Place:Haslingden, Lancashire, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

source: Family History Library Catalog

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Haslingden (at base of map) is now a town in Rossendale in Lancashire, England. It is 19 miles (31 km) north of Manchester. The name means 'valley of the hazels'. A civil parish was created in 1866 from the township of Haslingden in the ancient parish of Whalley. A local board was formed for the town in 1875 and the area it governed was extended to cover parts of the townships of Henheads (redirected here), Higher and Lower Booths in the ancient parish of Whalley, and Musbury and Tottington Higher End in the ancient parish of Bury. Subsequently Haslingden was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1891 and in 1894 the civil parish was extended to match the borders of the borough. Following the local government reorganisation in 1974 Haslingden became part of the Borough of Rossendale. Haslingden grew from a market town (a market was established in 1676) and later became a coaching station to a significant industrial borough during the period of the Industrial Revolution. In particular with the mechanisation of the wool and cotton spinning and weaving industries from the 18th to the 19th centuries, and with the development of watermills, and later steam power. Acre and Rising Bridge (redirected here) are hamlets to the north of Haslingden town centre. In the 20th century the population declined from 19,000 in the 1911 census to 15,000 in the 1971 census. The 2011 census recorded a population of 15,969 living in the town.

For code for numbered places, see the page for Burnley Rural District.

Haslingden is notable for its stone quarrying, and "Haslingden Flag" (a quartz-based sandstone) was exported throughout the country in the 19th century with the opening up of the rail network. It was used in the paving of London, including Trafalgar Square. Flagstone is a type of sedimentary rock, relatively easy to split or quarry in slabs, and hence ideal for paving. Locally it is also used for making fences and roofing. There are Upper and Lower Haslingden Flagstones and the name is given to layers of the stone that appear throughout the area (not only in Haslingden) although the most spectacular examples are in the Rossendale valley.

Haslingden Registration District existed from the beginning of civil registration in 1837 until 1974 when its duties were transferred to Hyndburn and Rossendale.

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 township of Haslingden from British History Online (Victoria County Histories), published 1911. This chapter is followed by others for Henheads, Higher Booths, Lower Booths and Newchurch, all of which are in the immediate area.