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rural district Rural districts were a type of local government area – now superseded – established at the end of the 19th century in England, Wales, and Ireland for the administration of predominantly rural areas at a level lower than that of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

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

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. It was formed 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 ...

based on the Swaffham

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 ...

. It almost completely encircled Swaffham Urban District. In 1935 it took in a small part of

Downham Rural District __NOTOC__ Downham Rural District was a rural district in Norfolk, England from 1894 to 1974. It was formed under the Local Government Act 1894 based on the Downham rural sanitary district. It completely encircled Downham Market Urban Distric ...

to complete the encirclement of urban

Swaffham Swaffham () is a market town and civil parish in the Breckland District and English county of Norfolk. It is situated east of King's Lynn and west of Norwich. The civil parish has an area of and in the 2001 census had a population of 6,9 ...

. It also took in the central section of the disbanded

Thetford Rural District Thetford Rural District was a rural district in Norfolk, England from 1894 to 1935. It was formed under the Local Government Act 1894 based on the Thetford rural sanitary district. It covered the lands which were in Norfolk and lay to the north ...

. In 1974, the 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 ...

, and became part of the

Breckland Breckland in Norfolk and Suffolk is a 39,433 hectare Special Protection Area (SPA) under the European Union Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds. The SPA partly overlaps the 7,544 hectare Breckland Special Area of Conservation. As a la ...

district.

Statistics

Parishes

References

{{coord, 52.57, 0.69, type:adm3rd_dim:25000_region:GB-NFK, display=title Districts of England created by the Local Government Act 1894 Districts of England abolished by the Local Government Act 1972 Historical districts of Norfolk Rural districts of England