Area Guide Stanningley LS28

Location of Stanningley LS28

Stanningley is a problematical township because parts of it come under three registration sub-districts, two Parliamentary Boroughs and two ancient parishes. Dealing with the parishes first, the parts of the 1852 map below in blue and green came under Calverley parish, and events such as marriages and Christenings would be conducted at St Wilfrid's church in Calverley. The part in yellow came under Leeds Parish and events would be conducted at St Peter's in Leeds.

The parishes were broken up around 1840 and then each section of Stanningley had it's own church, these being St. John in Farsley (green section), St. Thomas in Stanningley proper (yellow) and St Paul in Pudsey (blue). Pudsey already has a parish church (St. Lawrence) so St. Paul's church is usually referred to as St. Paul's Stanningley, which can be misleading. In our pages the church is usually referred to as being in Richardshaw. It must be noted that though these churches all existed from the 1840's, most of Stanningley used the ancient parish churches of Leeds and Calverley for many years afterwards.

Regarding Registration Sub-districts, Stanningley fell under three. Calverley with Farsley, Pudsey with Tyersall and Bramley. To find a relative in the census returns requires examination of more than one piece. Calverley and Pudsey are on the same or following pieces and were in the same Parliamentary Borough and Registration District, which was Bradford, but Bramley is part of Leeds Borough.

In 1841, Stanningley can be found on these separate census pieces:

History of Stanningley LS28

In the 1861 Census for Calverley with Farsley, on the Enumeration District for the Farsley section of Stanningley, the enumerator took care to differentiate which part of Stanningley a person was born, but this is a unique example.

For registration purposes, a birth, marriage or death that took place in either the Calverley with Farsley (green) or Pudsey (blue) sections would show as being registered in Bradford (except for the years 1892 to 1898 when both Calverley and Pudsey came under North Bierley). The Bramley section of Stanningley (yellow) was in the district of Hunslet until 1862, then in Kirkstall until 1864, then Bramley until 1925, though at Leeds Register Office the entries are almost always shown as Kirkstall district.

Someone born in Stanningley could show up in any of these district registers, depending when they were born and which side of the road they lived on. Thankfully, all records from all these sub-districts are all together and can be found at Leeds Register Office, not Bradford. There is an exception. A few non-conformist churches in Farsley and Pudsey, notably Olivet Chapel on Bradford Road in the Farsley section of Stanningley, who had to have the registrar present for their marriages, came under North Bierley for longer than the officially prescribed period (1892-1898). Olivet's marriages were under North Bierley until 1924. These marriage records should be at Bradford.