Samlesbury, Lancashire
Historical Description
Samlesbury, a township-chapelry in Blackburn parish, Lancashire, on the river Ribble, 2 miles ESE of Fulwood railway station, and 3½ E by N of Preston. It contains part of Mellor Brook hamlet, which has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Blackburn, and Roach hamlet. There are paper mills. Acreage, including Roach Bridge, 4304 of land and 75 of water; population, 816. There is a parish council consisting of seven members. Samlesbury Hall, a timbered mansion in the Tudor style, is the property of the Harrison family, was restored in 1530 by Sir T. Southworth; was moated till the formation of the road from Preston to Blackburn; contains a great hall, constructed of massive and elegantly carved oak timbers; and was restored and finely embellished in 1864. The living is a perpetual curacy in the diocese of Manchester; gross value, £300 with residence. Patron, the Vicar of Blackburn. The foundation of the church dates from 1196. The building is in the Gothic style, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, N and S porches, and bell-turret. It was thoroughly restored in 1885, and contains a chained Bible dated 1608. There is also a font, similar to one in the chapel of Haddon Hall, Derbyshire, both being very old. There are a Roman Catholic chapel and several charities.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
Ancient County | Lancashire | |
Civil parish | Blackburn | |
Hundred | Blackburn | |
Poor Law union | Preston |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
Ancestry.co.uk, in association with Lancashire Archives, have images of the Parish Registers for Lancashire online.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Samlesbury from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Samlesbury)
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Lancashire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Samlesbury are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Lancashire newspapers online: