Great Harwood
Select map to view larger area
HARWOOD (GREAT), a town, a township-chapelry, and a sub-district in Blackburn parish and district, Lancashire. The town stands near the Leeds and Liverpool canal, 1½ mile SW of the river Calder, 2¼ SE of Ribchester r. station, and 4½ NE of Blackburn; is a rising place, well built of native stone; nearly doubled its population in the ten years prior to 1865; is governed by a local board of health; and has a post office under Accrington, a news-room, cotton mills, a national school, a church, and chapels for Independents, Wesleyans, Primitive Methodists, and Roman Catholics. The church is ancient, and has a west tower. The Roman Catholic chapel is a handsome edifice of 1860. Pop., in 1861, 3,294. Houses, 637. The chapelry comprises 2,510 acres. Real property, £9,521; of which £75 are in gasworks, and £85 in quarries. Pop. in 1851, 2,548; in 1861, 4,070. Houses, 782. The manor belongs to James Lomax, Esq. The living is a p. curacy in the diocese of Manchester. Value, £200. * Patron, the Vicar of Blackburn. The sub-district contains also two other townships of Blackburn parish, and one of Whalley. Acres, 6,950. Pop., 10,220. Houses, 1,952.

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

Archives and libraries

Local studies information is held at Accrington library.

Cemeteries

Census

Details about the census records, and indexes for Great Harwood.

Church History

Church Records

You can also perform a more selective search for churches in the Great Harwood 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.

The Great Harwood site has information about each of the local churches.

Civil Registration

The Register Office covering the Great Harwood area is Hyndburn and Rossendale.

Description and Travel

You can see pictures of Great Harwood which are provided by:

Gazetteers

Ask for the gazetteer for a calculation of the distance from Great Harwood to another place.

Genealogy

Great Harwood genealogy links.

Historical Geography

In 1835 Great Harwood was a township in the parish of Blackburn.

Information about boundaries and administrative areas is available from A Vision of Britain through time.

History

A few notes about the history of Great Harwood.

Maps

View maps of Great Harwood and places within its boundaries.

A map of Great Harwood around 1890.

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference SD736321 (Lat/Lon: 53.784546, -2.402165), Great Harwood which are provided by:

Military History

Men and women of Accrington and District who gave their lives for their country during the Great War of 1914-1919.

Probate Records

For probate purposes prior to 1858, Great Harwood 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.