Place:St. Helens, Lancashire, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia St. Helens is the largest settlement and administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of St. Helens within Merseyside, England. At the time of the 2001 UK Census the town had a population of just over 100,000, while the larger metropolitan borough had a population of nearly 177,000. The original town of St Helens was situated north of the River Mersey in the historic county of Lancashire, in northwest England. The town lay within the ancient Lancashire hundred of West Derby Hundred and the ancient parish of Prescot. It is northeast of the centre of Liverpool. The town was officially incorporated as a municipal borough in 1868 responsible for the administration of the four townships of Eccleston, Parr, Sutton and Windle (which were all originaly townships and chapelrys of Prescot). It received greater responsibility when it became a county borough in 1887. In 1974 the "metropolitan county" of Merseyside, England came into being. St. Helens joined it as the Metropolitan Borough of St. Helens. This superseded the county borough and this part of Lancashire ceased to exist.

The local area developed rapidly during the Industrial Revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries into a significant centre for coal mining and glassmaking. Both prior to and during this time it was also home to a cotton and linen industry (notably sail making) that lasted until the mid-19th century. Salt, lime and alkali pits were located in the vicinity, and it was also an area of copper smelting and brewing.

Today, St Helens is very much a commercial, rather than an industrial town. The main industries have since left, become outdated, or have been outsourced. The town's one remaining large industrial employer is the float and patterned rolled glass producer, Pilkington, a world leader in the industry.

Previously the town had been home to Beechams (now part of GlaxoSmithKline), the Gamble family of the Alkali Works, Ravenhead Glass (bought out by the Belgian nationalised Durobor), United Glass Bottles (U.G.B.), Triplex (owned by Pilkington, now manufactured in India), the Daglish Foundry (closed and demolished 1939), and Greenall's (once a large brewery, now the De Vere Hotel Group, located in nearby Warrington).

History

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article St Helens, Merseyside-History. This is very detailed and gives some history of the original four townships.

Research Tips

• See the Wikipedia articles on parishes and civil parishes for descriptions of this lowest rung of local administration. The original parishes were ecclesiastical (described as ancient parishes), 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.
• An urban district was a type of municipality in existence between 1894 and 1974. They were formed as a middle layer of administration between the county and the civil parish and were used for urban areas usually with populations of under 30,000. Inspecting the archives of a urban 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.
• The terms municipal borough and county borough were adopted in 1835 replacing the historic "boroughs". Municipal boroughs generally had populations between 30,000 and 50,000; while county boroughs usually had populations of over 50,000. County boroughs had local governments independent of the county in which they were located, but municipal boroughs worked in tandem with the county administration. Wikipedia explains these terms in much greater detail.
• 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 ancient parish of Prescot from British History Online (Victoria County Histories), published 1911. Following this introduction are chapters on the various townships that made up St Helens. (Since St Helens was not founded until 1868, it is not mentioned in this volume.)
• A description of the township of Eccleston from British History Online (Victoria County Histories), published 1914
• A description of the township of Parr from British History Online (Victoria County Histories), published 1914
• A description of the township of Sutton from British History Online (Victoria County Histories), published 1914
• A description of the township of Windle from British History Online (Victoria County Histories), published 1914