Whalley, Lancashire
Historical Description
Whalley, a village, a township, and a parish in Lancashire. The village stands on the river Calder, 4 miles S by W of Clitheroe, and 25 from Manchester, and has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Blackburn, and a railway station. The township comprises 2003 acres; population, 1142. There is a parish council consisting of six members. Moreton Hall is the seat of the Worsley-Taylor family. A Cistercian abbey was founded here in 1286, was purchased at the dissolution by the Asshetons and the Braddylls, and has left splendid ruins in Early Decorated and Later English architecture. The parish contains forty-eight townships in Lancashire and one in Yorkshire, and is the largest in the county, embracing 161 square miles, or nearly a ninth part of all Lancashire. It is divided into numerous ecclesiastical parishes. The living of Whalley St Mary (population, 2931) is a vicarage in the diocese of Manchester; net value, £370 with residence. Patrons, Hulme's Trustees. The church is an ancient building in the Decorated and Perpendicular styles, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, and an embattled western tower. Three ancient crosses are in the churchyard. There are a Wesleyan chapel, an endowed grammar school founded by Edward VI., and six almshouses.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
Ancient County | Lancashire | |
Ecclesiastical parish | Whalley St. Mary | |
Hundred | Blackburn |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The Registers of Whalley 1538-1601, are available to browse online.
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 Whalley from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Whalley (St. Mary))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Lancashire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Whalley 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: