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About the Lancashire Record Office

The Lancashire Record Office was established in 1940 to collect and make available for research documents of enduring historical value to the county. On over 8 miles of shelving we store documents relating to the history of Lancashire, covering cities, towns and villages within the historic and current boundaries of the county. They date from the 12th century to the present day and include:

Records of local government: including Lancashire County Council and district and parish councils, and their predecessors, including Quarter Sessions, Poor Law unions and turnpike trusts.
Probate records of the Archdeaconries of Chester and Richmond.
Records of Anglican, Roman Catholic and nonconformist churches, including registers of baptisms, marriages and burials.
School records, including log books and admissions registers.
Private records, including manorial and estate records, family papers, and the records of businesses and societies.
Maps and plans, including tithe, enclosure and estate plans, Ordnance Survey and other printed maps.
Copies of some national sources: including census returns for the whole County Palatine.

Geographical Coverage

The English County Palatine of Lancashire covers more than the present-day boundaries of the administrative county. The administrative boundaries do not now include the areas of Merseyside, Greater Manchester and South Lakeland. Whilst those areas have their own record offices, the nature of archive collections means that many records relating to them are stored at Lancashire Record Office. Although we may not be the relevant repository for the records you are seeking we will always try to point you in the right direction to find them.

Lancashire Local Studies Library

The Office houses the extensive printed sources of the Lancashire County Library and Information Service's Local Studies Library. These include several thousand books and pamphlets on Lancashire, including areas such as Manchester, Liverpool and Furness. These books and pamphlets, plus trade directories, maps, etc, have been integrated with the library sources already present in the Record Office. Library staff are onsite to help customers where needed.

An online catalogue exists for all the stock of the Lancashire County Library and Information Service, including the local studies materials both in the Record Office and throughout the Service's region; these amount to over 50,000 items.

The Library website also holds the county-wide Guide to Lancashire Local Studies and Family History Collections which gives information on holdings of such items as newspapers, periodicals, census returns, parish registers, directories, electoral registers, maps, official publications, photographs, microform and electronic family history sources, etc. The website's Local Studies pages also give further general information about some of these sources.

The (External) Lancashire Pioneers website is the result of a project financed by the Heritage Lottery Fund that gives biographies of about two dozen people in the fields of science and technology who have made an impact on the history of Lancashire, including Richard Arkwright, Henry Tate, John Mercer, Joseph Gornall, and Jeremiah Horrocks.

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