Manchester (ancient parish)
Manchester was an ancient ecclesiastical parish of the hundred of Salford, in Lancashire, England. It encompassed several townships and chapelries, including the then township of Manchester (now Manchester city centre). Other townships are now parts of the Anglican Diocese of Manchester and/or Greater Manchester. In the Domesday Book the parish of Manchester is recorded as including St Michael's Church in Ashton-under-Lyne as well as the mother church of St Mary's in Manchester. Although by the 13th century Ashton had formed its own separate parish, the advowson was held by Manchester as late as  1458. Townships. In 1866 the townships became recognised as separate civil parishes. Part, but not all, of this area was in the municipal borough of Manchester, which expanded with the decades. In 1896 the parishes of the City of Manchester outside the remaining Manchester parish were re-organised as North Manchester and South Manchester parishes, which were themselves re-organised as a single civil parish of Manchester in 1916, while the parishes in the county borough of Salford were united as a single civil parish in 1919.