Prestwich-cum-Oldham

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Prestwich-cum-Oldham (also known as Prestwich with Oldham) was an ancient parish of the Salford Hundred, within the historic county boundaries of Lancashire, England, and an ecclesiastical division of the extensive Diocese of Lichfield. With the Church of Saint Mary in the township of Prestwich as its centre, this Anglican parish originally encompassed a total of ten townships, and several smaller chapelries.

Prestwich-cum-Oldham, although a singular parish, was divided in to two non-contiguous sections, centred roughly on the modern-day towns of Prestwich and Oldham. The parish of Middleton divided Prestwich-cum-Oldham down the middle. The parish covered some 21,625 acres and was noted in 1851 to have a population of 94,470, and again in 1861, to have 117,961. [1]

Prestwich-cum-Oldham is of much significance to modern day genealogists tracing ancestral roots to the south Lancashire area, as Church records and many of the original England and Wales Census transcripts both refer to and are categorised according to the ecclesiastical boundary of the parish.