Bidston (Bidston cum Ford) St Oswald Cheshire Family History Guide
Bidston St Oswald is an Ancient Parish in the county of Cheshire. Bidston is the usual ecclesiastical name and Bidston cum Ford the usual civil name.
Other places in the parish include: Moreton cum Lingham, Saughall Massie, Saughall Massey, Saughan Massie, Moreton, Claughton with Grange, and Claughton cum Grange.
Alternative names: Bidston cum Ford, Bidston with Ford, Bidstone, Bidstone cum Ford
Ecclesiastical parishes created from Bidston Ancient Parish include:
- Birkenhead St Mary Ecclesiastical Parish created in 1738
- Claughton cum Grange Ecclesiastical Parish created in 1876
- Birkenhead St Bede Ecclesiastical Parish created in 1911
- Leasowe Ecclesiastical Parish created in 1957
- Moreton Ecclesiastical Parish created in 1864 from the townships of Moreton cum Lingham and Saughall Massie
Bidston St Oswald Parish Location:
- British National Grid Ref: SJ 28344 90254
- BNG Eastings, Northings: 328344, 390254
- Latitude, Longitude: 53.404219, -3.079277
Parish registers begin:
- Parish registers: 1679
- Bishop’s Transcripts: 1581
Nonconformists include: Roman Catholic and Society of Friends/Quaker.
Table of Contents
Adjacent Parishes
Bidston 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.
Bidston St. Oswald, Cheshire Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1679-1812
Bidston St. Oswald, Cheshire Church of England Baptisms, 1813-1943
Bidston St Oswald, Cheshire Church of England Bishop’s Transcripts – Baptisms – 1581-1863
Marriage and Banns Records
These records include images of Church of England parish registers of marriages and banns records.
Bidston St Oswald, Cheshire Church of England Marriages and Banns 1754-1942
Death and Burial Records
These records include images of Church of England parish registers of deaths and burial records.
Bidston St Oswald, Cheshire Church of England Burials 1813-1958
Bidston St Oswald, Cheshire Church of England Bishop’s Transcripts – Burials, 1581-1863
Parish History
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870
BIDSTONE. a township and a parish in Wirrall district, Cheshire. The township lies on the Hoylake railway, 3 miles WNW of Birkenhead; and has a railway station. Acres, 1,689. Real property, £3,062. Pop., 282. Houses, 48. The parish includes also the townships of Moreton-cum-Lingham, Claughton-cum-Grange, and Saughall-Massey or Saughan-Massie; and its Post Town is Birkenhead. Acres, 4,248. Real property, £20,130. Pop., 2,154. Houses, 323. The property is subdivided.
Bidstone Hill commands a fine view of the surrounding country, the Mersey, and the Irish sea. A lighthouse, 50 feet high, stands on the hill, showing a fixed light, elevated 300 feet above high-water, visible at the distance of 23 miles, and leading, when in line with Leasowe light, through the Horse channel at the Mersey’s mouth; and a telegraph was adjacent, communicating eastward with Liverpool, and westward, through a chain, with Holyhead.
Waterworks for Birkenhead, and a cemetery with two chapels, were being formed in Bidstone in 1862. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Chester. Value, £98. Patron, the Bishop of Chester. The church is excellent. Claughton and Moreton are separate benefices. A school has an endowed income of £15, and other charities £5.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848
BIDSTONE, a parish, in the union, and Lower division of the hundred, of Wirrall, S. division of the county of Chester; comprising the townships of Bidstone with Ford, Moreton with Lingham, and Saughall-Massey; and containing, according to the census of 1841, 773 inhabitants, of whom 291 are in Bidstone with Ford, 4 miles (W. by N.) from Birkenhead.
The manor, which was parcel of the barony of Dunham-Massey, was sold by the Masseys to Henry, Earl of Lancaster, and, having been given in exchange to Sir Roger Le Strange, passed by a female heir to the Stanleys, earls of Derby. It afterwards came by purchase to the Earl of Kingston, and to the Vyner family.
The parish comprises 3630 acres, of which 106 are common or waste: in Bidstone with Ford are 1777 acres, of a light and a clayey soil. On an elevated site is a lighthouse, which was purchased by the corporation of Liverpool, under an act obtained in 1762, and is supported by a duty levied on all vessels sailing to and from that port. Bidstone Hall, an ancient mansion, was a seat of the earls of Derby, and is said to have been a favourite residence of the Earl William, chamberlain of Chester in the reign of James I.
The living is a perpetual curacy; net income, £98; patrons, the family of Keene; appropriator, the Bishop of Chester, whose tithes have been commuted for £455. The church is of the date 1547: over the gateway of the tower are some old armorial bearings of the Stanley family; and from its summit are extensive views embracing the Welsh mountains and river Dee, westward; southward, the county of Chester; eastward, the Mersey, Liverpool, and Everton; and northward, the Channel, bounding the horizon. These objects are also viewed from the top of the lighthouse. A school is endowed with £15 per annum, and a house and garden for the master.
Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848
Historical Maps
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: Wirral
- 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: Wirral
- Hundred: 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
