Thornbury Rural District was a rural district council centred on

Thornbury Thornbury may refer to: Places ;Australia *Thornbury, Victoria * Thornbury railway station, Melbourne ;Canada * Thornbury, Ontario ;England *Thornbury, Devon * Thornbury, Herefordshire *Thornbury, Gloucestershire **Thornbury Castle **Thornbury (UK ...

in the south of

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

. It was originally formed as a Poor Law Union on 5 April 1836 with 26 Guardians representing the 21 parishes in the Union and the Guardians of the Poor became the Rural Sanitary Authority for the District in 1872. The Rural District Council became a separate body in 1894 although the District Councillors had a dual mandate as members of both the council and the Board of Guardians.The District was enlarged in 1904 when Henbury was transferred from the abolished

Barton Regis Rural District Barton Regis was, from 1894 to 1904, a rural district in the English administrative county of Gloucestershire, adjacent to the City of Bristol. Formation The rural district was formed by the Local Government Act 1894 as successor to the Ba ...

. In 1930 the Guardians were abolished when their functions were transferred to It was abolished in 1974 and the majority of it transferred into the new county of Avon, as part of the new district of

Northavon Northavon was a district in the English county of Avon from 1974 to 1996. The district was formed by the Local Government Act 1972 on 1 April 1974 as part of a reform of local authorities throughout England and Wales. Under the reorganisation, ...

. However a group of parishes in the north of the district, around

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California * George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer ...

, wished not to transfer into the new county, but chose instead to remain with Gloucestershire, under the new

Stroud District Council Stroud is a market town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It is the main town in Stroud District. The town's population was 13,500 in 2021. Below the western escarpment of the Cotswold Hills, at the meeting point of the Five Va ...

. These were the parishes of Hinton, Hamfallow,

Ham and Stone Ham and Stone is a civil parish in the Stroud district, in the county of Gloucestershire, England. It includes the settlements of Bevington, Ham, Hystfield and Stone In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or a ...

, Alkington, and Berkeley itself, and all except Stone were part of the ancient ''ecclesiastical'' parish of Berkeley. With the demise of Avon, in 1996, the 'Berkeley parishes' were not re-united with the Thornbury area in the new unitary authority of

South Gloucestershire South Gloucestershire is a unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire, South West England. Towns in the area include Yate, Chipping Sodbury, Thornbury, Filton, Patchway and Bradley Stoke, the latter three forming part ...

, but remained with the main county of Gloucestershire.

Records of the RDC

The records of Thornbury RDC between 1872 and 1974 are held at Gloucestershire Archives in Gloucester, ref. DA38. A copy of the list may be seen at the National Archives in London, ref. NRA 37079 Thornbury RDC.

References

{{Reflist Local government in Gloucestershire 1836 establishments in England 1974 disestablishments in England Thornbury, Gloucestershire Rural districts of England