Wyresdale, Lancashire Family History Guide
Wyresdale is an Ecclesiastical Parish in the county of Lancashire, created in 1728 from a chapelry in Lancaster St Mary Ancient Parish.
Other places in the parish include: Tarnbrook.
Alternative names: Over Wyersdale, Over Wyresdale
Parish church:
Parish registers begin:
- Parish registers: 1715
- Bishop’s Transcripts: 1813
Nonconformists include: Roman Catholic, Society of Friends/Quaker, and Wesleyan Methodist.
Table of Contents
Adjacent Parishes
Parish History
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870
WYERSDALE (Over), a township-chapelry in Lancaster parish, Lancashire; on the river Wyre, 4¾ miles E by N of Bay-Horse r. station, and 7 SE of Lancaster. Post town, Lancaster.
Acres, 16,938. Real property, £4,728. Pop. in 1851, 680; in 1861, 524. Houses, 90. The decrease of pop. arose from the destruction, by fire, of a cotton factory. The manor belongs to H. Garnett, Esq.
The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Manchester. Value, £170. Patron, the Vicar of Lancaster-The church is plain.
There are Quaker and Wesleyan chapels, and an endowed school.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848
WYERSDALE, OVER, a chapelry, in the parish and union of Lancaster, hundred of Lonsdale south of the Sands, N. division of Lancashire, 6 miles (N. N. E.) from Garstang; containing 679 inhabitants. This is part of the ancient forest of Lancaster; and at the Conquest is supposed to have been divided into twelve portions, and to have been given to twelve soldiers as a reward for their services.
It is difficult to distinguish it in ancient records from Nether Wyersdale, in Amounderness; what is said of that township, so far as respects the descent of property, will in a great measure apply to Over Wyersdale.
The district comprises about 16,600 acres, the greater portion of which is meadow and pasture; part of it is mountain, from which the most extensive views are obtained. The river Wyre or Wyer takes its rise from the mountain dells here.
The living is a perpetual curacy; net income, £135; patron, the Vicar of Lancaster. The present chapel was erected in 1843, at a cost of £1000, and is a neat structure.
William Cawthorne, in 1683, gave a school-house, with a messuage, some land, and a rent-charge of £15, for which 30 boys are instructed; and another school has an allowance of £20 per annum from the Society of Friends.
A colony of Cistercian monks from Furness settled here, at Abbeystead, for a short time, before the year 1188, when they removed to Ireland, and founded Wythney Abbey.
Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848
Parish Records
FamilySearch
Use for:
England, Lancashire, Over Wyresdale
England, Lancashire, Wyersdale (Over)
Administration
- County: Lancashire
- Civil Registration District: Lancaster
- Probate Court: Court of the Bishop (Consistory) of the Commissary of the Archdeaconry of Richmond Western Deaneries – Amounderness
- Diocese: Manchester
- Rural Deanery: Amounderness
- Poor Law Union: Lancaster
- Hundred: Lonsdale
- Province: York