Stretford St Matthew, Lancashire Family History Guide

Stretford St Matthew is an Ecclesiastical Parish in the county of Lancashire, created in 1717 from a chapelry in Manchester Our Lady, St George and St Denys Ancient Parish.

Alternative names:

Parish church: St. Matthew

Parish registers begin:

Parish registers: 1855
Bishop’s Transcripts: 1665

Nonconformists include: Independent Methodist, Independent/Congregational, Primitive Methodist, and Wesleyan Methodist.

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Adjacent Parishes

Parish History

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

STRETFORD, a township, a chapelry, and a sub-district, on the S border of Lancashire.

The township lies on the Manchester and Altrincham railway, 4 miles SW of Manchester; is in Manchester parish; includes Old Trafford chapelry; contains many handsome villa residences, a public hall, a temperance institute, the Manchester botanic garden, the asylum for the blind, the school for the deaf and dumb, two churches, five dissenting chapels, a Roman Catholic chapel of 1864, and a large national school; and has a r. station with telegraph, and a post-office, designated Stretford, Lancashire.

Acres, 3,140. Real property, £42,938; of which £500 are in gasworks. Pop. in 1851, 4,998; in 1861, 8,757. Houses, 1,668.

The chapelry was constituted in 1854. Pop., 3,882. Houses, 791. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Manchester. Value, £405. Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of M. The church was rebuilt in 1841.

The sub-district comprises S. township and Flixton parish, and is in Barton-upon-Irwell district. Acres, 5,689. Pop., 10,807. Houses, 2,077.

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

A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848

STRETFORD, a parochial chapelry, in the parish of Manchester, union of Chorlton, hundred of Salford, S. division of Lancashire, 4 miles (S. W.) from Manchester; containing 3524 inhabitants.

The chapelry comprises 3121 acres, of which 85 are common or waste land. It is separated by the river Mersey from Cheshire, and lies on the road from Manchester to Northwich.

Here is a large paper-mill; and the place has been for many years a celebrated mart for pigs: from 600 to 700 pigs were sent weekly to the Manchester market; but since the opening of the Manchester and Liverpool railway, this trade has been gradually removing to Manchester, so that now not more than two or three hundred pigs are slaughtered here per week.

The Duke of Bridgewater’s canal, and the railway from Manchester to Altrincham, pass through the chapelry.

The living is a perpetual curacy; net income, £150; patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Manchester, whose tithes here have been commuted for £430: the glebe comprises 18 acres.

The chapel, supposed to have been erected by the Trafford family in the reign of Elizabeth, was taken down and rebuilt in 1718, was enlarged in 1821, and again in 1824. In 1842 it was once more taken down, being deemed unsafe, and being much too small for the accommodation of the people; and the present chapel was built on a new site, about thirty yards from the former one. It is dedicated to St. Matthew, is in the early English style, with a handsome tower, and contains 917 sittings, of which 351 are free: the cost was estimated at £3250.

The edifice was erected chiefly through the exertions of the Rev. J. Clarke, the present curate and locum tenens; as were also the national schools for boys, girls, and infants, which are an additional ornament to the place, and cost about £1150. The inhabitants have testified their gratitude to the curate by presenting him an elegant tea service, and a purse, the value together being 120 guineas.

Ten children are entirely clothed during three years; and the schools may be considered as endowed with £45 per annum by a bequest from Mrs. Hind.

The Manchester Botanic Gardens, and the Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb and for the Blind, are in the township.

Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848

Parish Records

FamilySearch

Administration

County: Lancashire
Civil Registration District: Barton upon Irwell
Probate Court: Court of the Bishop of Chester (Episcopal Consistory)
Diocese: Manchester
Rural Deanery: Eccles
Poor Law Union: Chorlton
Hundred: Salford
Province: York