|
|
- source: Family History Library Catalog
- source: Family History Library Catalog
- the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia
|
Heapey is a village and civil parish since 1974 within the Borough of Chorley, in Lancashire, England. The village is two miles from the town of Chorley and on the western fringe of the West Pennine Moors. The population was 369 in 1881 and 955 in 2001. It was not a continuous increase--there have been considerable drops and rises.
The ancient township (as the parish was described before the mid 19th century) covered 1,464 acres on hilly ground including about 200 acres of moorland rising at the eastern edge to over 1,000 feet on the western fringe of the West Pennine Moors. Heapey is between Chorley and Blackburn. The Leeds and Liverpool Canal crosses the northwest corner and the Thirlmere Aqueduct passes through the parish.
| 
|
Until 1837 Heapey was a township and chapelry closely associated with Wheelton in the parish and hundred of Leyland in Lancashire. In 1837, Heapey joined with other townships (which, after 1866, became civil parishes) in the area to form the Chorley Poor Law Union. The Union took responsibility for the administration and funding of the Poor Law in the area. It was also in the Chorley sub-district of Chorley Registration District. From 1894 until 1974 the parish was in Chorley Rural District.
History
Heapey derives from the Old English heope (a rose), or heap (a hill) and hege (a hedge), altogether meaning a rose hedge or hedge on the hill. It was recorded as Hepeie in 1219. Heapey was part of Gunolfsmoors, an area between Leyland and Blackburn claimed by a Viking named Gunnolf in the 10th century. By 1260 it had become Hepay. The lordship was held by the De Ollertons including Ranulph who assumed the Hepay name. Robert de Hepay sold the lordship to the Standishes, and the manor or lordship remained with them. In 1924 the principle land owners were the trustees of Mrs Paulet and Mrs Sumner Mayhew.
There were 34 hearths liable to pay Hearth tax in 1666 although no house had more than three. During the 19th century the population were employed at bleachworks (long since demolished) and quarries.
(Sources in Wikipedia)
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 Heapey from British History Online (Victoria County Histories), published 1911
|
|
