{{short description, Type of district in England and Wales Highway Districts were areas in

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 ...

and

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

united for the maintenance and repair of highways. They were first formed in 1862 and consisted of groupings of

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. ...

in rural areas. They were abolished in 1894 when their powers and duties passed to rural district councils.

Background

Parish

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 ...

had been responsible for keeping

highway A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It is used for major roads, but also includes other public roads and public tracks. In some areas of the United States, it is used as an equivalent term to controlled-acces ...

s in repair since the reign of Henry VIII. The

Highway Act 1835 The Highway Act 1835 (5 & 6 Will 4 c 50) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was one of the Highway Acts 1835 to 1885. Parish boards The Highway Act 1835 placed highways under the direction of parish surveyors, and allowed t ...

made changes to the administration of highways. From 1836 each parish was to appoint a surveyor, and was empowered to make a rate to keep the roads under its control in good order. The surveyor could be convicted and fined by the county justices for failing to keep the highways in repair. The 1835 Act also changed the law, with new roads not being declared highways, and therefore repairable by the parish, unless they met certain criteria. The Highways Act 1862 (25 & 26 Vict., c.61) enabled

Justices of the Peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

of a county to divide the county into Highway Districts consisting of a number of parishes. This was done by means of a provisional order confirmed by the

Quarter Sessions The courts of quarter sessions or quarter sessions were local courts traditionally held at four set times each year in the Kingdom of England from 1388 (extending also to Wales following the Laws in Wales Act 1535). They were also established in ...

. The order listed the parishes to be grouped together, the name to be given to the district and the number of waywardens (see below) to be elected by each parish.

Highway boards

The authority governing the highway district was entitled a highway board. The membership of the board consisted of one or more members elected annually by each parish, and known as waywardens, and by any county justices residing in the district. The highway board took over the property and liabilities of the parish surveyors in its district, appointing a clerk, treasurer and district surveyor. The costs of the administration was to be paid by a rate levied on the district, although the cost of repairing highways was still chargeable as a Highway Rate to individual parishes. There was no compulsion for districts to be formed, and some parishes continued to separately maintain highways until 1894.

Areas exempt

The 1862 Act did not extend to all areas of

and

. Places within the area of the

Metropolitan Board of Works The Metropolitan Board of Works (MBW) was the principal instrument of local government in a wide area of Middlesex, Surrey, and Kent, defined by the Metropolis Management Act 1855, from December 1855 until the establishment of the London Cou ...

boroughs A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle A ...

and towns having local boards could not be grouped into a district. The

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a Counties of England, county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the List of islands of England#Largest islands, largest and List of islands of England#Mo ...

and parts of South Wales were also exempt, as special legislation was already in place to establish highway authorities in those areas. The Act stated that any place adopting the

Local Government Act 1858 Local boards or local boards of health were local authorities in urban areas of England and Wales from 1848 to 1894. They were formed in response to cholera epidemics and were given powers to control sewers, clean the streets, regulate environmenta ...

to form a local board would cease to be part of a highway district. A large number of communities, some with very small populations, quickly chose to form boards and avoid being part of a district. The number of applications was such that the Local Government Act Amendment Act 1863 (26 & 27 Vict., c.17) was passed providing that no local board could be formed after 1 March 1863 with a population of fewer than 3,000, and that any local board which had not appointed a surveyor within three months of formation would be dissolved.

Changes in legislation

The Highways and Locomotives Amendment Act 1878 created a new class of highway – the main road. The Act provided that all former

turnpike Turnpike often refers to: * A type of gate, another word for a turnstile * In the United States, a toll road Turnpike may also refer to: Roads United Kingdom * A turnpike road, a principal road maintained by a turnpike trust, a body with powers ...

roads that had become public highways since 1870 were designated as main roads. Other main roads were to be those between "great towns" and those leading to railway stations. In addition any other highway could be declared a main road by the justices of the county in quarter sessions. Half the cost of maintaining main roads was to be borne by the county at large. In 1889 the

Local Government Act Local Government Act (with its variations) is a stock short title used for legislation in Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Ireland and the United Kingdom, relating to local government. The Bill for an Act with this short title may have been known ...

passed responsibility for main roads to the new

county council A county council is the elected administrative body governing an area known as a county. This term has slightly different meanings in different countries. Ireland The county councils created under British rule in 1899 continue to exist in Irel ...

s, who were to bear all of the cost of their upkeep. The highway boards continued to have responsibility for highways other than main roads.

Abolition

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 ...

passed all the powers, duties and liabilities of existing highway boards, highway authorities or surveyors to the newly created rural district councils. Rural district councils continued to exercise these powers until 1930, when the

Local Government Act 1929 The Local Government Act 1929 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that made changes to the Poor Law and local government in England and Wales. The Act abolished the system of poor law unions in England and Wales and their board ...

transferred responsibility for rural highways to county councils.

Sources

* Highways Act 1862 * Local Government Act 1894 Local government in the United Kingdom 1862 establishments in the United Kingdom 1894 disestablishments