Bury
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BURY, a township, a town, a parish, two subdistricts, and a district in Lancashire. The township lies all within the town's assigned boundaries. Acres, 2,370. Real property, £263,333,-of which £171,785 are in railways, £1,040 in mines, and £80 in quarries. Pop., in 1841, 20,710: in 1861, 30,397. Houses, 5,971. The town lies on the river Irwell, 2 miles above its confluence with the Roach, and 8 NNW of Manchester. A branch canal goes south-westward to the Manchester and Bolton canal; and railways go westward, northward, eastward, and southward. The town has a head post office, two railway stations with telegraph, two banking offices, several chief inns, a weekly market on Saturday, and three annual fairs; is a seat of petty sessions and county courts, and a polling-place; and publishes four weekly newspapers. Woollen manufacture was formerly the main industry; and is still carried on in several large factories. Cotton manufacture, in various departments, is now the staple; received a great impulse from inventions by two natives, John and Robert Kay, and from the enterprise of the late Sir Robert Peel's father; and maintains at present upwards of twelve factories for spinning and weaving, two for printing and bleaching, and two for dyeing. There are also three large iron foundries, several smaller ones, machine-making works, hat-making houses, and other manufacturing establishments.

John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72) more ...

Archives and libraries

Bury libraries.

Reference & Information Services, Central Library, Manchester Road, Bury, Lancs BL9 0DG - Tel: 0161 253 5871 information@bury.gov.uk

Cemeteries

Census

Details about the census records, and indexes for Bury.

Church History

"From Dr. V. D. Lipman's inspection of the originals of the census returns of 1851, it is clear that the 'synagogues' at Bury, Lutterworth and Haslingden (and one of those at Leeds) were in fact places of worship of a non-Jewish (though perhaps Judaising) sect who called themselves 'Israelites.' "

from Cecil Roth's history of provincial Jewry published in 1940

Church Records

You can also perform a more selective search for churches in the Bury area that are recorded in the GENUKI church database. This will also help identify churches in nearby townships and/or parishes. You also have the option to see the location of the churches marked on a map.

If you keep this page loaded for a very long time and the database is updated since loading it, the church links above may become stale and may display the wrong church. If this happens, reloading this page will correct them.

Civil Registration

The Register Office covering the Bury area is Bury.

Description and Travel

You can see pictures of Bury which are provided by:

Directories

David Greenhalgh has extracted entries from Pigot's 1828 Directory.

Historical Geography

In 1835 the parish of Bury contained the townships of Bury, Tottington Higher End, Tottington Lower End, Walmersley and Shuttleworth, Cowpe, Lench, Newhall Hey and Hall Carr, Elton and Heap.

History

A description of Bury in the 19th century.

Maps

View maps of Bury and places within its boundaries.

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference SD804107 (Lat/Lon: 53.592501, -2.297602), Bury which are provided by:

Poor Houses, Poor Law etc.

The Workhouse site has an interesting description of Bury workhouse.

Probate Records

For probate purposes prior to 1858, Bury was in the Archdeaconry of Chester, in the Diocese of Chester. The original Lancashire wills for the Archdeaconry of Chester are held at the Lancashire Record Office.

Societies

You can also see Family History Societies covering the nearby area, plotted on a map. This facility is being developed, and is awaiting societies to enter information about the places they cover.