Place:Edgworth, Lancashire, England

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia Edgworth (#6 on map) is now a small village within the borough of Blackburn with Darwen, Lancashire, England. It is northeast of North Turton village between Broadhead Brook on the west (expanded artificially to form the Wayoh reservoir) and Quarlton Brook in the south east. The ground ranges from 650 feet (200 m) to 1,100 feet (340 m) above sea level. [edit] Governance Until the early 19th century, Edgworth was a township in the ancient parish of Bolton le Moors, itself part of the hundred of Salford in Lancashire. In 1837 Edgworth joined with other townships in the area to form the Bolton Poor Law Union. This union took joint responsibility for the administration and funding of the Poor Law in that area. A workhouse was established at Goose Cote Farm in Turton to house the homeless. In 1866 the townships all became ancient parish, allowing inhabitants to have some freedom to manage their own affairs. In 1873 a local board of health was established for the rural area to the north of Bolton. In 1894 the parish of Turton (#18 on map) became an Urban District and four years later the parishes of Sharples, Bradshaw, Harwood, Longworth, Entwistle, Edgworth and Quarlton were absorbed into this urban district. Ninety years later, in 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, Turton Urban District was abolished and was divided in two. The larger rural area, North Turton, became a civil parish of the Borough of Blackburn. The smaller urban area, South Turton, became an unparished area within the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton in Greater Manchester, England.

History

The former township is especially rich in the number of "folds" formed in the 17th century. The title usually indicates the enclosure of a farmstead and associated cottages. Isherwood Fold, off Blackburn Road is a good example. Other examples are Horrocks Fold, Thomasson Fold and Brandwood Fold.

There were two small hamlets witin the township: Round Barn and Whittlestone Head to the west.

Although the character of Edgworth has always been rural, during the 19th century a number of textile mills were built around the village. Most industry has now left the area and since the 1970s some suburban housing developments have expanded the core of the village.

Barlow family

During the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Barlow family showed great generosity to the village. The industrialist James Barlow (1821–87) funded the new Methodist Church, opened in 1863, and the children's home at Crowthorn. The Edgworth Home, opened in 1872, was the first National Children's Home and closed in 2002.

James Barlow was proprietor of textile manufacturers Barlow & Jones Ltd and was also Mayor of Bolton 1867–1869.

James's son Sir Thomas Barlow was physician to Queen Victoria and Edward VII. He was created a baronet in 1902.

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 Edgworth from British History Online (Victoria County Histories), published 1911