|
- the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia
Harpurhey has been since 1974 an inner-city area of Greater Manchester in northwest England, 2.3 miles (3.7 km) northeast of Manchester city centre. To the north, Harpurhey is bordered by Blackley, to the west by Crumpsall, to the east by Moston and to the south by the City of Manchester neighbourhoods of Collyhurst and Monsall. The population at the 2011 UK census was 17,652.
Areas of Harpurhey include Kingsbridge Estate, Barnes Green, Shiredale Estate and Baywood Estate. The word "estate" used in the description of a neighbourhood is usually indicative of publicly funded housing. Census details indicate that Harpurhey is one of the most economically deprived areas within the Greater Manchester area.
History
Harpurhey was part of the County Borough of Manchester in Lancashire prior to the foundation of Greater Manchester in 1974.
It is first recorded in 1320 as "Harpourhey", meaning "hedged enclosure by a man called Harpour", who owned the area in the 14th century. This small township, at one time called Harpurhey with Gotherswick, lies on both sides of the road from Manchester to Middleton, extending westward to the River Irk. In 1830 it was described as abounding in pleasant views.
Prior to 1866 Harpurhey was a township in the ancient parish of Manchester. It was a civil parish between 1866 and 1896 when it was joined with other Manchester northern suburbs to form the short-lived civil parish of North Manchester. North Manchester (not included in the WeRelate database) was abolished in 1916 when all the suburbs within it were absorbed into the County Borough of Manchester.
|
|
The following description from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72 is provided by the website A Vision of Britain Through Time (University of Portsmouth Department of Geography).
- "HARPURHEY, a township and a chapelry in Manchester parish, Lancashire. The township lies on the river Irk, near the Lancashire and Yorkshire railway, within Manchester parliamentary borough, 2 miles NNE of the centre of Manchester; and has a post-office under Manchester and a police station. Acres: 192. Real property: £3,476. Population in 1851: 458; in 1861: 827. Houses: 152. The increase of population arose from participation in the prosperity of Manchester. The property formerly was all in one estate; but, in 1846, lay divided among several. The Queen's park, an ornate public park of Manchester, comprising about 30 acres, and formed in 1845, is here; and the Manchester General cemetery, comprising about 11 acres, and formed in 1837, is adjacent to the Queen's park. There are a silk mill, two cotton mills, and three bleach and dye works.
- "The chapelry includes also the township of Moston, together with another and contiguous portion of Manchester parish; bears the name of Harpurhay-cum-Moston; and was made ecclesiastically parochial in 1854. Population: 5,126. Houses: 1,042. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Manchester. Value: not reported. Patrons: Trustees. The church was built in 1838, at a cost of upwards of £4,000; is in the early English style; and has a lofty spire. There are chapels for Independents and Wesleyans."
Research tips
- See the Wikipedia articles on parishes and civil parishes for descriptions of this lowest rung of local administration. The original parishes (known as ancient parishes) were ecclesiastical, under the jurisdiction of the local priest. A parish covered a specific geographical area and was sometimes equivalent to that of a manor. Sometimes, in the case of very large rural parishes, there were chapelries where a "chapel of ease" allowed parishioners to worship closer to their homes. In the 19th century the term civil parish was adopted to define parishes with a secular form of local government. In WeRelate both civil and ecclesiastical parishes are included in the type of place called a "parish". Smaller places within parishes, such as chapelries and hamlets, have been redirected into the parish in which they are located. The names of these smaller places are italicized within the text.
- Rural districts were groups of geographically close civil parishes in existence between 1894 and 1974. They were formed as a middle layer of administration between the county and the civil parish. Inspecting the archives of a rural district will not be of much help to the genealogist or family historian, unless there is need to study land records in depth.
- Civil registration or vital statistics and census records will be found within registration districts. To ascertain the registration district to which a parish belongs, see Registration Districts in Lancashire, part of the UK_BMD website.
- Lancashire Online Parish Clerks provide free online information from the various parishes, along with other data of value to family and local historians conducting research in the County of Lancashire.
- FamilySearch Lancashire Research Wiki provides a good overview of the county and also articles on most of the individual parishes (very small or short-lived ones may have been missed).
- Ancestry (international subscription necessary) has a number of county-wide collections of Church of England baptisms, marriages and burials, some from the 1500s, and some providing microfilm copies of the manuscript entries. There are specific collections for Liverpool (including Catholic baptisms and marriages) and for Manchester. Their databases now include electoral registers 1832-1935. Another pay site is FindMyPast.
- A map of Lancashire circa 1888 supplied by A Vision of Britain through Time includes the boundaries between the parishes and shows the hamlets within them.
- A map of Lancashire circa 1954 supplied by A Vision of Britain through Time is a similar map for a later timeframe.
- GENUKI provides a website covering many sources of genealogical information for Lancashire. The organization is gradually updating the website and the volunteer organizers may not have yet picked up all the changes that have come with improving technology.
- The Victoria County History for Lancashire, provided by British History Online, covers the whole of the county in six volumes (the seventh available volume [numbered Vol 2] covers religious institutions). The county is separated into its original hundreds and the volumes were first published between 1907 and 1914. Most parishes within each hundred are covered in detail. Maps within the text can contain historical information not available elsewhere.
- A description of the township of Harpurhey from British History Online (Victoria County Histories), published 1911
|
|