HICTON - anyone heard of it please?

[OzzieJoan]

I have a marriage cert. which states that the couple were both from Hicton (or that's how I read it) but I can't find a record of it on Genuki or various maps. I will attach the certificate which might help. Thanks. Joan

[carolanne]

Parish of Heaton
Regards Carolanne

[arthurk]

Since it's Heaton in the Parish of Birstall, I suspect it's referring to Cleckheaton.

I can't think of anywhere else it might be, though I don't think I've ever seen it as just Heaton either.

[Mike in Cumbria]

Heaton is a village near Frizinghall - I don't see how that could come under Birstall parish though, so must be Cleckheaton.

[Mike in Cumbria]

No, not Cleckheaton.

"The Parish of Birstall
The ancient parish of Birstall comprised the eight townships of Cleckheaton, Drighlington, Gomersal, Heckmondwike, Hunsworth, Liversedge, Tong and Wike. Although Tong was officially part of the parish its records were kept separately. In addition to the townships there were several villages or hamlets including, Adwalton, Birstall, Great and Little Gomersal, Stubley, Littletown, Robertown, Long Liversedge, Heaton, Okenshay, Moore Lawe, Doghouse, Scholes, and Berkonshay. While the village of Birstall gave its name to the parish, it was actually a part of the township of Gomersal.

The main church, St Peter's was situated on the eastern boundary of the parish close to Batley. The parish records started in 1558, the first year of the reign of Elizabeth. However, they are sparse and contain many gaps until the 1700s.

Based on a comparison of the numbers of baptisms, marriages and burials in the parish around 1650 the population of the parish is estimated to have been 2500 people. At the time of the Archbishop's visit to Birstall parish in 1743, there were 9000 people in the parish. It is believed that the increase in the population was partly due to an influx from other parishes."

http://www.maggieblanck.com/Land/PhotosBirstall.html

[arthurk]

I don't really agree with the analysis of places given there. It seems to be suggesting that Great and Little Gomersal are places distinct from the township of Gomersal, whereas if you read the source documents it becomes clear that they are areas within the township.

Similarly, Heaton could be the name of a place within the township of Cleckheaton - maybe the main settlement there. However, it's hard to know just what she means, since after asserting that there was a place known as Heaton she doesn't mention it again on the page.

Edited to add:
This page at GENUKI suggests that the parish of Birstall actually had 10 divisions, with Scholes and Oakenshaw added to the list above:
http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/WRY/Birstall/BirstallMap

This page gives some of the names by which Cleckheaton has been known:
http://placenames.org.uk/browse/mads/epns-deep-32-b-subparish-000006

Further edit (in the light of a comment below):
'She' in my post here relates to the author of the website that Mike referred to, not anyone posting in this thread.

[carolanne]

I didn't think I'd asserted anything I simple read the name of Heaton rather than Hecton ?
Regards Carolanne

[arthurk]

I didn't think I'd asserted anything I simple read the name of Heaton rather than Hecton ?
Regards Carolanne

Sorry - the 'she' I was referring to was the author of the page Mike referred to.

[dobfarm]

Whitechapel Church, Cleckheaton (built 1820)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitechapel_Church,_Cleckheaton

Under 'History of the site' in link
you'll find (extract from link) ~

"The site was initially developed as Heaton Chapel, a Chapel of ease to the Parish Church of Birstall"