Place:Deane, Lancashire, England

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia Deane is now an area of Bolton Metropolitan Borough, in Greater Manchester, England. It is about 2 miles (3.2 km) southwest of the centre of Bolton and 11 miles (17.7 km) northwest of the city of Manchester. Prior to 1974 this area was in Lancashire and can be traced back to the early 12th century. The ancient parish of Deane was subdivided into townships in 1660. The ten townships were Horwich, Halliwell, Heaton, Rumworth (where Deane Parish Church is situated), Westhoughton, Over Hulton, Middle Hulton, Little Hulton, Farnworth and Kearsley. In 1837 Rumworth along with neighbouring townships (or civil parishes) became part of the Bolton Poor Law Union which took responsibility for the administration and the funding of the Poor Law in that area. In the 19th century many of the Deane townships became independent civil parishes and were merged into Bolton County Borough. In 1872 part of Rumworth township became part of Bolton, the remainder of Rumworth (which included Deane Parish Church) was renamed Deane township in 1894 and in 1898 it too was merged into the County Borough of Bolton. Rumworth was the birthplace of the Protestant martyr, George Marsh (1515-1555).

The ancient parish of Deane was absorbed into Bolton County Borough in 1898. It does not appear on this map showing the 1974 transition from Lancashire to Greater Manchester.

Research Tips

There are many references to the "ancient ecclesiastical Parish of Deane" in volumes written in the 19th and early 20th century. Although it has been absorbed into Bolton for more than a century, and broken up into separate townships since 1660, it may still be necessary to refer to Deane for certain types of records right up to 1898.

• 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 parish of Deane from British History Online (Victoria County Histories), published 1911. This article includes a map of the parish showing the location of the various townships, and also marking the surrounding parishes.
• A description of the township of Rumworth from British History Online (Victoria County Histories), published 1911