Newbury Rural District was a rural district in Berkshire,

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 which almost surrounded but did not include the town of Newbury.

Evolution

The district had its origins in the Newbury

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 of poor law unions. The Newbury Rural Sanitary District covered the area of the Newbury Poor Law Union with the exception the town of Newbury, which was a

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 ...

and so formed its own urban sanitary district. The poor law union and rural sanitary district were administered from Newbury Union Workhouse, which had been built in 1836 on Newtown Road in Newbury. 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 boundaries. The Newbury Rural Sanitary District had included the parish of Newtown in

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

; it was decided before the act came into force that Newtown would transfer to the

Kingsclere Kingsclere is a large village and civil parish in Hampshire, England. Geography Kingsclere is approximately equidistant ) from the towns of Basingstoke and Newbury on the A339 road. History Kingsclere can trace back its history to a p ...

Rural District to allow it to stay in Hampshire. The parishes of Greenham and Speen had previously been partly within the municipal borough of Newbury and partly outside it, but they had their boundaries adjusted to add the parts within the borough to the parish of Newbury.

Parishes

Newbury 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 authorit ...

es:

Premises

Newbury Rural District Council held its first meeting on 3 January 1895 at

Newbury Town Hall Newbury Town Hall is a municipal building in the Market Place in Newbury, Berkshire, England. The building, which is the meeting place of Newbury Town Council, is a Grade II listed building. History The site for the first town hall in Newbury ...

, when Albert Richard Tull of Crookham House, Thatcham, was appointed the first chairman of the council. He was a

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

, and had been the previous chairman of the board of guardians. In its early years, the council generally met at the workhouse on Newtown Road, Newbury. Around 1929 the council moved to Phoenix House at 50 Bartholomew Street, Newbury, converting it for use as both offices and meeting place. The council remained at Phoenix House until its abolition in 1974.

Abolition

Newbury Rural District was abolished under the Local Government Act 1972, 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 county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...

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 Dist ...

in 1998.

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