Aldridge, Staffordshire Family History Guide

Aldridge is an Ancient Parish in the county of Staffordshire.

Parish church: St. Mary

Parish registers begin: 1660

Nonconformists include: Wesleyan Methodist

Table of Contents

Adjacent Parishes

Parish History

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

ALDRIDGE, a small town, a parish, and a subdistrict in the district of Walsall, Stafford.

The town stands near the Worley canal, 2¾ miles ESE of Pelsall r. station, and 3½ NE of Walsall; and it has a post office under Walsall.

An extensive distillery is here; and fine potter’s clay and coal are worked in the neighbourhood. Pop., 1,179. Houses, 234.

The parish includes also the town of Great Barr. Acres, 7,752. Real property, £6,041. Pop., 2,254. Houses, 454. The property is divided among a few.

A height called Barr-Beacon, is said to have been a place of Druidical sacrifices; and a pool, called Druid Mere, makes an occasional overflow, and has been popularly imagined to possess some supernatural quality. Barr-Hall-Park is the seat of Sir E. D. Scott, Bart.

The living is a rectory in the diocese of Lichfield. Value, £375. Patron, the Rev. J. F. Smith. The church contains a monument of a Stapleton, and is good.

The vicarage of Great Barr is a separate benefice.

Jordan’s schools have £118 from endowment, and other charities £64.

The subdistrict comprises two parishes and part of a third. Pop., 7,026. Houses, 1,413.

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

The Parliamentary Gazetteer of England and Wales 1851

Aldridge, a parish in the southern division of the hund. of Offlow, union of Walsall, county of Stafford. It contains the township of Aldridge and the chapelry of Great Barr.

Living, a vicarage in the archd. of Stafford and dio. of Lichfield; rated at £8 1s. 3d.; gross income £1,100. Patron, in 1835, Sir E. D. Scott, Bart. Pop., in 1831, 1,700. Houses 303. Acres 7,980. A. P. £11,773.

In this parish there is a noted pool called Druidmeer, the occasional overflow of which is supposed by the inhabitants to indicate an approaching dearth. A height in this parish, known by the name of Barr-Beacon, is said to have been the place from which the Druids gave notice of their sacrifices. The Wyrley and Essington canal passes through the parish.

The township of Aldridge is 3 miles east-north-east from Walsall. There are two free schools here. One of these is a school for the education of eight poor girls, with an endowment of £12 per annum; the other, for the education of thirty or forty scholars, has a yearly income of £117 10s. 1d. There is also a National school. The annual produce of other charities connected with this parish, is £54 2s., exclusive of those in the chapelry and township of Great Barr: which see. Once in two years a court-leet is held here.

There is an extensive distillery here; and in the neighbourhood a fine kind of clay is found, from which pottery, tiles, &c, are made.

Pop., in 1801, 736; in 1831, 841. Houses 157. Acres 2,970. A. P. £5,128. Poor rates, in 1837, 320.

Source: The Parliamentary Gazetteer of England and Wales; A Fullarton & Co. Glasgow; 1851.

Parish Registers

Marriage Allegations

The following people have been recorded in the Hampshire Allegations for Marriage Licences granted by the Bishop of Winchester 1689 to 1837.

WYLDE, John, of Aldridge, co. Stafford, 21, b., & Dorothea – Spooner Phipps, of Fawley, 21, sp., at F., 29 Sep., 1799.

Parish Records

FamilySearch Historical Records

Boyd’s Marriage Index (findmypast)

Staffordshire Parish Register Collection (findmypast)

FreeREG – free

National Burial Index (findmypast)

FamilySearch

Bankrupts

Below is a list of people that were declared bankrupt between 1820 and 1843 extracted from The Bankrupt Directory; George Elwick; London; Simpkin, Marshall and Co.; 1843.

Allport H. Curzon, Aldridge, Stafford., wine merchant and maltster, Oct. 2, 1835.