Berkhamsted Rural District was a
rural district
Rural districts were a type of local government area – now superseded – established at the end of the 19th century in England, Wales, and Ireland for the administration of predominantly rural areas at a level lower than that of the Ad ...
in
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...
,
England from 1894 to 1974, covering an area to the west of the county. Until 1937 the official spelling of the district's name was Berkhampstead Rural District.
Evolution
Berkhampstead
Poor Law Union had been created in 1835 following the
Poor Law Amendment Act 1834. Under the
Public Health Act 1872 sanitary districts
Sanitary districts were established in England and Wales in 1872 and in Ireland in 1878. The districts were of two types, based on existing structures:
*Urban sanitary districts in towns with existing local government bodies
*Rural sanitary dis ...
were created, and the
boards of guardians
Boards of guardians were ''ad hoc'' authorities that administered Poor Law in the United Kingdom from 1835 to 1930.
England and Wales
Boards of guardians were created by the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, replacing the parish overseers of the poor ...
of poor law unions were made responsible for public health and local government for any part of their district not included in an urban authority. The Berkhampstead Rural Sanitary District therefore covered the area of the Berkhampstead Poor Law Union except for the town of
Tring, which had a
local board.
Under the
Local Government Act 1894, rural sanitary districts became rural districts from 28 December 1894. The Act also directed that the new rural districts should be only in one county. Where rural sanitary districts straddled county boundaries, as Berkhampstead Rural Sanitary District did, they should be split into separate rural districts in each county, or otherwise boundary amendments should be made. Most of Berkhampstead Rural Sanitary District was in Hertfordshire, but it also included the parishes of
Marsworth
Marsworth is a village and a civil parish within the unitary authority area of Buckinghamshire, England. It is about north of Tring, Hertfordshire and east of Aylesbury.
Early history
The village name is Anglo Saxon in origin, ''Mæssanwyrth' ...
,
Nettleden, and
Pitstone
Pitstone (formerly Pightelsthorn, with possible variation Pychelesthorn in 1399) is a village and civil parish in east Buckinghamshire, England. It is at the foot of the central range of the Chiltern Hills, centred east of Aylesbury and south ...
in
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...
. Following discussion between Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire County Councils, the
Local Government Board agreed that Marsworth and Pitstone would join the
Linslade Rural District, whilst Nettleden would be administered by the Berkhampstead Rural District from the outset, pending its formal transfer to Hertfordshire. On 30 September 1895, nine months after Berkhampstead Rural District was created, Nettleden was transferred from Buckinghamshire to Hertfordshire (along with part of
Ivinghoe parish which was added to Nettleden at the same time) and thereafter the Berkhampstead Rural District was entirely in Hertfordshire.
[The County of Hertford (Nettleden, &c.) Order, 1895, confirmed by the Local Government Board’s Provisional Orders Confirmation (No. 17) Act, 1895]
The link with the poor law union continued, with all the elected councillors of the rural district council being
''ex officio'' members of the Berkhampstead Board of Guardians. The new district council held its first meeting on 31 December 1894 at the workhouse in Berkhamsted. Frederick Quincey Lane was appointed the first chairman of the council. He held the post until his death in 1907.
When first created, the Berkhampstead Rural District included the town of
Berkhamsted (officially known as Great Berkhampstead at the time). An
urban district
Urban district may refer to:
* District
* Urban area
* Quarter (urban subdivision)
* Neighbourhood
Specific subdivisions in some countries:
* Urban districts of Denmark
* Urban districts of Germany
* Urban district (Great Britain and Ireland) (hist ...
was created for the town on 15 April 1898, when the parish of Great Berkhampstead was split into a Great Berkhampstead Rural parish, which remained in the Berkhampstead Rural District, and a Great Berkhampstead Urban parish, which became the Great Berkhampstead Urban District.
[
In 1937 the Great Berkhampstead Urban District Council formally changed the urban district's name to Berkhamsted Urban District, reflecting the more commonly used variant of the town's name. That change took effect on 19 July 1937. The Berkhampstead Rural District followed suit a few months later, formally becoming Berkhamsted Rural District on 1 November 1937.
]
Parishes
Berkhamsted Rural District contained the following civil parishes.[
]
Premises
For the first few years, Berkhamsted Rural District generally met at the board room in the workhouse in Berkhamsted, which was at the corner of High Street and Kitsbury Road. The old workhouse was demolished in the late 1930s.[ By 1928 the council was using as its offices 240 High Street, Berkhamsted (renumbered as 268 High Street around 1950), which was also the office of the solicitor who acted as clerk to the council. In 1960 the council moved to Boxwell House at 275 High Street in Berkhamsted, remaining there until the council's abolition in 1974.]
Abolition
Berkhamsted Rural District was abolished under the Local Government Act 1972
The Local Government Act 1972 (c. 70) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974. It was one of the most significant Acts of Parliament to be passed by the Heath Gov ...
, becoming part of the district of Dacorum on 1 April 1974.
References
{{Reflist
Districts of England created by the Local Government Act 1894
Districts of England abolished by the Local Government Act 1972
Rural districts of England
Local government in Hertfordshire