Place:Kirkby Ireleth, Lancashire, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia Kirkby Ireleth (#15 on the map) is a civil parish in the South Lakeland District of the English county of Cumbria. It includes the villages of Angerton, Grizebeck and Kirkby in Furness; and the hamlets of Beanthwaite, Beck Side, Chapels, Soutergate, Wall End and Woodland. The parish had a population of 1,247 at the UK census of 2001, falling to 1,174 at the 2011 Census. Until 1974 Kirkby Ireleth was a parish in Lancashire, England. It was part of the Ulverston Rural District from 1894 until 1960, and part of the North Lonsdale Rural District from 1960 until 1974. In 1835 the Kirkby Ireleth was an ancient parish and contained the townships of Kirkby Ireleth, that of Dunnerdale with Seathwaite (which became a civil parish in 1866), parts of the township of Broughton in Furness and the extra parochial area of Angerton. The following description from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72 is provided by the website A Vision of Britain Through Time (University of Portsmouth Department of Geography). "KIRKBY-IRELETH, a township and a parish in Ulverston [registration] district, Lancashire. The township lies on the Duddon estuary, and on the Furness railway, 4½ miles NW of Ulverston; has a station, of the name of Kirkby, on the railway; is divided, for local purposes, into the sections of Middle Quarter, Low Quarter, Heathwaite, and Woodlands; and contains the hamlets of Beckside, Chapel, Cross-Beck, Gill-Beck, Beanthwaite, Sandside, Soutergate, and Grisebeck, the last of which has a Post office under Ulverston. Acres: 9,010. Real property: £11,844; of which £5,600 are in quarries. Population in 1851: 1,748; in 1861: 1,666. Houses: 332. The manor, with most of the land, belongs to the Duke of Devonshire. Kirkby-Hall was long the seat of the Kirkby family; contains some curious ancient decorations; and is now a farm house. Quarries of excellent dark blue roofing slate are on Kirkby-Moor, in Middle-Quarter; extend in a series along a hill; give constant employment to about 350 men; and send their produce to all parts of the kingdom. A large proportion of the township is moor and mountain. Many families are engaged in cockle fishing in the Duddon.

For code for numbered places, see the page for Ulverston Rural District. The smaller urban disticts are Ulverston and Grange over Sands.

"The parish contains also the township of West Broughton, and that of Dunnerdale-with-Seathwaite. Acres: 25,740. Real property: £20,729. Population in 1851: 3,366; in 1861: 3,138. Houses: 628. The property, except in [Kirkby Ireleth] township, is much subdivided.

"The manor of West Broughton belonged, for several centuries till 1487, to the Broughton family; and that of Seathwaite belongs to J. J. Rawlinson, Esq. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Carlisle. Value: £140. Patrons: the Dean and Chapter of York. The church stands at Beckside; is ancient, but good; consists of nave, N aisle, and chancel, with a tower; and contains ancient monuments of the Kirkby family. The [perpetual] curacies of Woodlands, Broughton-in-Furness, and Seathwaite are separate benefices. There are two parochial schools, and charities £88."

Angerton

Angerton (#2 on the map) was converted from an extra-parochial area into a separate civil parish in 1858, but has always had an extremely small population. In 1887 Bartholomew's Gazetteer of the British Isles stated it covered 2,195 acres but only had a population of 32. It is recorded as a separate parish within both Ulverston Rural District and North Lonsdale Rural District, but was absorbed into Kirkby Irleth in 1974. It is probable that 19th century sources will be found under Kirkby Ireleth. Its current population is recorded with that civil parish.

Research Tips

• See the Wikipedia articles on parishes and civil parishes for descriptions of this lowest rung of local administration. The original parishes (known as ancient parishes) were ecclesiastical, under the jurisdiction of the local priest. A parish covered a specific geographical area and was sometimes equivalent to that of a manor. Sometimes, in the case of very large rural parishes, there were chapelries where a "chapel of ease" allowed parishioners to worship closer to their homes. In the 19th century the term civil parish was adopted to define parishes with a secular form of local government. In WeRelate both civil and ecclesiastical parishes are included in the type of place called a "parish". Smaller places within parishes, such as chapelries and hamlets, have been redirected into the parish in which they are located. The names of these smaller places are italicized within the text.
• Rural districts were groups of geographically close civil parishes in existence between 1894 and 1974. They were formed as a middle layer of administration between the county and the civil parish. Inspecting the archives of a rural district will not be of much help to the genealogist or family historian, unless there is need to study land records in depth.
• Civil registration or vital statistics and census records will be found within registration districts. To ascertain the registration district to which a parish belongs, see Registration Districts in Lancashire, part of the UK_BMD website.
• Lancashire Online Parish Clerks provide free online information from the various parishes, along with other data of value to family and local historians conducting research in the County of Lancashire.
• FamilySearch Lancashire Research Wiki provides a good overview of the county and also articles on most of the individual parishes (very small or short-lived ones may have been missed).
• Ancestry (international subscription necessary) has a number of county-wide collections of Church of England baptisms, marriages and burials, some from the 1500s, and some providing microfilm copies of the manuscript entries. There are specific collections for Liverpool (including Catholic baptisms and marriages) and for Manchester. Their databases now include electoral registers 1832-1935. Another pay site is FindMyPast.
• A map of Lancashire circa 1888 supplied by A Vision of Britain through Time includes the boundaries between the parishes and shows the hamlets within them.
• A map of Lancashire circa 1954 supplied by A Vision of Britain through Time is a similar map for a later timeframe.
• GENUKI provides a website covering many sources of genealogical information for Lancashire. The organization is gradually updating the website and the volunteer organizers may not have yet picked up all the changes that have come with improving technology.
• The Victoria County History for Lancashire, provided by British History Online, covers the whole of the county in six volumes (the seventh available volume [numbered Vol 2] covers religious institutions). The county is separated into its original hundreds and the volumes were first published between 1907 and 1914. Most parishes within each hundred are covered in detail. Maps within the text can contain historical information not available elsewhere.
• A description of the parish of Kirkby Ireleth from British History Online (Victoria County Histories), published 1914. This chapter contains a map of the ancient parish.
• A description of the township of Kirkby Ireleth from British History Online (Victoria County Histories), published 1914