Macclesfield library history resources

It’s not just books that you’ll find at Macclesfield library.

The library has a wide range of free-to-use local history resources – some on microfilm or microfiche.

For resources on microfilm or microfiche, you will need to contact Macclesfield library to book a session on a microfilm or microfiche reader.

Macclesfield and Cheshire local history books 

• large collection of reference books on Cheshire and Macclesfield, including the Silk and Tunnicliffe Collections
• guides to tracing your family history

Macclesfield and Cheshire publications and newspapers

• journals and magazines including Cheshire Life magazine from the 1940s to March 2023 
• every edition of the Macclesfield Courier / Express / Advertiser series from its origin in 1811 up to 2010 (microfilm). There is also an archive of the latest six months in hard copy
• Macclesfield Times from 1905 – 1951 (microfilm)
• trade directories for Macclesfield, Cheshire and Derbyshire from the 19th and 20th centuries (hard copy and microfiche)
• historical society transactions

Macclesfield and Cheshire maps

• Macclesfield’s area maps from the 19th century to the present – including historical Ordnance Survey maps, tithe maps with apportionments and Goad plans (historic street maps)
• county maps from the 16th to the 18th century
• geological maps

You can also see Cheshire tithe maps online 

Cheshire wills

• Register of Cheshire Wills 1858 – 1948 (microfilm)
• Cheshire Wills Index 1492 – 1857 (hard copy)

Photographs

Collection of photographs of Macclesfield. For online images, see Cheshire image bank.

Parish records for Macclesfield and surrounding area

We hold a variety of parish records on microfilm. The records contain lists of baptisms, marriages and burials.  For full details, see Macclesfield Parish Records (PDF, 76KB).

Records come from the following churches and chapels:

• Macclesfield – St. Alban’s Catholic Church
• Macclesfield – Baptist Chapel
• Macclesfield – Christ Church
• Macclesfield – St. John’s 
• Macclesfield – King Edward Street Unitarian Chapel, 
• Macclesfield – St. Michael’s
• Macclesfield – St. Paul’s
• Alderley  – St. Mary’s
• Bollington – Grimshaw Lane New Connexion Chapel
• Bollington – High Street Primitive Methodist Chapel
• Bollington – St. Gregory
• Bollington – St. John the Baptist
• Bollington – Wellington Road Wesleyan Methodist Chapel
• Capesthorne with Siddington – Holy Trinity
• Chelford – St. John the Evangelist
• Chorley – St. Philip
• Disley – St. Mary’s
• Gawsworth Parish Church
• Gawsworth – St. James the Great
• Henbury – St. Thomas
• Hurdsfield – Holy Trinity
• Macclesfield Forest with Wildboarclough
• Marton –  St. James and St. Paul
• Pott Shrigley – St. Christopher’s
• Prestbury – St. Peter’s
• Rainow – Holy Trinity
• Rainow – Wesleyan Methodist
• Saltersford – St. John the Baptist (Jenkin Chapel)
• Siddington – All Saints
• Sutton – St. George
• Wincle – St. Michael’s

Census information

• census returns1841 – 1901 for Macclesfield and the surrounding area (microfilm/fiche)
• 1881 census transcript and surname index for Cheshire compiled by the Genealogical Society of Utah

Other lists and records

• electoral registers for Macclesfield from 1945 – 2000 (hard copy; incomplete)
• memorial inscriptions: for many plots in Macclesfield cemetery and other graveyards (microfiche)
• Bertram Merrell’s Marriage Index of Cheshire 1756 – 1837 (microfiche)
• International Genealogical Index (IGI) for the British Isles (microfiche)

Online family tree research

Library members get free access to Ancestry.com and FindmyPast.co.uk when using library computers. FindmyPast includes the Cheshire Collection of local records dating back to 1538.