We have been able to pull together all the Burial records we have been able to find to date. It has been the best part of a 2 year project.
The oldest records, in parts are very difficult to read and that is noted within the records.
The Burial records for the 1800’s include those that were damaged in the fire, sadly some of the information was lost and a few records completely destroyed.
⚠️ Please note: these pages do take a while to load (there are thousands of records to load). When loaded, a search bar will appear above the table.
If you are looking for someone in particular or need help see our request form below.
We have also listed the most popular surnames and those that appear over many generations.
Burials 1675-1812 Burials 1813-1914 Burials 1914 onwards
Buried in Woollen Churchyard Development
Our volunteers have transcribed the burial registers of St Bartholomew’s, Old Whittington, from the 1670s to the present day. This page explains how to search them, which surnames appear most often, and how to ask us for help.
Choose the right register
The records are split into three sets by date. If you know roughly when your ancestor died, start with that set. If you don’t, work through all three.
1675–1812Partly recovered from old records, including the Burial in Woollen affidavits.1813–1914The nineteenth-century register, through to the First World War.1914 onwardsTwentieth-century and more recent burials.
Not sure what “Burial in Woollen” means? Read our guide to the Burial in Woollen Acts.
How to search
- Open the register for the period you need, using the links above.
- Open your browser’s search box. On a computer press Ctrl + F (Windows) or ⌘ + F (Mac). On a phone or tablet, open the browser menu and choose Find on page.
- Type the surname only. First names were often abbreviated or spelled differently, so searching the surname catches more.
- Step through every match using the arrows or Enter. Check each entry’s date, age and address to decide whether it is your person.
- Try other spellings if nothing turns up (see the tips below), then check the other two registers.
Search tips
- Spelling varied. Clerks wrote names as they heard them. Try Cooke and Cook, Clarke and Clark, Mosley and Moseley, Widdowson and Widowson, Sims and Simms, Syddall, Sydall and Siddall.
- Search part of a name. Typing Widdow or Mose finds several spellings at once.
- Married women are recorded under their married surname. Search under a maiden name only if she died unmarried.
- Dates before 1752. Until 1752 the year began on 25 March, so a burial in February 1720 falls in what we would now call 1721. Check both years.
- Question marks in a transcription mean the original was hard to read. If a name is close to yours, it may still be your ancestor, and we can check the original for you.
- The parish was large. It once included New Whittington, Whittington Moor and Sheepbridge, so people from all of these places may be buried here.
The most common surnames
These are the 40 surnames that appear most often in our transcriptions of the registers from the nineteenth century to the present. The number shows how many burial entries carry that name. The ten most common are highlighted.
| Smith (193) | Taylor (163) | Cooke (108) | Green (105) |
| Robinson (94) | Ward (94) | Booth (89) | Cooper (86) |
| Johnson (80) | Thompson (75) | Wright (73) | Turner (72) |
| Holmes (69) | Brown (67) | Hall (62) | Walker (60) |
| Webster (57) | Wilson (57) | Moore (56) | Vickers (55) |
| Jones (55) | Sims (54) | Mettam (52) | Fish (52) |
| Mosley (50) | Mitchell (49) | Thorpe (49) | Naylor (48) |
| Wood (47) | Widdowson (45) | Hunt (45) | Collins (45) |
| Shaw (45) | Adams (45) | Bargh (43) | Baker (43) |
| Clarke (42) | Evans (42) | Bottoms (42) | Roberts (41) |
Counts are for the exact spelling shown; variant spellings are counted separately (for example, Cook adds a further 28 entries, Clark 31 and Moseley 15). The earlier 1675–1812 records are not included in these figures.
Families with deep Whittington roots
Some names are far more common here than in England as a whole. Mettam, Bargh, Vickers, Webster, Woodhouse, Glossop and Syddall appear again and again, often across several generations. If you are researching one of these families, we may already hold more information. Please get in touch.
What the records can and can’t tell you
Depending on the period, an entry can give the person’s name, age, address, and dates of death and burial. Later entries may also note the officiating minister and the section, row and plot in the churchyard. The earliest records are often limited to a name and a date.
A burial entry does not always mean there is a headstone. Many graves were never marked, and some memorials have been lost. Our volunteers are recording every surviving memorial in the churchyard, and we may be able to help you find a grave or supply a photograph.
Other useful sources
- Derbyshire Record Office in Matlock holds the original parish registers for Derbyshire, including St Bartholomew’s.
- FreeBMD indexes deaths registered in England and Wales from 1837, which can help you narrow down a date before searching our registers.
Ask us about a burial
If you can’t find who you are looking for, or would like more detail, fill in the form below. Our volunteers will reply as soon as they can. Please tell us as much as you know, even if you are unsure of some details.
Our research is carried out by volunteers. If our help has been useful, please consider making a donation to support the project.
The oldest graves are on the South Side (Opposite the main door into church). I have produced a plan giving details of these graves here
There has been a Church on this site since at least 1140 and so there would be more burials that we do not know about as records were not required until 1538 unfortunately we do not know what happened to those or if they actually existed.
We do know of two older graves however, two previous Rectors were buried in the Chancel of the Norman Church. The location of the old Church is marked by the the two large fir trees on the side which record the east and west end of the main aisle.
Roger Criche who died in 1413 and Samuel Pegge (Rector 1751-1796) who died on the 14th February 1796.
If you can’t find who you are looking for, or would like more detail about a burial record, please get in touch. Our volunteers will help you search the registers and can check the original documents if a transcription is unclear.
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