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Eccleston Home & Contents

The Parish of Eccleston
in the County of
-- Lancashire --

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Eccleston is 41/2 miles west of Chorley on the main road running from Chorley to Southport within the Diocese of Blackburn. This Eccleston should not be confused with the town of Eccleston located in Cheshire or that located in St. Helens, Merseyside. To add further to the confusion there is a Great Eccleston and Little Eccleston which are both located to the east of Blackpool. To further muddy the waters, there was a chapel located at Douglas in the parish of Eccleston. Details on that chapel can be found here:

Eccleston is of ancient origin and means “Church Town”. The parish church of Eccleston is St. Mary the Virgin and is located on the south bank of the River Yarrow in open meadows on the north side of Eccleston. The original church on this site dates back to before 1094 but it was altered and expanded in the 14th, 18th and subsequent centuries. Nevertheless, the red sandstone church is beautiful as it is topped with grey slate roofing and a tower built of gritstone from Harrock Hill. The tower has no staircase and is reached only by ladder.

The parish of Eccleston was originally much larger than it is now and contained the townships of Heskin, Wrightington and Parbold. The towns of Euxton, Charnock Richard, Welch Whittle, Coppull and Standish are to the east and the townships of Shevington, Upholland and Halton lay on the southern border of the parish.

This web page is devoted to the Online Parish Clerk Project. As time allows resources will be added to the site to allow self search. In the meantime, the links below will provide pages listing the location of existing resources. For further information click the link below.

Transcription of The Lancashire Gazetteer by Joseph Aston, 1808

ECCLESTON, 41/2 miles W. of Chorley, a parish in the deanry of Blackburn. The living is a rectory; patron, R. Whitehead, Esq. Eccleston is joined as a township to Heskin

Douglas, (The river) rises in the neighbourhood of Blackrod, flows by Wigan to the westward, till in the neighbourhood of Croston, it is joined by the Yarrow and the Lostock, and proceeding onward, it falls into the estuary of the Ribble, at Much Hole. This river was made navigable from Wigan to its mouth, by act of Parliament obtained in 1719, but not fully carried into effect till 1727. The Douglas navigation has been since purchased by the Proprietors of the Leeds and Liverpool canal, who have in part substituted an artificial, for the natural course of the river.

DOUGLAS CHAPEL, near the river Douglas, is a chapel of ease, in the parish of Eccleston, about 1 mile E.S.E. of Newburg; patron, the rector of Eccleston

The location of the community of Eccleston (meaning a "church settlement") is at OS Grid SD 521169

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