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27-795: Elstree Rural District (until 1941 called Barnet Rural District ) was a rural district in Hertfordshire , England from 1894 to 1974. The district had its origins in the Barnet Rural Sanitary District , which had been created in 1872, covering the rural parts of the Barnet Poor Law Union . Under the Local Government Act 1894 , rural sanitary districts became rural districts on 28 December 1894. Where districts straddled county boundaries, as Barnet Rural Sanitary District did, separate rural districts were to be created for

54-453: A basis for the delivery of registration from 1837, and sanitation outside urban areas from 1875. Poor law unions were abolished by the Local Government Act 1929 , which transferred responsibility for public assistance to county and county borough councils. The English Poor Laws laid out the system of poor relief that existed in England and Wales from the reign of Elizabeth I until

81-453: A farmer from Totteridge, was appointed the council's first chairman. He had previously been the chairman of the old Barnet Rural Sanitary Authority. The council continued to meet at the workhouse (later Wellhouse Hospital) until 1929, when the board room and committee rooms were needed to provide extra space for the hospital. The council left Barnet and found new offices in Borehamwood , which

108-405: A rural district was a doughnut-shaped ring around a town (which would be either an urban district or a municipal borough ). A good example of this is Melton and Belvoir Rural District , which surrounded the town of Melton Mowbray . Some rural districts were fragmented, consisting of a number of detached parts , such as Wigan Rural District . Some rural districts had a more rounded shape and had

135-537: A small town or village as the administrative centre. A few rural districts consisted of only one parish (for example, Tintwistle Rural District , Alston with Garrigill Rural District , South Mimms Rural District , King's Lynn Rural District , Disley Rural District and Crowland Rural District ). In such districts there was no separate parish council, and the rural district council exercised its functions. All rural districts in England and Wales were abolished in 1974 (by

162-643: The Great Famine , the impoverished west was redrawn to create more unions for easier administration and for computation of where suffering was most endemic. When the Irish General Register Office was established in 1864, each union became a superintendent registrar's district, thus electoral divisions together formed a dispensary or registrar's district. The Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 divided administrative counties into urban and rural districts , with each rural district corresponding to

189-711: The Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 . They were subdivided into district electoral divisions . In 1921, Ireland was partitioned with Northern Ireland remaining within the United Kingdom, and the rest of the country leaving as the Irish Free State in 1922. In the Irish Free State, rural districts outside of County Dublin were abolished in 1925 under the Local Government Act 1925 amid widespread accusations of corruption . Their functions were transferred to

216-513: The Local Government Act 1894 ( 56 & 57 Vict. c. 73) along with urban districts . They replaced the earlier system of sanitary districts (themselves based on poor law unions , but not replacing them). Each rural district had an elected rural district council (RDC), which inherited the functions of the earlier sanitary districts, but also had wider authority over matters such as local planning, council housing , and playgrounds and cemeteries. Matters such as education and major roads were

243-565: The Local Government Act 1972 ) and were typically merged with nearby urban districts or boroughs to form " districts ", which included both urban and rural areas. See Rural districts formed in England and Wales 1894–1974 for the districts created in 1894; List of rural and urban districts in England , and List of rural and urban districts in Wales for a list of rural districts at abolition in 1974. Rural districts were created in Ireland in 1899 under

270-437: The non-metropolitan district of Hertsmere on 1 April 1974. The council's former offices at 84 Shenley Road were redeveloped shortly afterwards to become a Tesco supermarket, which in turn became a cinema and leisure complex in the late 1990s. 51°40′N 00°15′W  /  51.667°N 0.250°W  / 51.667; -0.250 Rural district In England and Wales rural districts were created in 1894 by

297-543: The area of the district with 1,176 acres of Elstree, Ridge and Shenley transferred to Barnet Urban District ; 392 acres of Ridge and Shenley transferred to St Albans Rural District ; and 692 acres of Aldenham gained from Watford Rural District . The council originally met at the board room of the Barnet Union Workhouse at 17 Wellhouse Lane in Barnet, holding its first meeting there on 3 January 1895, when John Osmond,

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324-399: The council, based just around the corner at 16 Shenley Road. The council later moved to new premises at 84 Shenley Road, which were built on former tennis courts behind a row of shops at 76–92 Shenley Road. On 20 March 1957, Armorial Bearings were granted. The arms and crest are described as follows: Elstree Rural District was abolished under the Local Government Act 1972 , becoming part of

351-538: The county councils The remaining rural districts in County Dublin were similarly abolished in 1930 by the Local Government (Dublin) Act 1930 . The former boundaries of the rural districts in the Republic of Ireland continue to be used for statistical purposes and defining constituencies. In Northern Ireland, rural districts continued to exist until 1973 when they were abolished (along with all other local government of

378-554: The emergence of the modern welfare state after the Second World War. Historian Mark Blaug has argued that the Poor Law system provided "a welfare state in miniature, relieving the elderly, widows, children, the sick, the disabled, and the unemployed and underemployed". The functions of poor law unions were exercised by boards of guardians , partly elected by ratepayers , but also including magistrates . Some parishes, many in

405-463: The following decades led to some rural districts being redefined as urban districts or merging with existing urban districts or boroughs. Other rural districts proved to be too small or poor to be viable, and under the Local Government Act 1929 , 236 rural districts were abolished and merged or amalgamated into larger units. Further mergers took place over following decades and by 1965 the number of districts had been reduced to 473. The typical shape of

432-587: The metropolitan area of London, were able to avoid amalgamation into unions because of earlier local acts that regulated their poor law administration. The Metropolitan Poor Act 1867 ( 30 & 31 Vict. c. 6) allowed the Poor Law Board to include these parishes in unions. Until 1894 the guardians consisted of justices of the peace along with other members elected by rate-payers, with higher rate-payers having more votes. JPs were removed and plural voting stopped in 1894, but nobody actually receiving poor relief

459-517: The non-urban portion of a poor law union within the county. In the Irish Free State , poor law unions and rural districts were abolished in 1925 and the powers of boards of guardians transferred to the county councils' Board of Health. In Northern Ireland , poor law unions survived until the Northern Ireland Health and Social Care Service in 1948. The Poor Law in Scotland was reformed by

486-579: The old pattern) and replaced with a system of unitary districts . Rural districts also existed in the Canadian province of Newfoundland to govern certain rural communities. Under Newfoundland's Local Government Act , rural districts and towns together formed the province's municipalities. Under the Municipalities Act , effective April 1, 1980, rural districts where abolished and automatically turned into towns. Poor law union A poor law union

513-493: The parish of Arkley . The district was renamed Elstree Rural District on 28 July 1941. Over its existence the rural district consisted of the following civil parishes : Arkley was transferred into Barnet Urban District in 1905. This made Totteridge an exclave of the Barnet Rural District. Nine years later, in 1914, Totteridge was also transferred into Barnet Urban District. In 1935 a county review order amended

540-505: The parishes were grouped into unions, jointly responsible for the administration of poor relief in their areas and each governed by a board of guardians . A parish large enough to operate independently of a union was known as a poor law parish. Collectively, poor law unions and poor law parishes were known as poor law districts. The grouping of the parishes into unions caused larger centralised workhouses to be built to replace smaller facilities in each parish. Poor law unions were later used as

567-669: The parts in each county. The parish of South Mimms was in Middlesex , and became the South Mimms Rural District , whilst the rest of the Barnet Sanitary Rural District was in Hertfordshire and became the Barnet Rural District. Parishes which straddled urban and rural districts were also divided into separate urban and rural parishes, and so the old parish of Chipping Barnet was split, with its rural part becoming

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594-452: The poor law unions were finally abolished and their responsibilities transferred to the county councils and county boroughs . Under the Poor Relief (Ireland) Act 1838 , three Poor Law Commissioners divided Ireland into poor law unions, in which paupers would receive poor relief paid for by a poor rate extracted by local poor law valuations (ratings of rate payers). The name "union"

621-410: The responsibility of county councils . Until 1930 the rural district councillors were also poor law guardians for the unions of which they formed part. Each parish was represented by one or more councillors. Originally there were 787 rural districts in England and Wales, as they were based directly upon the sanitary districts and poor law unions which had preceded them. Gradual urbanisation over

648-644: Was a geographical territory, and early local government unit, in Great Britain and Ireland. Poor law unions existed in England and Wales from 1834 to 1930 for the administration of poor relief . Prior to the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 the administration of the English Poor Laws was the responsibility of the vestries of individual parishes, which varied widely in their size, populations, financial resources, rateable values and requirements. From 1834

675-486: Was adopted from the English model although boundaries were unrelated to civil parishes . A union was named after the town on which it was centred, usually where its workhouse stood. Unions were defined as groups of poor law electoral divisions , in turn groups of townlands . Electoral divisions returned members (guardians) to the board of guardians, to which ratepayers who paid higher rates had more votes . During and after

702-410: Was allowed to vote. Their areas were espoused for other functional districts, such as civil registration of all births, marriages and deaths which became law from 1837 and rural sanitary districts established in 1875. In 1894 rural districts and urban districts were set up based on the sanitary districts (and therefore indirectly on the unions). In 1930, under the Local Government Act 1929 ,

729-433: Was rapidly developing into a small town, associated with the growth of Elstree Studios there. The council acquired a former Baptist Chapel at 1 Station Road, which had been built in 1894 and had briefly served as Borehamwood's first cinema, "The Gem", between 1914 and c.   1917. The small building was not large enough for the council and some functions were carried out at the offices of the solicitor who acted as clerk to

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