When making a search for a grave in the graveyard at St. Peter’s Halliwell you will need the first and/or surname of the deceased. Knowing the year in which they died will help to narrow down your search results, but is not essential to the search. Your results will show the relevant grave location number in St. Peter’s Graveyard.

The search on this website uses data derived from the Lancashire OnLine Parish Clerk Project, itself taken from St Peter’s Church’s own paper records. The Lancashire OnLine Parish Clerk Project has a list of churches in the county of Lancashire (which includes those parishes of the original county of Lancashire which now form Greater Manchester).

You can access the the Lancashire OnLine Parish Clerk Project by clicking here – but note that here are two other St. Peter’s churches elsewhere in Bolton besides Halliwell. One is Bolton Parish Church in the town centre, the other is in the village of Belmont to the north of the town. If you are not sure which St. Peter’s Church you are looking for you will need to check all three.
Unfortunately prior to 1890 the Lancashire Online Parish Clerk Project has only basic details of individuals and does not include the grave reference number. Also details for burials later than 1965 are not listed. If you require full information about burials between 1840 -1890 or after 1965 please contact St. Peter’s Parish Office.

The search facility on this website will suggest an area of the graveyard where the grave may be located, hovever you can view all the plans by looking at the Location Plan. This shows the extent of the whole graveyard and the locations of the sub-areas: OG, MG, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, K, L, M, N, NA, NB, NC. Areas OG and MG are the oldest parts of the graveyard – mostly Victorian and Edwardian. Areas A – N primarily cover the late Victorian and Edwardian periods and the years between World Wars One and Two but also includes some later burials. The burials in areas NA, NB and NC are mostly after World War Two. Now that you have some idea of what you are looking for – go to the enlarged detail plan(s) of the particular area in which the grave for which you are searching is located. N.B. All the plans are in printable PDF format and the easiest way to do this is to print off a copy of the plans you need and then search these systematically until you find what you are looking for. In some cases the particular name will not be the one shown against the grave record number from your burial search. This does not mean that the reference is incorrect as graves were often used to bury several family members e.g. married daughters, cousins etc. who do not share the same surname. The names shown on the plans are either for the first burial or the title holder of the grave.

The Parish Office can assist with searches – however a charge will be made for this service in accordance with guidance published by the Church of England.