Place:Pendleton (Eccles), Lancashire, England

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia Pendleton has been, since 1974, an inner city suburb of Salford in Greater Manchester, England, 2 miles (3.2 km) from Manchester city centre. The A6 dual carriageway skirts the east of the district. Pendleton is a densely populated area which has several high-rise blocks of flats, some of the tallest buildings in Salford. Until 1974 Pendleton was located in the county of Lancashire. The town experienced rapid urbanisation during the Industrial Revolution. [edit] History In the Middle Ages the manor was held by the Hultons of Hulton Park in Westhoughton in the Bolton Metropolitan Area. Until 1780, Pendleton was rural, a group of cottages around a village green with a maypole. The Industrial Revolution brought about rapid expansion in the population and large cotton mills and premises for dyeing, printing, and bleaching were built providing employment. Pendleton Colliery was developed from the early 19th century.

Pendleton emerged as a township and chapelry in the ancient or ecclesiastical parish of Eccles in the Hundred of Salford. After 1837 Pendleton was part of the Salford Poor Law Union which took responsibility for the administration of the Poor Law and provided a workhouse.

In 1844 the neighbouring township of Salford was incorporated as a borough. However because of opposition from Pendleton rate payers who felt that their interests would be over-ruled by Salford, it was not until 1853 that Pendleton and neighbouring Broughton who had also refused to merge with Salford, became incorporated into an enlarged Borough of Salford.

Pendleton together with Broughton thus became part of the County Borough of Salford from its inception in 1889, thus, for the purposes of local government, being independent from the jurisdictions of the newly formed Lancashire County Council. Pendleton became part of the City and County Borough of Salford in 1926 and in 1974 became part of the much enlarged metropolitan borough of the City of Salford, in the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester (as noted above).

Geography

Pendleton is 2½ miles north west of Manchester city centre by the River Irwell and at the junction roads to Liverpool, Preston, Bolton and Manchester. The Manchester, Bolton & Bury Canal, the Liverpool and Manchester and Manchester and Bolton railways pass through the area.

Pendleton is on the Manchester Coalfield, part of Lancashire Coalfield. In the early days of coal mining seams lying on or close to the surface were exploited, but as time went by deeper shafts were sunk to exploit deeper coal seams, so that by the beginning of the 20th century Pendleton Colliery had the deepest shafts in Great Britain, at 3,474 feet (1,059 m).

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.
• 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 township of Pendleton from British History Online (Victoria County Histories), published 1911