civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

is a country subdivision, forming the lowest unit of

local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loc ...

in England. There are 218 civil parishes in the

ceremonial county The counties and areas for the purposes of the lieutenancies, also referred to as the lieutenancy areas of England and informally known as ceremonial counties, are areas of England to which lords-lieutenant are appointed. Legally, the areas i ...

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a Historic counties of England, historic county and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people ...

, which includes the

Isles of Scilly The Isles of Scilly (; kw, Syllan, ', or ) is an archipelago off the southwestern tip of Cornwall, England. One of the islands, St Agnes, is the most southerly point in Britain, being over further south than the most southerly point of th ...

. The county is effectively parished in its entirety; only the unpopulated Wolf Rock is unparished. At the 2001 census, there were 501,267 people living in the current parishes, accounting for the whole of the county's population. The final unparished areas of mainland Cornwall, around

St Austell St Austell (; kw, Sans Austel) is a town in Cornwall, England, south of Bodmin and west of the border with Devon. St Austell is one of the largest towns in Cornwall; at the 2011 census it had a population of 19,958. History St Austell ...

, were parished on 1 April 2009 to coincide with the structural changes to local government in England. Population sizes within the county vary considerably, Falmouth is the most populous with a population of 26,767, recorded in 2011, and

St Michael's Mount St Michael's Mount ( kw, Karrek Loos yn Koos, meaning " hoar rock in woodland") is a tidal island in Mount's Bay, Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The island is a civil parish and is linked to the town of Marazion by a causeway of granite s ...

the least with 29 residents. The county is governed by two separate

unitary authorities A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governme ...

;

Cornwall Council Cornwall Council ( kw, Konsel Kernow) is the unitary authority for Cornwall in the United Kingdom, not including the Isles of Scilly, which has its own unitary council. The council, and its predecessor Cornwall County Council, has a tradition ...

covers mainland Cornwall, while the Isles of Scilly are administered by their own unitary authority.

History

Parishes arose from

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Brit ...

divisions, and were originally purely ecclesiastical. Over time, they acquired civil administration powers.Angus Winchester, 2000, ''Discovering Parish Boundaries''. Shire Publications. Princes Risborough, 96 pages The Highways Act 1555 made parishes responsible for the upkeep of roads. Every adult inhabitant of the parish was obliged to work four days a year on the roads, providing their own tools, carts and horses; the work was overseen by an unpaid local appointee, the ''Surveyor of Highways''. The poor were looked after by the

monasteries A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...

, until their dissolution. In 1572,

magistrates The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judic ...

were given power to 'survey the poor' and impose taxes for their relief. This system was made more formal by the Poor Law Act 1601, which made parishes responsible for administering the

Poor Law In English and British history, poor relief refers to government and ecclesiastical action to relieve poverty. Over the centuries, various authorities have needed to decide whose poverty deserves relief and also who should bear the cost of he ...

; overseers were appointed to charge a rate to support the poor of the parish. The 19th century saw an increase in the responsibility of parishes, although the ''Poor Law'' powers were transferred to Poor Law Unions. The

Public Health Act 1872 In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

grouped parishes into Rural Sanitary Districts, based on the Poor Law Unions; these subsequently formed the basis for

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 a ...

s. Parishes were run by

vestries A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquially ...

, meeting annually to appoint officials, and were generally identical to ecclesiastical parishes, although some

township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, ...

s in large parishes administered the ''Poor Law'' themselves. Under the

Divided Parishes and Poor Law Amendment Act 1882 The Divided Parishes and Poor Law Amendment Act 1882 was an Act of Parliament in Britain which gave the Local Government Board increased powers relating to dissolving and creating poor law unions. It followed the similar Divided Parishes and Poor ...

, all

extra-parochial area In England and Wales, an extra-parochial area, extra-parochial place or extra-parochial district was a geographically defined area considered to be outside any ecclesiastical or civil parish. Anomalies in the parochial system meant they had no ch ...

s and

s that levied a separate rate became independent civil parishes.Modern British Surnames : ''Selected Events in the History of Civil Registration and Boundary Changes 1801-1996''
. Retrieved 22 August 2009. Civil parishes in their modern sense date from the

Local Government Act 1894 The Local Government Act 1894 (56 & 57 Vict. c. 73) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales outside the County of London. The Act followed the reforms carried out at county level un ...

, which abolished vestries; established elected parish councils in all rural parishes with more than 300 electors; grouped rural parishes into Rural Districts; and aligned parish boundaries with county and borough boundaries. Urban civil parishes continued to exist, and were generally coterminous with the

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) (his ...

municipal borough Municipal boroughs were a type of local government district which existed in England and Wales between 1835 and 1974, in Northern Ireland from 1840 to 1973 and in the Republic of Ireland from 1840 to 2002. Broadly similar structures existed in S ...

county borough County borough is a term introduced in 1889 in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, to refer to a borough or a city independent of county council control, similar to the unitary authorities created since the 1990s. An equivalent te ...

in which they were situated. Many large towns contained a number of parishes, and these were usually merged into one. Parish councils were not formed in urban areas, and the only function of the parish was to elect guardians to Poor Law Unions. With the abolition of the ''Poor Law'' system in 1930 the parishes had only a nominal existence. 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 ...

retained civil parishes in rural areas, and many former urban districts and municipal Boroughs that were being abolished, were replaced by new successor parishes. Urban areas that were considered too large to be single parishes became

unparished area In England, an unparished area is an area that is not covered by a civil parish (the lowest level of local government, not to be confused with an ecclesiastical parish). Most urbanised districts of England are either entirely or partly unpa ...

s.Office of Public Sector Information : ''Local Government Act 1972''
. Retrieved 22 August 2009.

Current position

Recent governments have encouraged the formation of town and parish councils in unparished areas. The

Local Government and Rating Act 1997 The Local Government and Rating Act 1997 (c. 29) allows a community at the village, neighbourhood, town or similar level beneath a district or borough council to demand its own elected parish or town council. This right only applies to communitie ...

gave local residents the right to demand the creation of a new civil parish. A parish council can become a town council unilaterally, simply by resolution. A civil parish can also gain

city status City status is a symbolic and legal designation given by a national or subnational government. A municipality may receive city status because it already has the qualities of a city, or because it has some special purpose. Historically, city status ...

, but only if that is granted by

the Crown The Crown is the state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their subdivisions (such as the Crown Dependencies, overseas territories, provinces, or states). Legally ill-defined, the term has differ ...

. The chairman of a town or city council is called a

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...

. The

Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 The Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 (c 28) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Act allows for the implementation of many provisions outlined in the Government white paper ''Strong and Prosperous Com ...

introduced alternative names: a parish council can now choose to be called a community; village; or neighbourhood council.Office of Public Sector Information : ''Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007''
. Retrieved 22 August 2009. Within Cornwall, the 2007 Act lead to the abolition of the six district councils and Cornwall County Council, establishing in their place the single unitary authority,

. All civil parish councils became the responsibility of this authority. At the same time, four new civil parishes were created in the St Austell area, parishing the last remaining populated part of the county.

List of civil parishes and unparished area

Notes

:From 1974 to 2009, mainland Cornwall was divided into districts:

Caradon Caradon was a local government district in Cornwall, United Kingdom. It contained five towns: Callington, Liskeard, Looe, Saltash and Torpoint, and over 80 villages and hamlets within 41 civil parishes. Its District Council was based in Lisk ...

( kw, Karadon), formed from Liskeard Municipal Borough, Liskeard Rural District, Looe Urban District, Saltash Municipal Borough, St Germans Rural District and Torpoint Urban District; Carrick ( kw, Karrek), formed from Falmouth Municipal Borough, Penryn Municipal Borough, Truro Municipal Borough and Truro Rural District;

Kerrier Kerrier ( kw, Keryer) was a local government district in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It was the most southerly district in the United Kingdom, other than the Isles of Scilly. Its council was based in Camborne (). Other towns in the distr ...

( kw, Keryer), formed from Camborne–Redruth Urban District, Helston Municipal Borough and Kerrier Rural District; North Cornwall ( kw, Kernow Gledh), formed from Bodmin Municipal Borough, Bude–Stratton Urban District, Camelford Rural District, Launceston Municipal Borough, Launceston Rural District, Stratton Rural District and Wadebridge and Padstow Rural District;

Penwith Penwith (; kw, Pennwydh) is an area of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, located on the peninsula of the same name. It is also the name of a former local government district, whose council was based in Penzance. The area is named after ...

( kw, Pennwydh), formed from Penzance Municipal Borough, St Ives Municipal Borough, St Just Urban District and West Penwith Rural District; and

Restormel Restormel ( kw, Rostorrmel) was a borough of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, one of the six administrative divisions that made up the county. Its council was based in St Austell; its other towns included Newquay. The borough was named after ...

( kw, Rostorrmoel), formed from Newquay Urban District, St Austell Rural District and St Austell with Fowey Municipal Borough

References

External links

Office for National Statistics : ''Geographical Area Listings''

Cornwall Council: ''Names of Town and Parish Councils''
{{Cornwall

Civil parishes In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority. ...