Unreformed Boroughs In England And Wales 1835–1886
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Unreformed boroughs were those corporate towns in England and Wales which had not been reformed by the
Municipal Corporations Act 1835 The Municipal Corporations Act 1835 ( 5 & 6 Will. 4. c. 76), sometimes known as the Municipal Reform Act, was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in the incorporated boroughs of England and Wales. The le ...
. A handful of these obtained new charters under the 1835 Act. A royal commission was established in 1876 to inquire into these boroughs, and legislation passed in 1883 finally forced the reform or dissolution of these corporations by 1886.


Boroughs reformed 1835–1881

Only nine unreformed boroughs obtained new charters under the 1835 Act: Three other towns incorporated in this period are sometimes listed as unreformed boroughs. The first of these was
Ashton-under-Lyne Ashton-under-Lyne is a market town in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England. The population was 48,604 at the 2021 census. Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, it is on the north bank of the River Tame, Greater Manchester, ...
,
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, incorporated in 1847. Although it may have had an existence as a municipality, it had ceased to exist by the nineteenth century.
Peterborough Peterborough ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in the City of Peterborough district in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Cambridgeshire, England. The city is north of London, on the River Nene. A ...
, in
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and
Huntingdonshire Huntingdonshire (; abbreviated Hunts) is a local government district in Cambridgeshire, England, which was historically a county in its own right. It borders Peterborough to the north, Fenland to the north-east, East Cambridgeshire to the e ...
, was incorporated in 1874. The town was governed by officials of the dean and diocese of Peterborough.
Taunton Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England. It is a market town and has a Minster (church), minster church. Its population in 2011 was 64,621. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century priory, monastic foundation, owned by the ...
, in
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, whose charter had been nullified in 1792 due to a failure to fill vacancies in the corporation, continued as a
parliamentary borough A borough is an administrative division in various English language, 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 ...
and the town was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1877.


The Royal Commission of 1876

A royal commission was appointed in 1876 which investigated the unreformed boroughs and made recommendations on which towns might be brought under the Municipal Corporations Act. The commissioners identified 75 towns with corporations still functioning, and recommended that 26 of them should be reformed, the others being abolished. They also named a further 32 towns in which the corporation had become extinct, although the boroughs still had a legal existence. Of these, 10 had ceased to operate since 1835. The commissioners’ report was not acted upon for seven years. In the meantime, one of the towns they considered suitable for municipal government,
Lewes Lewes () is the county town of East Sussex, England. The town is the administrative centre of the wider Lewes (district), district of the same name. It lies on the River Ouse, Sussex, River Ouse at the point where the river cuts through the Sou ...
was reformed, and the 1835 legislation was replaced by the
Municipal Corporations Act 1882 The Municipal Corporations Act 1882 (45 & 46 Vict. c. 50) is an Act of Parliament (UK), act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that replaced existing legislation governing municipal boroughs in England and Wales, and gave the Municipal cor ...
.


Municipal Corporations Act 1883

The Municipal Corporations Act 1883 provided for the abolition of unreformed borough corporations, unless they obtained a new charter under the 1882 legislation. Section 3 stated that “The place shall not be a corporate town or borough, and any municipal or other corporation thereof existing shall be dissolved” if a new charter had not been obtained by 29 September 1886. The first and second schedules listed the corporations investigated by the 1876 commission. The successors are
municipal borough A municipal borough was a type of local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of ...
s,
local government district Local may refer to: Geography and transportation * Local (train), a train serving local traffic demand * Local, Missouri, a community in the United States Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Local'' (comics), a limited series comic book by Bria ...
s,
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 ...
s and improvement commissioners districts. A number of the boroughs abolished in 1886 subsequently regained borough status, the earliest being Cowbridge in 1887. When such boroughs were created, however, they were entirely new creations with no claim to the former property of the abolished boroughs.


Other provisions

The 1886 Act also dealt with a number of other corporations with a status similar to boroughs: *The Confederation of the
Cinque Ports The confederation of Cinque Ports ( ) is a historic group of coastal towns in south-east England – predominantly in Kent and Sussex, with one outlier (Brightlingsea) in Essex. The name is Old French, meaning "five harbours", and alludes to ...
were to retain their privileges in those towns with a reformed corporation. Non-corporate members were to be merged with the county and hundred in which they lay geographically. The corporation of the ancient town of
Winchelsea Winchelsea () is a town in the county of East Sussex, England, located between the High Weald and the Romney Marsh, approximately south west of Rye and north east of Hastings. The current town, which was founded in 1288, replaced an earli ...
was to become a charitable trust. *The corporation of the bailiff jurats and commonalty of
Romney Marsh Romney Marsh is a sparsely populated wetland area in the counties of Kent and East Sussex in the south-east of England. It covers about . The Marsh has been in use for centuries, though its inhabitants commonly suffered from malaria until the ...
was to continue to exist, but would only exercise such non-municipal powers. *The Liberties Act 1850 would be extended to the Liberty of Havering atte Bower, allowing for its merger with the county of
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.


References


Sources

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Citations

{{DEFAULTSORT:Unreformed Boroughs In England And Wales 1835-1886 Local government in the United Kingdom Boroughs of the United Kingdom Municipal Corporations Acts