Oldbury, Worcestershire Family History Guide

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Oldbury is an Ecclesiastical Parish in the county of Worcestershire, created in 1715 from Halesowen Ancient Parish.

Parish registers begin:

  • Parish registers: 1714
  • Bishop’s Transcripts: 1725

Nonconformists include: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Independent/Congregational, Methodist New Connexion, Particular Baptist, Plymouth Brethren, Presbyterian, Presbyterian Unitarian, Primitive Methodist, and Wesleyan Methodist.

Adjacent Parishes

Oldbury Parish Registers

Search online registers of baptisms, marriages, banns and burials including digitised images of original records and registers and indexed transcriptions.

Oldbury, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812

Oldbury, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1812-1922

Oldbury, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1947

Oldbury, Church of England Deaths and Burials, 1813-1997

Oldbury Parish Records

School Records

The National School Admission Registers & Log-Books 1870–1914 collection offers a rare glimpse into the educational journeys of children across England and Wales during a transformative era. These records often capture names, dates of birth, parental occupations, and school attendance patterns – making them invaluable for family historians, local researchers, and anyone tracing Victorian or Edwardian ancestry. You can view them free with a Findmypast Trial.

Chance’s School 1880-1903 Admissions

Parish History

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

OLDBURY, a town, a township, a chapelry, and a sub-district, in Halesowen parish, Worcestershire. The town stands on the Birmingham canal, and on the Birmingham and Stourbridge and the Birmingham, Wolverhampton, and Stour Valley railways, at the boundary with Staffordshire, 3 miles E by S of Dudley, and 5 WNW of Birmingham.

It is environed by a tract abounding in limestone, coal, and iron ore; derives great importance from the working of these minerals; and has a post-office under Birmingham, two railway stations, several good inns, a county court-house, a temperance hall, a church, an Independent chapel, a Baptist chapel, three Wesleyan chapels, a Primitive Methodist chapel, two New Connexion Methodist chapels, a Unitarian chapel, three national schools, Wesleyan and Unitarian schools, and schools connected with Messrs. Chance’s extensive factories.

The county court-house was repaired and enlarged in 1862. The church stands in the centre of the town; was built at a cost of £4,500; is a commodious and handsome edifice, in the early English style; has three aisles, stained glass chancel windows, and a tower; and was much improved in 1867, at a cost of £1,000. The Unitarian chapel was repaired and improved in 1862, at a cost of about £200.

Fairs are held on 6 June and 3 Oct.; and extensive industry is carried on in furnace iron-works, steelworks, railway carriage works, alkali works, three chemical works, copper-extracting works, barge yards, brick and tile fields, three corn mills, several malting establishments, and manufactories of stove-grates, edged tools, and coffin nails.

Pop. in 1861, 15,615. Houses, 2,907. The township includes the town, and extends beyond it. Real property, £61,758; of which £27,517are in mines, and £1,825 in iron-works. Pop. in 1851, 11,640; in 1861, 15,703. Houses, 2,922. The increase of pop. arose partly from the erection of railway carriage-works, and partly from the extension of iron manufacture and of brick yards.

The chapelry is less extensive than the township, and was constituted in 1841. Pop. in 1861, 9,780. Houses, 1,817. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Worcester. Value, £300. Patron, the Rector of Halesowen. The sub-district comprises the townships of Oldbury and Warley-Salop, and the hamlet of Warley-Wigorn; and is in West Bromwich district. Acres, 3,799. Pop. in 1851, 12,978; in 1861, 17,258. Houses, 3,222.

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

Administration

  • County: Worcestershire
  • Civil Registration District: West Bromwich
  • Probate Court: Court of the Bishop of Worcester (Episcopal Consistory)
  • Diocese: Worcester
  • Rural Deanery: Kidderminster
  • Poor Law Union: West Bromwich
  • Hundred: Halfshire
  • Province: Canterbury