Church records

The church records are available to view at Wigan Archives.

We also have a substantial collection of church records. We are the Church of England diocesan repository for records of churches in the deaneries of Wigan and Winwick, whilst the collection includes records from over 80 non-conformist chapels throughout the borough.

Family historians and genealogists will know about well-thumbed church registers but much less used are the other records generated by churches. If you find ancestors in the baptisms, marriages and burials, you may gain additional information from the main collections. Various churches have records giving lists of wardens, council and charity group members and Sunday school pupils.

New buildings or renovations brought associated lists of subscribers and older parishes kept rate books for the overseers of the poor; in Lowton these records date from the 1760s. These church records are some of the highlights of our collections.

For additional church records catalogues, go to the National Archives website or contact us for copies of the catalogues.

• King Street Baptist Church, Wigan (Ref.: D/NB/5)
• Wigan Baptist Church (Ref.: D/NB/5)
• Church registers
• Monumental inscriptions and cemetery registers 
• Religious Census 1851 - In March 1851, the Government conducted a census in England and Wales of attendance at religious services. Volunteer, Peter Walker, has transcribed the following from the Wigan Local Studies copy covering Wigan Borough, available at self mark WBV 820.