Church Records
Records of Marriages, Burials and Baptisms (not all births) have been made by all churches, for a very long time.
However, such essential records are best kept in proper archive facilities instead of in old buildings, so they are periodically transferred to safer hands, in the relevant Archiving offices.
In the case of St Helen’s at Trowell, the Church Parish Records were archived some years ago and are now held in the Nottinghamshire Archives by Notts County Council – you can details of how to find them on the Link page.
The recent burial registers are still held by the Church – this covers burials from about 1918 to the current date, although we have collected some earlier information by looking at gravestones. All previous registers have gone into the archives. The Notts Archive Office has Trowell’s burial records up to 1918.
The most recent records from here are not available online, because they go right up to the present week so that there are confidentiality issues.
There is, however, a downloadable file of the earlier records that we have up to 2005 (in Portable Document Format – PDF) that may be useful to you. If you do find what you want in there, you may find the grave with the help of this sketch of the graveyard layout (PDF).
The area immediately around St Helen’s Church building, up to the hedge in the church yard is what is known in English law as a ‘closed burial ground’. This means that no more full burials can happen there and that it is maintained by the district council not the Church. The church keeps no burial records for this area, except for cremated ashes in the garden of rest.
Generally
In order to reliably trace the older records, the best route would be to visit the Nottinghamshire Archives at Notts County Council. The offices are in the City Centre, and you can get full details from the Links page.
If the information you are looking for isn’t there, then it could be in the archive of the historic Archdeaconry of Nottingham, at Nottingham University. You can get to that office online, and there are full details on this Link page.
You might also like to explore the history of each of the churches in the Benefice, including church building history, and full lists of Rectors and Vicars who have worked at the churches. Find out more:
- History of St Peter’s Church, Awsworth
- History of St Catherine’s Church, Cossall
- History of St Helen’s Church, Trowell
We do hope you find something of use to you.