A list of some 330 establishments in the Pendle and Burnley area, plus some adjacent parishes; each with a mini biography, including map reference, the incumbent and the location and summary of any available records.  For a detailed map of the area see Ordnance Survey Landranger Series 103.

          The data included here is a snapshot of the Churches, Chapels and Burial Grounds around the year 2002 .. there are no plans to update it, errors and omissions excepted.

• Introduction

Each place of worship and/or burial ground has been given a unique code because there are so many places with the same name (eg. there are numerous - Bethel, St.Mary, Zion, etc.).  The code is made up of an abbreviation of the location (eg. NEL = Nelson), an abbreviation of the denomination (eg. WM = Wesleyan Methodist), followed by a number, as there are usually more than one of any denomination in a single location (eg. NEL.WM.05).  The index is based on the 1851 parish map and is divided into the following areas - 




Burnley Area	Briercliffe with Extwistle, Burnley - (including Habergham Eaves & Ightenhill Park), Cliviger, Dunnockshaw and Worsthorne with Hurstwood
Colne Area	Colne, Foulridge, Laneshaw Bridge and Trawden Forest
Craven Area	Barnoldswick - (including Admergill with Brogden, Coates & Salterforth), Bracewell, Earby, Kelbrook, Marton-in-Craven and Thornton-in-Craven
Forest of Pendle	Barrowford Booth, Higham with West Close Booth, Pendle Forest - (including Barley Booth, Goldshaw Booth, Old Laund Booth, Roughlee Booth, Wheatley Booth, Wheatley Carr Booth, Fence-in-Pendle, Newchurch-in-Pendle), Reedley Hallows, Filly Close and New Laund Booth)
Marsden Area	Brierfield (Little Marsden), Nelson (Great Marsden)
Padiham Area	Altham, Hapton, Huncoat, Padiham, Read-in-Whalley, Sabden (Heyhouses) and Simonstone

Most of the places included in the index are in the Burnley Civil Registration District, except for the Craven Area, formerly in Yorkshire and now in Lancashire, but remains in the Skipton Civil Registration District.

Since the time of the 19th century census returns, there have been parish boundary changes and place name changes including the following -

• Habergham Eaves was a large parish without a church until 1837 and is now incorporated into Burnley
• Great Marsden was approximately what is now Nelson
• Little Marsden was approximately what is now Brierfield, however the area near the church of St.Paul, Little Marsden is now in Nelson
• Ightenhill Park & Reedley Hallows, until about 1860, were in the parish of St.Mary Magdalene at Clitheroe.  Baptisms & burials took place at neighbouring parishes, such as Burnley, Padiham or Colne but the marriages of couples, who both lived in Reedley or Ightenhill, took place at Clitheroe.
  The boundary of Reedley Hallows with Burnley has changed twice during the 19th century - first from "Duke Bar" to "Queensgate" and then to its present position.  St.Andrew's Church (BUR.CE.05) was for a time in Reedley Hallows before the boundary was moved.
• Heyhouses (Sabden Bridge) is now known as Sabden.  (The place called Sabden in the Newchurch Registers is the present day Sabden Fold).
• Goldshaw Booth is now better known as Newchurch-in-Pendle.  The church of St.Mary at Newchurch served the areas of Barley Booth, Wheatley Booth, Wheatley Carr Booth, Roughlee Booth and Old Laund Booth (Fence was part of Old Laund Booth).  These areas were part of the Forest of Pendle. (Indexed under Pendle Forest)
• Dunnockshaw was a detached part of Burnley.  At the time of the 1901 census it was in the parish of St.Leonard, Padiham (PAD.CE.01)
• Cornholme was in the parish of Cliviger but is now In Todmorden, Yorkshire

Non-conformists chapels sometimes changed their allegiance (eg. From Independent Methodist to Wesleyan Methodist) but are only indexed once.  Congregational churches were also known as "Independent" churches, (eg. Bethesda in Burnley) which should not be confused with Independent Methodism.  Many of the Independent Methodist Churches were first known as Free Gospel Churches.

Since starting the project there have been many changes of the incumbents.  The names have been checked in early 2002 and amended where necessary.

The information for the Brief Histories has been gathered from numerous secondary sources making it difficult to check for transcription and/or typing errors.  Different sources sometimes give differing dates etc. so this section should only be regarded as a guide.

The Pendle & Burnley Branch are in the process of Transcribing and Indexing several of the parish registers.  For details of which have been completed see our branch Gazette, the List of Library Holdings and elsewhere on this Website.

Researched, compiled and typed by Christine Haworth

• Acknowledgements

Thank you to all those who have helped on this project - 
Checking the typing, supplying further information, generating map references etc. -


Julie Birchall	Sheila Birkett	Eddie Ellis	Peter Harris
Lawrence Hartley	Maureen Smith	Peter Walsh


Checking the Brief Histories etc. for the following areas -


Bob Abel - Earby	Stephen Child - Burnley & Habergham Eaves
Margaret Jones - Padiham	Maureen Smith - Nelson

Thanks to Susan Byrne, former Reference Librarian at Nelson, for supplying the list of books referring to the individual churches and chapels, which are held by the Lancashire County Libraries.

Select from the Map

© LFH&HS Pendle and Burnley Branch 2002