Chorlton cum Hardy, Lancashire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes

Chapelry History
Chorlton cum Hardy St Clement has had a history of two chruch sites.

Until 1512, the people of Chorlton had to travel to Manchester_Our_Lady,_St_George_and_St_Denys,_Lancashire the Ancient Parish church of Manchester, for their baptisms, weddings, and funerals. The prominent Barlow family then established a chapel on what is now Chorlton Green, five minutes walk from the present church. The chapel remained a centre of worship in Chorlton for more than three hun dred years.

The original timber-framed chapel was in use until 1779, when a new building was constructed in brick. Although no records prove that it was built on the site of the original chapel, the fact that some 18th Century graves can be found in the graveyard, the oldest dated 1708, suggests this is likely.

In 1839, Chorlton Chapel was designated a parish church. However, by 1860, Chorlton had grown larger and more prosperous, and because the fabric of the brick building was in a poor state of repair, a new building was proposed. Lord Egerton provided land at the corner of what is now St Clement’s Road and Edge Lane for the new church building.

Moving the church to a new site, however, was not without opposition. Many in the parish resisted the plans. Among them was the banker William Cunliffe Brooks who had paid for the construction of the lych-gate to the old church. The gate still stands on Chorlton Green today.

After many delays, construction of the new church went ahead and the opening service was held in June 1866. The church was consecrated thirty years later.

CHORLTON, a chapelry, in the parish of Manchester, union of Chorlton-upon-Medlock, hundred of Salford, S. division of the county of Lancaster, 3½ miles (S. S. W.) from Manchester; containing, with Hardy, 632 inhabitants. The township lies on the north side of the Mersey, and east of the road from Manchester to Chester, which passes through the village of Stretford, about a mile from Chorlton. The Duke of Bridgewater's canal, and the Manchester and Altrincham railway, also pass a short distance westward of the township. The living is a perpetual curacy; net income, £103; patrons and appropriators, the Dean and Canons of the Collegiate Church of Manchester. In 1741, Margaret Usherwood bequeathed £160 for teaching children.

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis (1848), pp. 607-612. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50877 Date accessed: 29 June 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

Poor Law Unions
Chorlton 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
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 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Web sites
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