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27-523: Eton Rural District was a rural district in the administrative county of Buckinghamshire , England , covering an area in the south-east of the county. It was named after but did not contain Eton , which was an urban district . The district had its origins in the Eton Poor Law Union , which had been created in 1835, covering Eton itself and several surrounding parishes. Despite being named after Eton,

54-515: 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

81-566: A more rounded shape and had 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

108-643: 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

135-711: 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

162-565: 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

189-408: The administrative counties . In England and Wales rural districts were created in 1894 by 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

216-458: The board of guardians chose to build the workhouse for the union in Slough , with the building being completed in 1836 on Upton Lane (later renamed Albert Street). In 1872 sanitary districts were established, giving public health and local government responsibilities for rural areas to the existing boards of guardians of poor law unions. The Eton Rural Sanitary District therefore covered the area of

243-422: The council extended Denmark House, building a linking section attaching it to the neighbouring house called Abbeyfield (in between Denmark House and Apsley House), which was incorporated into the offices. The extended Denmark House then became the council's combined offices and meeting place. Apsley House was subsequently demolished around 1970 to make way for a new police station and magistrates court. The district

270-406: The council moved to Denham. Denmark House was then demolished to make way for a residential development called Aspects Court. Rural district A rural district was 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

297-538: 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

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324-516: 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 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

351-554: 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

378-587: 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

405-517: 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

432-448: The number of districts had been reduced to 473. The typical shape of 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

459-487: The offices of the solicitor who acted as clerk to the council. In 1928 the council purchased a large detached Victorian house called Denmark House on Windsor Road, Slough, at the corner with Chalvey Road. Denmark House was converted to become the council's main offices. At the same time, the firm of solicitors where the council's clerk was based moved to Apsley House, two doors along Windsor Road from Denmark House, and some council departments were based at Apsley House. In 1954

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

513-505: 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

540-435: The poor law union except for Eton itself and Slough, which both had local boards of health and so formed their own urban sanitary districts. The Eton Rural Sanitary District was administered from Eton Union Workhouse on Albert Street, Slough. Under the Local Government Act 1894 , rural sanitary districts became rural districts from 28 December 1894. The Eton Rural District Council held its first meeting on 8 January 1895 at

567-452: 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"

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594-485: The sanitary districts and poor law unions which had preceded them. Gradual urbanisation over 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

621-624: The workhouse in Slough. George Shippen Willes was appointed the first chairman of the council. It included the parishes of: Until the Second World War , the council continued to meet at the Union Workhouse in Slough, which was later renamed the Albert House public assistance institution in 1930 and subsequently became Upton Hospital in 1948. Administrative functions were generally carried out at

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

675-559: Was abolished on 1 April 1974. It was partitioned between Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire (Datchet, Horton and Wraysbury parishes) and Beaconsfield district in Buckinghamshire , with a small part of Burnham and Wexham parishes going to Slough . Beaconsfield District Council (which was renamed South Bucks District Council in 1980) used the former Eton Rural District Council's offices at Denmark House as its headquarters until 2004, when

702-486: 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

729-410: 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 ,

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