Place Clarification

We are trying to be more consistent about how we record and index places on this site.
We are moving toward recording "as written", but indexing places by their "modern" or early 20th century names and county.

We have tried to standardize names containing hyphens "-", but the "standard" varies from place to place Newton-le-Willows but Newton in Makerfield; Newchurch in Rossendale but Newchurch-in-Pendle; Whittle-le-Woods, Walton-le-Dale, Chapel-en-le-Frith.

LONDON

We treat London as a county, and places within it as individual towns e.g. Richmond (was Surrey), Bayswater (was in the City of Westminster).

Yorkshire

Places in Yorkshire are particularly difficult, as the same place may be described as (for example) West Yorkshire in some records, and just Yorkshire in other records.
Since we have only a few places in Yorkshire, we have gathered them all under "Yorkshire", omitting the West/North/South designations.

Derbyshire, Cheshire, Lancashire

The county borders between Derbyshire, Cheshire, Lancashire and Yorkshire have moved several times since 1800; so what was recorded correctly at one time could be "wrong" by the time the same information was recorded again.
For example - Marple Bridge moved from Derbyshire to Cheshire,
whereas Taxal, Whaley Bridge and Fernilee moved from Cheshire to Derbyshire.
We try to index Marple Bridge as "Marple Bridge, Marple, Cheshire" - the modern context -
and Whaley Bridge as Derbyshire.
Fernilee, Taxal, and Furness Vale still cause problems, we try to include them in Derbyshire.

Recording "Errors"

In indexed fields, wherever possible we will adjust "mistakes" by census takers, but try to leave the original in the transcribed text.
The exceptions are when the COUNTY is not recorded in the birth-place field in census, we will add what we believe is correct,

When they were unfamiliar with a place they would record what they heard, to the best of their ability. Also the accepted spelling of some local place names has changed over time, so many variations occur.
So we see "Bramall" for Bramhall, "Lanerk...." for Lanarkshire and "Hadford" for Handforth.

Confusions

"Newtown, Cheshire" is "Newtown, Disley, Cheshire" and also "Newtown, New Mills, Derbyshire".
BUT "Castleton, Lancashire" (near Rochdale) is a long, long way from "Castleton, Derbyshire" (in the High Peak).
Similarly "Whaley, Cheshire" is "Whaley Bridge, Derbyshire" but is neither "Whalley, Lancashire", nor "Whalley Range" (part of Manchester, Lancashire).

The place-name "Newton" occurs multiple times.
By examining the context we try to seperate "Newton Heath" from "Newton in Bowland", and even "Newton & Godley".
"Newton in Makerfield" and "Newton-le-Willows" are the same place, but currently indexed apart, we will try to combine them.

Cheadle (Cheshire)

We have "adjusted" all index references to Cheadle Buckeley, Cheadle Moseley and Cheadle Hulme so they appear as villages as part of the town of Cheadle, Cheshire. GENUKI shows the history of this area.

Modern "Counties"

For the moment we have largely ignored the formation of administrative areas such as Greater Manchester, West Midlands, and Merseyside, and the new (2009) changes to Cheshire ("Cheshire East" and "Cheshire West & Chester"). We try to use the "Ceremonial Counties" of the 19th century everywhere.
If you want to investigate this further we recommend the GENUKI web-site.
We are compiling a list of "problematic" places/names, and will add it to the website. (below)

We have moved away from using Chapman codes for Counties, any that remain are either "as recorded transcriptions" or our mistakes.

Updated by JL, June 2023

Buxton Rd

The Manchester to Buxton road (now known as the A6) appears many times in our records
The name "Buxton Road" appears in Bramhall, Disley, Furness Vale, Great Moor, Hazel Grove, Marple, New Mills, Newtown, Norbury, Stockport,and Whaley Bridge, these, we believe, are all references to the same road as it makes its way from Manchester towards Buxton, passing through three counties and many administrative areas.
As we review our records we will attempt to rationalize some of these entries, eliminate duplicates and resolve confusions.

Acton, Cheshire

There are 2 ACTON hamlets/villages in Cheshire.
One is near Nantwich.
The other, sometimes known as Acton Bridge, is near Weaverham.
As all our people appear to come from the Seven Oaks & Weaverham areas,
we have chosen to use the latter (until we find we are wrong).

Altrincham

We index all parts of Altrincham as Cheshire.

Alma Cottages

The row of (weaver) cottages also known as Alma Terrace. The area is variously described as Clough Fold (Cloughfold), Cowpe, Lench (Lenches), New Hall Hey, Hall Carr - see Cloughfold below.

Ardwick Cemetery

The cemetery opened in 1838 and closed in 1950. It was a non-denominational cemetery with 80,000 people interred.
Originally the Cemetery was privately owned, but ownership was transferred to Manchester Corporation.
Although the burials remain, all the gravestones and memorials were removed and the area became a playing field.

Bromley

Two distinct places appear as "Bromley" in our records.
There is "Bromley, London" also known as Bromley-by-Bow, or Bromley St Leonards, which is in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.
"Bromley, Kent", historically a market town in Kent, but now the London Borough of Bromley.

Chorley, Cheshire

There are at least two locations named Chorley in Cheshire - Chorley in Nantwich (53.050,-2.635)
and Chorley near Wilmslow (53.303,-2.264) which contains the hamlets of  Lindow, Lindow End and Row-of-Trees.

Chorley, Lancashire

A large town on the river Yarrow in Lancashire (53.653,-2.633)

Chorlton, Lancashire

There is Chorlton-cum-Hardy and Chorlton-on-Medlock. Both SHOULD be listed as areas of Manchester.

Cloughfold

The area has been variously described in census entries.
To reduce confusion we have combined several place names  -  Clough Fold (Cloughfold), Cowpe, Lench (Lenches), New Hall Hey, Hall Carr   - in the Place Index as Cloughfold, Newchurch-in-Rossendale.

Dukinfield

Dukinfield (Cheshire) lies on the south side of the River Tame, whereas Ashton-under-Lyne (Lancashire) is on the north bank.
Although Dukinfield was part of Stalybridge Municipal Borough (1857-1919), we have separated the entries for Dukinfield from Stalybridge (Cheshire) and Aston-under-Lyne wherever possible.

Farnworth

This area, close to Bolton and the location of Bolton Hospital, has its own entry as a town in Lancashire.
There is also a Farnworth area of Widnes. Widnes was historically in Lancashire (where we index it), but is now part of the Halton area of Cheshire.

Glossop

Town in north-west Derbyshire. Villages/Hamlets in "Glossop" include
Old Glossop to the north-east
Padfield, Hadfield and Wooley (Bridge), to the north-west,
Dinting and Gamesley to the west,
Simondley, Charlesworth and (Higher) Chisworth to the south-west,
Whitfield to the south.
The bridge at Woolley Bridge spans the border with Cheshire.
Tintwistle, Hollinworth, Woolley Lane, Mottram (in Longdendale), and Broadbottom are in Cheshire.
Hattersley is slightly further west.

Hale

We have two places called Hale in our records.
Hale in Lancashire is on the north side of the River Mersey, close to Liverpool (John Lennon) Airport.
Hale (and Hale Barns) in Cheshire, south-west of Manchester, close to Manchester International (Ringway) Airport.

Heaton

The "Four Heatons" area consists of Heaton Chapel, Heaton Mersey, Heaton Moor and Heaton Norris.
They straddle the Lancashire-Cheshire border and are variously reported in either county.
We index Heaton Chapel, Heaton Mersey, and Heaton Moor as villages within the town of Heaton Norris, Lancashire.
There is also a Heaton area of Bolton, the location of "Heaton Cemetery".

Mellor

Appears as "Mellor, Cheshire" and "Mellor, Derbyshire" (it is now in Greater Manchester).
Both occur in our records, and we have not yet resolved the problems.
The village of Mellor, Lancashire - in the Ribble valley near Blackburn - rarely appears in our records, nearly every reference to it for "our" people is a mistake.

Mottram St. Andrew

This was a township in Prestbury ancient parish, Macclesfield hundred, which became a civil parish in 1866.
It includes the hamlets of Greendale, Hunters Pool, Kirkleyditch, Pott Brook and Withinlee (part).

Mottram

In Tameside is Mottram-in-Longdendale.

Newchurch, Lancashire

Newchurch-in-Pendle and Newchurch-in-Rossendale are distinct places.

Newton

There are several places in Lancashire and Cheshire called "Newton". The area of central Lancashire which was "Newton-in-Makerfield" is now known as "Newton-le-Willows", both names may occur in records.
Newton (without qualification) is assumed to be in Warrington, Lancashire (see below).
Newton Heath is near Failsworth, Manchester.
Newton (with Flowery Field) is by Hyde, Cheshire.

Stalybridge

(or Staleybridge) The town is partly in Cheshire, and partly in Lancashire,and spans the River Tame, 7½ miles E. of Manchester
We have modified all "Stayley" and "Staleybridge" location entries to be Stalybridge - the modern spelling - and indexed it as Cheshire.

Talleyrand

The district of East Levenshulme used to be known as Talleyrand.
It was said the French Statesman Talleyrand once stayed there during his exile from France, presumably during 1792-1794.

Tibberton, Worcestershire

This village, close to Hindlip and Droitwich, is 30 miles (48 kms) north of Tibberton, Gloucestershire.
All our links appear to be to the Worcestershire Tibberton.

Tranmere

This was a township in Bebington parish until 1898, when it became part of Birkenhead.

Warrington

We try to index all parts of Warrington as Lancashire, but there are still entries for Warrington, Cheshire.

Whaley Bridge

Known locally as "Whaley" it was formerly "Whaley (Bridge), Cheshire", but is now "Whaley Bridge in the High Peak district of Derbyshire".
We have indexed all instances as "Whaley Bridge, Derbyshire.
It contains the areas Horwich End, Bridgemont, Fernilee, Stoneheads and Taxal. We try to index all these areas as villages within the town of Whaley Bridge.

Whalley

Town in the Ribble Valley of Lancashire.
The ancient Parish of Whalley, of 100,000 acres encompassed the towns of Whalley and Clitheroe in the north-east, Trawden Forest in the north-west and the Rossendale Valley in the south.

Withington

There are places named Withington in Lancashire, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire & Shropshire.
(Lower) Withington, Cheshire is a township in Prestbury parish, south of Chelford, near Twemlow Green and Jodrell Bank Radio Telescope.
Withington, Lancashire, is on the south of Manchester city centre, and is the site of an important Hospital.

Woodford

Village/Town in the east of Cheshire. After a review of the many records we have encountered for the area we have "corrected" some index entries.
The entries for "Thing St", Kingstreet and King St are now combined as "King Street, Woodford", a row of cottages (53.3367, -2.1868), at the end of the modern lane.
The entries for Squarefield and Square Field Terrace are now combined as "Squarefield Terrace, Moor Lane, Woodford" (53.3473, -2.1695), alongside Moor Lane, Woodford.
"Hilltop" is/was "Hilltop Farm" at 53.3406, -2.1737, just off Wilmslow Rd/Chester Rd, Woodford.
Moor Farm (53.3467, -2.1666) and Moor End Farm (53.3477, -2.1608) are distinct. We will try to assign records to the appropriate location.
The Thief's Neck is an alternate name for the Davenport Arms, on the Chester Road (53.3385, -2.1724), the Smithy was adjacent.
Church Lane was formerly known as "Back Lane" or "Jack Lane" - the names are now combined.