Local Government Act 1894
The
Local Government Act 1894 (57 & 58 Vict. c. 58) created a system of
urban districts and
rural districts with elected councils in all areas of
England and
Wales outside a
municipal borough, following on from the
Local Government Act 1888, which had created
county councils.
The new district councils were based on the existing urban and rural
sanitary districts. Many of the latter had lain in more than one
traditional county, whereas the new rural districts were to be in a single
administrative county.
The Act also reorganised
civil parishes, so that none of them lay in more than one district and hence didn't cross administrative county boundaries. It also allowed for the election of
parish councils in larger parishes.
In 1893 there were 688 urban Sanitary districts outside boroughs. These had various titles such as
Local Government District or
Local Board of Health District or
Improvement Commissioners' District.
Each of these variously titled entities became
urban district in 1894/5. Urban districts continued to be formed, and by 1927 there were 785.
There were 574 Rural Sanitary Districts in 1893, many of them crossing county boundaries. The number of Rural Districts formed by the Act was 692. All but three of 118 additional Districts were caused by the breaking up of cross-county Rural Sanitary Districts (for example
Monks Kirby Rural District was the part of Lutterworth RSD that was in
Warwickshire, with the rest forming
Lutterworth Rural District.)
In some areas the county boundaries were so complicated that Rural Districts were in more than one administrative county. For example,
Gloucestershire,
Warwickshire and
Worcestershire had many outlying detached parishes surrounded by other counties.
In all parishes with a population of 300 or more, a
parish council had to be elected. In parishes with more than 100 but less than 300 population, the parish meeting could request the county council to make an order to establish a parish council.
The responsibility for defining the areas of the districts was given to the
County councils established in
1888.
County councils were supposed to have regard to areas of existing sanitary districts and parishes in the administrative county, and to ensure that no parish or district extended into another county. Also parishes that crossed district boundaries were to be divided.
Hundreds of orders were made by county councils, and it was not until 1898 that the process was complete. Many county councils took the opportunity to "tidy up" their boundaries with neighbouring authorities, and it was not uncommon for blocks of parishes to be exchanged.
The division of parishes lead to many ancient parishes being split into "urban" and "rural" portions. As an example, an order of the
Hertfordshire County Council split the parishes of
Bushey and
Watford into Bushey Urban and Watford Urban parishes in Watford Urban District and
Watford Rural and
Bushey Rural parishes in the
Watford Rural District.
The county council could also group small parishes under a joint parish council.
List of Rural Districts in England and Wales 1894 - 1930
