Hungerford 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rural district Rural districts were a type of local government area – now superseded – established at the end of the 19th century in England, Wales, and Ireland for the administration of predominantly rural areas at a level lower than that of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 ...

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

from 1894 to 1974, covering an area in the south-west of the county.

Evolution

The district had its origins in the Hungerford

Rural Sanitary District 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 ...

. This had been created under 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 ...

, giving public health and local government responsibilities for rural areas to the existing

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. The Hungerford Rural Sanitary District covered the area of the Hungerford Poor Law Union, which had been established in 1835 and straddled the counties of Berkshire,

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

, and

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

. The poor law union and rural sanitary district were administered from Hungerford Union Workhouse, which had been built in 1847 on Park Street in Hungerford. Under 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 ...

, rural sanitary districts became rural districts from 28 December 1894. The act also directed that rural districts should not straddle county boundaries, and parishes should not straddle district (and therefore county) boundaries. It was decided in October 1894 that the single Hampshire parish in the rural sanitary district,

Combe A combe (; also spelled coombe or coomb and, in place names, comb) can refer either to a steep, narrow valley, or to a small valley or large hollow on the side of a hill; in any case, it is often understood simply to mean a small valley through wh ...

, should be transferred to Berkshire, whilst the three parishes which straddled Berkshire and Wiltshire (Hungerford,

Chilton Foliat Chilton Foliat is a village and civil parish on the River Kennet in Wiltshire, England. The parish is in the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is on the county boundary with West Berkshire and is about northwest of the ...

, and

Shalbourne Shalbourne is a village and civil parish in the English county of Wiltshire, about southwest of Hungerford, Berkshire. The parish has a number of widely spaced small settlements including Bagshot and Stype, to the north, and Rivar and Oxenwood t ...

) were each placed in a single county, with the Wiltshire parts of Hungerford parish transferred to Berkshire, the Berkshire part of Shalbourne transferred to Wiltshire, and the Berkshire part of Chilton Foliat being added to Hungerford parish. Subject to these adjustments, the Berkshire parishes of the old rural sanitary district became the Hungerford Rural District, whilst the Wiltshire parishes became the

Ramsbury Rural District {{coord, 51.443, -1.605, display=title Ramsbury was a rural district in Wiltshire, England from 1894 to 1934 around the village of Ramsbury. It was formed under the Local Government Act 1894 from that part of the Hungerford rural sanitary distri ...

. These boundaries were used to define the new rural district from its creation on 28 December 1894, but the process of formally adjusting the county boundaries to match took a little longer, so for the first few months of its existence Hungerford Rural District straddled Berkshire, Hampshire, and Wiltshire, but by October 1895 it was entirely in Berkshire. The link with the poor law union continued, with all the elected councillors of the Hungerford and Ramsbury rural districts together comprising the board of guardians for the Hungerford Poor Law Union, which renamed itself the Hungerford and Ramsbury Poor Law Union in 1896.

Parishes

Hungerford Rural District contained the following

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 authority ...

es:

Premises

Hungerford Rural District Council held its first meeting at the workhouse in Hungerford on 2 January 1895, when Henry Deacon Woodman was appointed the first chairman. He had previously been the chairman of the board of guardians, and was also re-elected to that post on the same day. The council was based at the workhouse on Park Street in Hungerford until 1933, when it moved to Faringdon House at 128 High Street, Hungerford. In 1953 the council moved to The Priory, a large Victorian house on the south-eastern outskirts of Hungerford, where it remained until its abolition in 1974.

Abolition

Hungerford 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 new

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

of Newbury on 1 April 1974, which in turn became

West Berkshire West Berkshire is a local government district in Berkshire, England, administered from Newbury by West Berkshire Council. History The district of Newbury was formed on 1 April 1974, as a merger of the borough of Newbury, Bradfield Rural Distric ...

in 1998. The Hungerford Rural District Council's former offices at The Priory were converted into flats shortly after the council's abolition, before being completely redeveloped in 2011, with Redwood House being built on the site.

Notes

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 Former districts of Berkshire