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.

Church records
Woodhead parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

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

Records are also available at the Cheshire Archives and Local Studies.

Non-Conformist Churches

 * Calvinistic Methodist

Civil Registration
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from 1 July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. Here are two excellent Internet sites with birth, marriage and death indexes available:


 * FreeBMD
 * Cheshire BMD

Registration Districts

 * Ashton under Lyne (1837–1937)
 * Hyde (1937–74)
 * High Peak (post 1974)

Poor Law Unions

 * Ashton under Lyne, Lancashire, Poor Law Union

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.

See also England Cheshire Probate Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

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
Woodhead (see Tintwistle) on GENUKI

Woodhead on GENUKI