Bardsley, Lancashire Family History Guide

Bardsley is an Ecclesiastical Parish in the county of Lancashire, created in 1844 from Ashton under Lyne St Michael Ancient Parish.

Alternative names:

Parish church: Holy Trinity

Parish registers begin:

Parish registers: 1844
Bishop’s Transcripts: None

Nonconformists include: Primitive Methodist and Wesleyan Methodist.

Table of Contents

Adjacent Parishes

Parish History

A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848

BARDSLEY, an ecclesiastical district, in the parish and union of Ashton-under-Lyne, hundred of Salford, S. division of the county of Lancaster, on the road to Oldham; containing about 2500 inhabitants.

This district is in the Knott-Lanes division of the parish; and the river Medlock, and the Manchester and Oldham canal, both run through it. The surface is elevated, and undulating; the soil tolerably good; and the scenery picturesque. The population is mostly employed in coal-mines, which are wrought to a great extent, the coal being of excellent quality; and stone is also abundant in the neighbourhood. There are a cotton mill, and a large brewery.

Bardsley House, overlooking the glen of the Medlock, is the seat of John Jonah Harrop, Esq. Many generations of the Bardsley family held the estate, under the lords of Ashton, by the feudal payment of a rose and one penny, annually: the property subsequently came, by marriage, to the Tetlows; and after having been out of the family for some time, was again purchased in 1681 by Jonah Harrop. In the glen is the house of Riversvale.

The living is a perpetual curacy, with an income of £150, and a residence; patrons, the Trustees of Hulme’s Charity. The church, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, was built in 1844, at a cost of £2000; it stands on an eminence, and is a cruciform structure in the Norman style, with a square tower. The Primitive Methodists have a place of worship; and excellent national schools have been built, at a cost of £1400. Sixty gold coins of the reigns of James and Charles I. were found in an old stable here, in 1822.

Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848