Radcliffe, Lancashire Family History Guide

Radcliffe is an Ancient Parish in the county of Lancashire.

Other places in the parish include: Starling.

Alternative names:

Parish church:

Parish registers begin:

• Parish registers: 1761
• Bishop’s Transcripts: 1604

Nonconformists include: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Independent/Congregational, Presbyterian, Swedenborgian/New Jerusalem/New Church, Unitarian, and Wesleyan Methodist.

Adjacent Parishes

• Elton
• Ainsworth
• Stand
• Middleton
• Radcliffe St Thomas
• Bury St Mary

Parish History

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

RADCLIFFE, a small town, a parish, and a sub-district, in Bury district, Lancashire. The town stands on the river Irwell, near the influx of the Roach, and on the Manchester and Bury railway, adjacent to the Bolton and Bury canal, 2½ miles SSW of Bury; took its name from a red cliff on the opposite side of the Irwell; consists of two parts, called Radcliffe and Radcliffe-Bridge, about ½ a mile as under; carries on bleaching, paper-making, cotton-spinning, calico-printing, gingham, fustian, nankeen, and check-weaving, machine-making, iron-founding, and small-ware manufacture; has several collieries; and has a post-office under Manchester, a railway station of Radcliffe-Bridge, with telegraph, agood inn, a police station, a market house built in 1851 at a cost of £1,500, a bridge over the Irwell, two churches, three dissenting chapels, four national schools, an agricultural show on 28 Sept., races about the middle of Aug., a fair on 29 Sept., and charities £9. The parish church is ancient, of various dates; has a low massive tower; and includes a chapel restored in 1845, and a N transept added in 1846. St. Thomas’ church, at Radcliffe-Bridge, was built in 1819, at a cost of £5,000; was rebuilt in 1865, at a cost of £7,274; is in the perpendicular English style; and contains 1,200 sittings. The parish contains also part of Starling village, and comprises 2,466 acres. Real property, £35,800; of which £8,940 are in mines, and £1,439 in gas-works. Pop. in 1851, 6,293; in 1861, 8,838. Houses, 1,726. The manor belongs to the Earl of Wilton. R. Tower, now a ruin, was formerly a great manorial mansion. The living is a rectory, and that of St. Thomas is a p. curacy, in the diocese of Manchester. Value of the former, £500; of the latter, £300. Patron of both, the Earl of Wilton. The sub-district excludes two small portions of the parish, but includes portions of three other parishes. Pop., 8,972. Houses, 1,754.

Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].

Maps

Vision of Britain historical maps

Administration

• County: Lancashire
• Civil Registration District: Bury
• Probate Court: Court of the Bishop of Chester (Episcopal Consistory)
• Diocese: Manchester
• Rural Deanery: Prestwich
• Poor Law Union: Bury
• Hundred: Salford
• Province: York