Local Government Act 1888
The
Local Government Act 1888 (51 & 52 Vict. c. 41) was passed by the
Parliament of the United Kingdom in
1888 and established
county councils and
county borough councils in
England and
Wales. It came into effect on
1 April 1889 except for the
County of London which came into existence some days earlier at the request of the
London County Council.
County councils were established for
Administrative counties. These were based on the areas used by
Quarter Sessions courts, much of whose administrative authority was taken over by the county councils.
Where towns which were
urban sanitary districts lay across county boundaries, the whole town was included in the administrative county in which the largest population lay in the
1881 census. In all, 22 towns were effected, examples being
Banbury (Oxfordshire/Northamptonshire),
Mossley (Cheshire/Lancashire/Yorkshire),
Peterborough (Huntingdonshire/Northamptonshire),
Tamworth (Staffordshire/Warwickshire) and
Todmorden (Lancashire/Yorkshire).
A new
County of London was also created matching the former area of the
Metropolitan Board of Works. Boroughs with a population of more than 50,000 at
1 June 1888, or which had been
counties corporate were excluded from the administrative counties, becoming county boroughs (see below).
The act also altered what it calls the "counties", ensuring that the boundaries used for what it terms "non-administrative purposes" would be synchronised with the borders between the administrative counties.
Towns which were
municipal boroughs at
1 June 1888 and which had a population of more than 50,000, or certain towns which already constituted a county corporate became county boroughs.
England
| Traditional county | Administrative county | County boroughs | | Bedfordshire> Bedfordshire| |
| Berkshire> Berkshire| Reading |
| Buckinghamshire> Buckinghamshire |
| Cambridgeshire (part)> Cambridgeshire |
| Cambridgeshire (part)> Isle of Ely |
| Cheshire> Cheshire| Birkenhead, Chester, Stockport (part) |
| Cornwall> Cornwall |
| Cumberland> Cumberland| Carlisle |
| Derbyshire> Derbyshire | Derby |
| Devon> Devon | Devonport, Exeter, Plymouth |
| Dorset> Dorset |
| Durham> Durham | Gateshead, South Shields, Sunderland |
| Essex> Essex | West Ham |
| Gloucestershire> Gloucestershire | Bristol (part), Gloucester |
| Herefordshire> Herefordshire |
| Hertfordshire> Hertfordshire| |
| Huntingdonshire> Huntingdonshire |
| Kent (part)> Kent | Canterbury |
| Kent (part)> London(part) |
| Lancashire> Lancashire | Barrow in Furness, Blackburn, Bolton, Bootle-cum-Linacre, Burnley, Bury, Liverpool, Manchester, Oldham, Preston, Rochdale, St Helens, Salford, Stockport (part), Wigan |
| Leicestershire> Leicestershire | Leicester |
| Lincolnshire (part)> Lincolnshire, Parts of Holland |
| Lincolnshire (part)> Lincolnshire, Parts of Kesteven |
| Lincolnshire (part)> Lincolnshire, Parts of Lindsey | Lincoln |
| Middlesex (part)> Middlesex |
| Middlesex (part)> London (part) | |
| Norfolk (part)> Norfolk | Norwich, Great Yarmouth (part) |
| Northamptonshire (part)> Northamptonshire | Northampton |
| Northamptonshire (part)> Soke of Peterborough | |
| Northumberland> Northumberland | Newcastle upon Tyne |
| Nottinghamshire> Nottinghamshire | Nottingham |
| Oxfordshire> Oxfordshire | Oxford |
| Rutland> Rutland | |
| Salop (Shropshire)> Salop (Shropshire)| |
| Somerset> Somerset | Bath |
| Southampton (Hampshire)> Southampton (Hampshire) †| Portsmouth, Southampton |
| Staffordshire> Staffordshire | Hanley, Walsall, West Bromwich, Wolverhampton |
| Suffolk (part)> East Suffolk | Ipswich, Great Yarmouth (part) |
| Suffolk (part)> West Suffolk | |
| Surrey (part)> Surrey | Croydon |
| Surrey (part)> London |
| Sussex (part)> East Sussex | Brighton, Hastings |
| Sussex (part)> West Sussex | |
| Warwickshire> Warwickshire | Birmingham, Coventry |
| Westmorland> Westmorland | |
| Wiltshire> Wiltshire | |
| Worcestershire> Worcestershire | Dudley, Worcester |
| Yorkshire (part)> Yorkshire, East Riding | Kingston-upon-Hull, York (part) |
| Yorkshire (part)> Yorkshire, North Riding | Middlesbrough, York (part) |
| Yorkshire (part)> Yorkshire, West Riding | Bradford, Halifax, Huddersfield, Leeds, Sheffield, York (part) |
† In 1890 the
Isle of Wight was separated from the County of
Southampton to form an Administrative County.
Wales
† Newport became a county borough in 1891, administratively removed from
Monmouthshire*The Local Government Act 1888, 51 & 52 Vict. c. 41
