Backford St Oswald Cheshire Family History Guide
Backford St Oswald is an Ancient Parish in the county of Cheshire.
Other places in the parish include: Mollington Tarrant, Millington Tarrant, Lea near Chester, Lea by Backford, Lea, Great Mollington, Great Millington Tarrant, Chorlton by Backford, and Caughall.
Parish church: St. Oswald
Parish registers begin:
- Parish registers: 1562
- Bishop’s Transcripts: 1581
Nonconformists include:
Table of Contents
Adjacent Parishes
Backford, Parish Registers
Search online registers of baptisms, marriages, banns and burials including digitised images of original records and registers and indexed transcriptions.
Baptism, Marriage and Burial Records
These records include images of Church of England parish registers of baptism, marriage, and burial records.
Backford St Oswald, Cheshire Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1562-1808
Backford St. Oswald, Cheshire Church of England Baptisms, 1813-1981
Backford St Oswald, Cheshire Church of England Bishop’s Transcripts – Baptisms – 1751-1840
Marriage and Banns Records
These records include images of Church of England parish registers of marriages and banns records.
Backford St Oswald, Cheshire Church of England Marriages and Banns 1754-1964
Death and Burial Records
These records include images of Church of England parish registers of deaths and burial records.
Backford St Oswald, Cheshire Church of England Burials 1813-1981
Backford St Oswald, Cheshire Church of England Bishop’s Transcripts – Burials, 1751-1840
Parish History
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870
BACKFORD, a township and a parish in Great Boughton district, Cheshire. The township lies on the Ellesmere canal, 1 mile NE of Mollington r. station, and 3½ N of Chester. Acres, 749. Real property, £1,271. Pop., 150. Houses, 29. The parish includes also the townships of Lea, Caughall, Chorlton-by-Backford, and Mollington-Tarrant or Great Mollington; and its Post Town is Chester. Acres, 3,109. Real property, £4,582. Pop., 525. Houses, 88. The property is divided among a few. Backford Hall is the seat of the Gleggs. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Chester. Value, £230. Patron, the Bishop of Chester. The church has monuments of the Birkenheads and the Morgalls. Charities, £26.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848
BACKFORD (St. Oswald), a parish, in the union of Great Boughton, partly in the Higher division of the hundred of Wirrall, and partly in the Lower division of the hundred of Broxton, S. division of the county of Chester; comprising the townships of Backford, Caughall, Chorlton, Lea, and Mollington-Tarrant; and containing 556 inhabitants, of whom about 200 are in the township of Backford, 4 miles (N.) from Chester, on the road to Birkenhead.
During a great part of the 13th and 14th centuries, the manor was held by the Masseys, of Timperley; about the year 1580 it was sold to Thomas Aldersey, by whom it was soon afterwards alienated to the Birkenheads, who resided at Backford Hall until the family became extinct in the male line in 1724.
The parish comprises 3006 acres, whereof 687 are in Backford township, and of a sandy and clayey soil. The Ellesmere canal skirts the parish on the south; and at Mollington is a station of the Chester and Birkenhead railway. The vicinity of the place to the city of Chester renders it cheerful and desirable for residence.
The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king’s books at £5. 0. 5.; net income, £230; patron and appropriator, the Bishop of Chester: the tithes of Backford township have been commuted for £64 and £46. 3., payable respectively to the bishop and the vicar. The church was rebuilt in the reign of Anne, with the exception of the tower and chancel, built in that of Henry VI.
A school is partly supported by subscription; and an excellent school-house was erected in 1844, under the auspices of the vicar, the Rev. Francis Bryans, at a cost of £345, raised by subscription, aided by public grants.
Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848
Historical Maps
British National Grid Ref: SJ 39806 71692
BNG Eastings, Northings: 339806, 371692
Latitude, Longitude: 53.238827, -2.903369
View detailed 19th-century Ordnance Survey maps from the National Library of Scotland Maps – includes OS 25 inch 1892-1918 maps, a vast range of other historical OS maps and land use maps. These maps reveal old street layouts, parish boundaries, and landmarks long since vanished.
Alan Godfrey Old Ordnance Survey Maps
The full range of Cheshire maps produced by Alan Godfrey are available in the Cheshire Maps section of the Books & Maps area. There you can search by principal villages and parishes, by key features for town and city plans, and sort the maps by type and scale. Coverage is taken from the places listed in Alan Godfrey’s own map descriptions, although smaller parishes may not be explicitly named. View all the Cheshire & District Alan Godfrey Maps.
Administration
- County: Cheshire
- Civil Registration District: Great Boughton
- Probate Court: Pre-1541 – Court of the Bishop of Lichfield (Episcopal Consistory), Post-1540 – Court of the Bishop of Chester (Episcopal Consistory)
- Diocese: Pre-1541 – Lichfield and Coventry, Post-1540 – Chester
- Rural Deanery: Wirral
- Poor Law Union: Great Boughton
- Hundred: Broxton; Wirral
- Province: York
Sources
The following sources have been used to compile this article.
- F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Northern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1991)
- FamilySearch Research Wiki – Cheshire, England Genealogy
- Cheshire Archives and Local Studies Catalogue
- Ancestry.co.uk
County Maps
The Godfrey Edition reprints of Old Ordnance Survey Maps are invaluable for historians and genealogists. Many are taken from the highly detailed 1:2500 plans, reprinted at about 14 inches to the mile, showing individual houses, railways, factories, churches, mills, canals. Each map includes historical notes on the area. Alongside these large‑scale sheets, Alan Godfrey also publishes the smaller‑scale Inch‑to‑the‑Mile series, and a range of maps based on the OS five‑foot plans.
