Place:Birtle cum Bamford, Lancashire, England

NameBirtle cum Bamford
Alt namesBirtle with Bamfordsource: anglicized
Bamfordsource: hamlet in parish
Birtlesource: hamlet in parish
Birclesource: archaic name for Birtle
TypeTownship, Parish
Coordinates53.618°N 2.24°W
Located inLancashire, England     ( - 1933)
See alsoSalford Hundred, Lancashire, Englandhundred in which it was located
Middleton (Manchester), Lancashire, Englandancient parish in which it was located
Bury Rural, Lancashire, Englandrural district in which it was located 1894-1933
Heywood, Lancashire, Englandmunicipal borough to which Birtle was transferred in 1933
Rochdale, Lancashire, Englandmunicipal borough to which Bamford was transferred in 1933
Rochdale (metropolitan borough), Greater Manchester, Englandmetropolitan borough into which the parish was absorbed in 1974
source: Family History Library Catalog
source: Family History Library Catalog


NOTE: Both the hamlet of Birtle and the hamlet of Bamford have been redirected to this page.

Although Birtle cum Bamford was a recognized township from 1846 and became a civil parish under that name, both Wikipedia and A Vision of Britain through Time provide articles for the two hamlets separately. As will be noted on the map, the township/parish had two detached sections. These sections enclosed the two hamlets of Birtle (west) and Bamford (east).

Birtle

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia"

Birtle is a hamlet now within the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies in the Cheesden Valley, set amongst the Pennines.

Prior to 1974 it was a part of Lancashire, Birtle is archaically referred to as Bircle or Birkle which means "Birch Hill". Together with neighbouring Bamford, it formed the civil parish of Birtle cum Bamford (also known as Birtle with Bamford). Until 1846 it was within the large Middleton (Manchester) ancient parish and in Bury Poor Law Union. In 1933 the civil parish of Birtle cum Bamford was dissolved with Birtle being amalgamated into the Municipal Borough of Heywood (which became part of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale in 1974).

The local church is the Church of Saint John the Baptist, known locally as Bircle Church. (Wikipedia also provides a very substantial article on Birtle under its former name of Bircle.

Image:Middleton ancient parish.png

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Birtle from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"BIRTLE, a township, a chapelry, and a [registration] subdistrict, in the district of Bury, Lancashire. The township bears the name of Birtle-cum-Bamford; is in Middleton parish; and lies near the Manchester and Rosendale railway, 2½ miles NE of Bury. Acres: 1,388. Real property: £7,909, of which £300 are in mines. Population: 2,350. Houses: 404. The inhabitants are employed chiefly in cotton and woollen manufactures, and in calico printing.
"The chapelry consists of part of this township and part of Bury parish, and was constituted in 1848. Population: 2,135. Houses: 353. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Manchester. Value: £180. Patron, the Rector of Middleton. The church was built in 1849. There are three dissenting chapels."

Bamford

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia"

Bamford is a suburban area within the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, in Greater Manchester, England.

Together with neighbouring Birtle, it formed the civil parish of Birtle cum Bamford (also known as Birtle with Bamford). It was in Middleton (Manchester) ancient parish and in Rochdale Poor Law Union. In 1933, Birtle cum Bamford was dissolved. Bamford was absorbed into Rochdale Municipal Borough and then amalgamated into the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale in 1974.

The population of the parliamentary ward containing Bamford at the 2011 UK census was 9,693. (The Birtle article does not provide a modern population figure, but it may be part of the same ward.)

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Birtle from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"BAMFORD, a village in the township of Birtle-cum Bamford, parish of Middleton, Lancashire; 3 miles W of Rochdale. It has a post office under Rochdale, and an Independent chapel; and its inhabitants are employed chiefly in cotton factories. Bamford Hall, the fine old seat of J. Fenton, Esq., is adjacent."

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 township of Birtle with Bamford from British History Online (Victoria County Histories), published 1911
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Birtle, Greater Manchester. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Bamford, Greater Manchester. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.