St Mary the Virgin, Walney - Church of England

St Mary the Virgin,
Church Lane,
Walney
Lancashire

Cemeteries

The church has/had a graveyard.

Church History

It was founded in 1577. Walney was originally a chapelry of Dalton, probably founded in the 16th century and achieving parish church status in the 19th century. The present church is at least the third to be built within the same churchyard, reflecting the steady growth in the population of Walney. Its foundation stone was laid in 1907, but the building was not completed until 1930. (The previous church was in the same yard, but slightly to the south. It was dismantled a few years after the completion of the present building. However its four corner stones, left as markers, can still be seen.)

Biggar and North Scale are the only hamlets on the island, and intermediate between the two is the church of St. Mary. The date of its erection is uncertain, but is was in existence as early as 1577, and was probably built before the downfall of Furness Abbey. In the inquisition of 1650 it is styled Wana Chapel, and the whole chapelry, embracing the island of Wana contained only sixty families. The inhabitants do not appear at that time to have been in a very flourishing condition, or else they were supinely indifferent to the creature comforts of their minister, for the whole sum contributed towards his maintenance was 6s. 6d. per year. They also prayed to be made parochial, but their request was not granted, and the living remains a perpetual curacy, in the gift of the vicar of Dalton. The incumbency, worth £180, is now held by the Rev. H. M. Burgess, B.A., Dublin. The area of the ecclesiastical district is 12,800 acres.
The present church is a small but neat structure, erected upon the site of the old chapel. In the burial ground lie the remains of Mr. Close, an antiquarian of repute, who edited the last edition of West's Antiquities of Furness. Near the church is the school, erected by Mrs. Michaelson, of Barrow Island, to the memory of her husband. It is now under the management of the School Board.
from Mannex's Directory of Furness &: Cartmel, 1882

Church Records

Whilst every effort has been made to record exact details of record office and library holdings you are recommended to check with them before visiting to ensure that they do hold the records and years you wish to examine. Similarly check with transcript publishers to ensure they cover the records and years you require before making a purchase.

Original registers

There were no separate chapel registers until 1744 [typed transcripts 1744-1858 in Cumbria Record Office, Barrow, and also at the Society of Genealogists library in London]. The Cumbria Record Office, Barrow hold:

Baptisms 1744-1972
Marriages 1837-1990
Banns 1859-1981
Burials 1744-1964

Maps

The church is located at OS grid reference SD185686. You can see this on maps provided by:

this church marked on a Google map. (Use this to report a corrected location)
Old Maps
Streetmap.co.uk.
multimap.com.
www.magic.gov.uk
Google maps showing nearby churches with satellite image option.

This site provides historical information about churches, other places of worship and cemeteries. It has no connection with the churches themselves. For current information you should contact them directly.

Help required

The information provided has been obtained from a number of sources and although every effort is made to avoid errors, just a few may be present. So if there are any please let us know. [Use the link at the bottom of this page].

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	Have the Monumentals Inscriptions on the gravestones been transcribed and published, and by whom?

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[Last updated: Wednesday, 03-Sep-2008 11:35:23 BST - Phil Stringer]