125-477: Melksham Without is a civil parish in the county of Wiltshire , England. It surrounds, but does not include, the town of Melksham and is the largest rural parish in Wiltshire, with a population of 7,230 (as of 2011) and an area of 29 square kilometres (7,200 acres). The parish includes the villages of Beanacre , Berryfield , Shaw and Whitley , and the hamlets of Outmarsh and Redstocks . It also includes
250-522: A London borough . (Since the new county was beforehand a mixture of metropolitan boroughs , municipal boroughs and urban districts, no extant parish councils were abolished.) In 1974, the Local Government Act 1972 retained rural parishes, but abolished most urban parishes, as well as the urban districts and boroughs which had administered them. Provision was made for smaller urban districts and boroughs to become successor parishes , with
375-417: 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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes , which for centuries were the principal unit of secular and religious administration in most of England and Wales. Civil and religious parishes were formally split into two types in
500-515: A Special Expense, to residents of the unparished area to fund those activities. If the district council does not opt to make a Special Expenses charge, there is an element of double taxation of residents of parished areas, because services provided to residents of the unparished area are funded by council tax paid by residents of the whole district, rather than only by residents of the unparished area. Parish councils comprise volunteer councillors who are elected to serve for four years. Decisions of
625-576: A boundary coterminous with an existing urban district or borough or, if divided by a new district boundary, as much as was comprised in a single district. There were 300 such successor parishes established. In urban areas that were considered too large to be single parishes, the parishes were simply abolished, and they became unparished areas . The distinction between types of parish was no longer made; whether parishes continued by virtue of being retained rural parishes or were created as successor parishes, they were all simply termed parishes. The 1972 act allowed
750-630: A branch line connection. The branch was worked by the GWR. The following year Shepton Mallet gained its railway connection: the East Somerset Railway opened its line from Witham on 9 November 1858. This was extended to Wells on 1 March 1862. Eventually this branch was able to connect through to Yatton at the beginning of 1878. The 1846 act of Parliament authorising the Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway had included powers to connect to
875-477: A city council (though most cities are not parishes but principal areas, or in England specifically metropolitan boroughs or non-metropolitan districts ). The chairman of a town council will have the title "town mayor" and that of a parish council which is a city will usually have the title of mayor . When a city or town has been abolished as a borough, and it is considered desirable to maintain continuity of
1000-462: A city council. According to the Department for Communities and Local Government , in England in 2011 there were 9,946 parishes. Since 1997 around 100 new civil parishes have been created, in some cases by splitting existing civil parishes, but mostly by creating new ones from unparished areas. Parish or town councils have very few statutory duties (things they are required to do by law) but have
1125-559: A city was Hereford , whose city council was merged in 1998 to form a unitary Herefordshire . The area of the city of Hereford remained unparished until 2000 when a parish council was created for the city. As another example, the charter trustees for the City of Bath make up the majority of the councillors on Bath and North East Somerset Council. Civil parishes cover 35% of England's population, with one in Greater London and few in
1250-481: A civil parish which has no parish council, the parish meeting may levy a council tax precept for expenditure relating to specific functions, powers and rights which have been conferred on it by legislation. In places where there is no civil parish ( unparished areas ), the administration of the activities normally undertaken by the parish becomes the responsibility of the district or borough council. The district council may make an additional council tax charge, known as
1375-432: A full locomotive, they saved time at terminals by not needing to run round. They were equipped with retractable steps and were able to make calls at places with no platform, or only a very low one. They were operated between Dorchester and Weymouth, and new halts were opened for them at Upwey Wishing Well , Came Bridge and Radipole . Upwey Wishing Well was opened on 28 May 1905, and the other two on 1 July 1905. Came Bridge
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#17327811671181500-632: A line in the 1846 session. However the frenzy of projecting railways at this time was such that the Kennet and Avon Canal proposed laying broad gauge tracks on each side of their canal; this would be the London, Newbury and Bath Direct Railway . It may have been a startling scheme, but it passed its second reading in Parliament in the 1846 session, when the Berks and Hants Railway Bill was thrown out. However
1625-529: A new code. In either case the code must comply with the Nolan Principles of Public Life . A parish can be granted city status by the Crown . As of 2020 , eight parishes in England have city status, each having a long-established Anglican cathedral: Chichester , Ely , Hereford , Lichfield , Ripon , Salisbury , Truro and Wells . The council of an ungrouped parish may pass a resolution giving
1750-431: A new smaller manor, there was a means of making a chapel which, if generating or endowed with enough funds, would generally justify foundation of a parish, with its own parish priest (and in latter centuries vestry ). This consistency was a result of canon law which prized the status quo in issues between local churches and so made boundary changes and sub-division difficult. The consistency of these boundaries until
1875-509: A new terminus at Fisherton Street . At this time the LSWR was still using its Milford terminus, on the other edge of the city. The original impetus for a Salisbury line was access to Southampton over the LSWR, but relations with that company were no longer amicable. Frome to Yeovil opened on 1 September 1856, and Colonel Yolland inspected the Yeovil to Weymouth section on 15 January 1857. There
2000-750: A parish (a "detached part") was in a different county . In other cases, counties surrounded a whole parish meaning it was in an unconnected, "alien" county. These anomalies resulted in a highly localised difference in applicable representatives on the national level , justices of the peace , sheriffs, bailiffs with inconvenience to the inhabitants. If a parish was split then churchwardens, highway wardens and constables would also spend more time or money travelling large distances. Some parishes straddled two or more counties, such as Todmorden in Lancashire and Yorkshire. Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway The Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway (WS&WR)
2125-416: A parish council, and instead will only have a parish meeting : an example of direct democracy . Alternatively several small parishes can be grouped together and share a common parish council, or even a common parish meeting. A parish council may decide to call itself a town council, village council, community council, neighbourhood council, or if the parish has city status, the parish council may call itself
2250-431: A population in excess of 100,000 . This scope is similar to that of municipalities in continental Europe, such as the communes of France . However, unlike their continental European counterparts, parish councils are not principal authorities , and in most cases have a relatively minor role in local government. As of September 2023 , there are 10,464 parishes in England, and in 2020 they covered approximately 40% of
2375-503: A population of between 100 and 300 could request their county council to establish a parish council. Provision was also made for a grouped parish council to be established covering two or more rural parishes. In such groups, each parish retained its own parish meeting which could vote to leave the group, but otherwise the grouped parish council acted across the combined area of the parishes included. Urban civil parishes were not given their own parish councils, but were directly administered by
2500-487: A possible extension to Exeter along the coast. These riches never materialised and the line simply ran from Upwey Junction to Abbotsbury . It was worked by the GWR. In 1895 the north curve at Bradford Junction was opened, allowing through running from the Limpley Stoke direction towards Melksham . Exceptionally severe frost had caused damage to the lining of Box Tunnel and the extensive repair work necessitated
2625-438: A railway. The LSWR proposed a line from Basingstoke to Swindon , and at this time there was intense rivalry between them and the GWR to control territory: the railway that was first to have a line in an area would have an enormous competitive advantage there, and could often use that line as a base to extend further. The GWR was building its lines on the 7 ft 1 ⁄ 4 in ( 2,140 mm ) broad gauge and
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#17327811671182750-1079: A range of discretionary powers which they may exercise voluntarily. These powers have been defined by various pieces of legislation. The role they play can vary significantly depending on the size, resources and ability of the council, but their activities can include any of the following: Parish councils have powers to provide and manage various local facilities; these can include allotments , cemeteries, parks, playgrounds, playing fields and village greens , village halls or community centres , bus shelters, street lighting, roadside verges, car parks, footpaths, litter bins and war memorials. Larger parish councils may also be involved in running markets , public toilets and public clocks, museums and leisure centres . Parish councils may spend money on various things they deem to be beneficial to their communities, such as providing grants to local community groups or local projects, or fund things such as public events, crime prevention measures, community transport schemes, traffic calming or tourism promotion. Parish councils have
2875-409: A role in the planning system; they have a statutory right to be consulted on any planning applications in their areas. They may also produce a neighbourhood plan to influence local development. The Localism Act 2011 allowed eligible parish councils to be granted a " general power of competence " which allows them within certain limits the freedom to do anything an individual can do provided it
3000-594: A route (now a public footpath) to Broughton Gifford . The Kennet and Avon Canal was built in the south of the parish by 1804 and fully opened in 1810. In the same year the Wilts & Berks Canal opened, having been built through the parish from its connection with the K&;A near Semington . After passing through the eastern side of Melksham town the canal continued north through the parish towards Chippenham , Swindon and Abingdon . Both canals fell into decline following
3125-598: A set number of guardians for each parish, hence a final purpose of urban civil parishes. With the abolition of the Poor Law system in 1930, urban parishes became a geographical division only with no administrative power; that was exercised at the urban district or borough council level. In 1965 civil parishes in London were formally abolished when Greater London was created, as the legislative framework for Greater London did not make provision for any local government body below
3250-483: A single broad-gauge track, laid on transverse sleepers, apparently adopted by Brunel as an experiment. This section joined the original WS&WR main line at Bradford Junction, a little north of Trowbridge; Bradford itself was north of Bradford Junction, that is, on the new section of route. Finally, on 1 July 1857 the Devizes branch was opened, from Holt , north of Trowbridge. The Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth network
3375-943: A small village or town ward to a large tract of mostly uninhabited moorland in the Cheviots, Pennines or Dartmoor. The two largest as at December 2023 are Stanhope (County Durham) at 98.6 square miles (255 km ), and Dartmoor Forest (Devon) at 79.07 square miles (204.8 km ). The two smallest are parcels of shared rural land: Lands Common to Axminster and Kilmington (Devon) at 0.012 square miles (0.031 km ; 3.1 ha; 7.7 acres), and Lands Common to Brancepeth and Brandon and Byshottles (County Durham) at 0.0165 square miles (0.043 km ; 4.3 ha; 10.6 acres). The next two smallest are parishes in built up areas: Chester Castle (Cheshire) at 0.0168 square miles (0.044 km ; 4.4 ha; 10.8 acres) (no recorded population) and Hamilton Lea (Leicestershire) at 0.07 square miles (0.18 km ; 18 ha; 45 acres) (1,021 residents at
3500-521: A spur to the creation of new parishes in some larger towns which were previously unparished, in order to retain a local tier of government; examples include Shrewsbury (2009), Salisbury (2009), Crewe (2013) and Weymouth (2019). In 2003 seven new parish councils were set up for Burton upon Trent , and in 2001 the Milton Keynes urban area became entirely parished, with ten new parishes being created. Parishes can also be abolished where there
3625-422: A writ of mandamus , to compel opening to their towns. The GWR was able to state honestly that shortage of money was a problem and could not simply be overcome. Devizes lost, but the writ for Bradford was made absolute at the end of 1852, obliging the GWR to complete to Bathampton through Bradford, and forbidding payment of dividends after two years until they did so. (In fact the construction proved so difficult that
3750-507: Is at present the only part of England where civil parishes cannot be created. If enough electors in the area of a proposed new parish (ranging from 50% in an area with less than 500 electors to 10% in one with more than 2,500) sign a petition demanding its creation, then the local district council or unitary authority must consider the proposal. Since the beginning of the 21st century, numerous parish councils have been created, including some relatively large urban ones. The main driver has been
3875-539: Is evidence that this is in response to "justified, clear and sustained local support" from the area's inhabitants. Examples are Birtley , which was abolished in 2006, and Southsea , abolished in 2010. Every civil parish has a parish meeting, which all the electors of the parish are entitled to attend. Generally a meeting is held once a year. A civil parish may have a parish council which exercises various local responsibilities prescribed by statute. Parishes with fewer than 200 electors are usually deemed too small to have
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4000-405: Is not prohibited by other legislation, as opposed to being limited to the powers explicitly granted to them by law. To be eligible for this, a parish council must meet certain conditions such as having a clerk with suitable qualifications. Parish councils receive funding by levying a " precept " on the council tax paid by the residents of the parish (or parishes) served by the parish council. In
4125-602: Is part of the Melksham Without West and Rural division. Each division elects one member of Wiltshire Council. For Westminster elections, the parish is part of the Melksham and Devizes constituency. The parish has one Grade I listed building: Beanacre Old Manor, west of what is now the A350, has a timber-framed hall from the late 14th century, with many additions and alterations in later centuries. Close by to
4250-517: The Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway Act 1845 ( 8 & 9 Vict. c. liii), on 30 June 1845. It was to be on the same broad gauge as the GWR network, and to run from near Chippenham to Salisbury , with branches to Weymouth, Dorset , Sherborne , Devizes and Bradford-on-Avon , and a coal branch to Radstock . In the same session, authorising acts were passed for the Berks and Hants Railway ( Reading to Hungerford and Basingstoke , sponsored by
4375-504: The 'Standards Board regime' with local monitoring by district, unitary or equivalent authorities. Under new regulations which came into effect in 2012 all parish councils in England are required to adopt a code of conduct with which parish councillors must comply, and to promote and maintain high standards. A new criminal offence of failing to comply with statutory requirements was introduced. More than one 'model code' has been published, and councils are free to modify an existing code or adopt
4500-489: The Abbotsbury branch opened in 1885, its junction was south of Upwey and faced Weymouth; on 19 April 1886 an Upwey Junction station was opened to serve it, and the earlier Upwey station was closed. In 1905 the GWR introduced its steam railmotors as a response to the rising threat of motor bus competition. These were single passenger coaches incorporating a small steam locomotive within the body at one end; cheaper than
4625-665: The Board of Trade determined the relative merits of competing proposals, and the huge stakes meant that it was crucial to secure their approval; it was reported in the London Gazette on 31 Dec 1844 that the Board of Trade were supportive of the WS&;WR scheme, provided the GWR sought to construct a connecting line from Bath to join the WS&WR. The GWR immediately undertook to apply for an act of Parliament giving authority for such
4750-1010: The Local Government Act 1894 ( 56 & 57 Vict. c. 73) to become the smallest geographical area for local government in rural areas. The act abolished the civil (non-ecclesiastical) duties of vestries . Parishes which straddled county boundaries or sanitary districts had to be split so that the part in each urban or rural sanitary district became a separate parish (see List of county exclaves in England and Wales 1844–1974 ). The sanitary districts were then reconstituted as urban districts and rural districts , with parishes that fell within urban districts classed as urban parishes, and parishes that fell within rural districts were classed as rural parishes. The 1894 act established elected civil parish councils as to all rural parishes with more than 300 electors, and established annual parish meetings in all rural parishes. Civil parishes were grouped to form either rural or urban districts which are thereafter classified as either type. The parish meetings for parishes with
4875-462: The London and Southampton Railway had opened in 1840; and its successor the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) was extending westwards. The advantage to communities connected to the new railways was immediately apparent; in contrast, places remote from these lines felt strongly the disadvantage at which they were placed. The areas of south-west Wiltshire were prosperous from sheep farming and wool manufacture, and quickly saw that they too needed
5000-793: The Second Boer War flared up. The War Office increased the training facilities on Salisbury Plain , in many places alongside the Salisbury line. After the Boer War was settled, tension in Europe developed, leading to the First World War , and special facilities were provided on the line: additional siding accommodation was needed and goods loops, as well as branch lines from Heytesbury to Sutton Veny Camp, and from Codford to Codford Camp . Most of these facilities were removed at
5125-472: The break with Rome , parishes managed ecclesiastical matters, while the manor was the principal unit of local administration and justice. Later, the church replaced the manor court as the rural administrative centre, and levied a local tax on produce known as a tithe . In the medieval period, responsibilities such as relief of the poor passed increasingly from the lord of the manor to the parish's rector , who in practice would delegate tasks among his vestry or
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5250-595: The lord of the manor , but not all were willing and able to provide, so residents would be expected to attend the church of the nearest manor with a church. Later, the churches and priests became to a greater extent the responsibility of the Catholic Church thus this was formalised; the grouping of manors into one parish was recorded, as was a manor-parish existing in its own right. Boundaries changed little, and for centuries after 1180 'froze', despite changes to manors' extents. However, by subinfeudation , making
5375-403: The monarch ). A civil parish may be equally known as and confirmed as a town, village, neighbourhood or community by resolution of its parish council, a right not conferred on other units of English local government. The governing body of a civil parish is usually an elected parish council (which can decide to call itself a town, village, community or neighbourhood council, or a city council if
5500-536: The "holiday line" to Devon and Cornwall . The network was already a major trunk route for coal from South Wales coalfields to southern England, and for Channel Islands farm produce imported through Weymouth Harbour , as well as providing a boat train route, and carrying flows from Bristol to Southampton and Portsmouth . Much of the network is in operation today, but the Devizes and Radstock branches have closed. The Great Western Railway (GWR) had opened its main line from London to Bristol in 1841, and
5625-470: The (often well-endowed) monasteries. After the dissolution of the monasteries , the power to levy a rate to fund relief of the poor was conferred on the parish authorities by the Poor Relief Act 1601 . Both before and after this optional social change, local (vestry-administered) charities are well-documented. The parish authorities were known as vestries and consisted of all the ratepayers of
5750-403: The 19th century and are now entirely separate. Civil parishes in their modern form came into being through the Local Government Act 1894 ( 56 & 57 Vict. c. 73), which established elected parish councils to take on the secular functions of the parish vestry . A civil parish can range in size from a sparsely populated rural area with fewer than a hundred inhabitants, to a large town with
5875-564: The 19th century is useful to historians, and is also of cultural significance in terms of shaping local identities; reinforced by the use of grouped parish boundaries, often, by successive local authority areas; and in a very rough, operations-geared way by most postcode districts. There was (and is) wide disparity in parish size. Writtle , Essex traditionally measures 13,568 acres (21 sq mi) – two parishes neighbouring are Shellow Bowells at 469 acres (0.7 sq mi), and Chignall Smealy at 476 acres (0.7 sq mi) Until
6000-591: The 2011 census, Newland with Woodhouse Moor and Beaumont Chase reported inhabitants, and there were no new deserted parishes recorded. Nearly all instances of detached parts of civil parishes (areas not contiguous with the main part of the parish) and of those straddling counties have been ended. 14 examples remain in England as at 2022, including Barnby Moor and Wallingwells , both in Nottinghamshire. Direct predecessors of civil parishes are most often known as "ancient parishes", although many date only from
6125-511: The 2021 census). The 2001 census recorded several parishes with no inhabitants. These were Chester Castle (in the middle of Chester city centre), Newland with Woodhouse Moor , Beaumont Chase , Martinsthorpe , Meering , Stanground North (subsequently abolished), Sturston , Tottington , and Tyneham (subsequently merged). The lands of the last three were taken over by the Armed Forces during World War II and remain deserted. In
6250-511: The Board of Trade assented to this addition; this added £350,000 to the capital required: it would now cost £1 million. A month later, at a meeting in Frome on 23 October 1844, the B&;ER announced that it had decided to alter the route of its Weymouth branch, running from Durston much further south through Bridport , with a branch to Yeovil. The Yeovil to Weymouth section would not be built, so
6375-570: The English population. For historical reasons, civil parishes predominantly cover rural areas and smaller urban areas, with most larger urban areas being wholly or partly unparished ; but since 1997 it has been possible for civil parishes to be created within unparished areas if demanded by local residents . In 2007 the right to create civil parishes was extended to London boroughs , although only one, Queen's Park , has so far been created. Eight parishes also have city status (a status granted by
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#17327811671186500-427: The GWR and the LSWR at times, and its loss to the narrow gauge camp was a blow to the GWR. That company had always intended that the WS&WR should be part of a through main line to Exeter , and was now considering how that might be created; as its construction would put the friendly B&ER at a disadvantage, the GWR proposed purchasing the B&ER, an offer that was rejected. The GWR now actively planned its line to
6625-522: The GWR applied for, and obtained, an extension of time beyond the two years.) Momentum had been lost—but a lot of money spent—since the original passage of the WS&WR Act of 1846, but there was no alternative to pressing on: the LSWR now had Weymouth in its sights via the Southampton and Dorchester Railway , and it was important to the GWR to secure primacy there. The long onward route from Frome to Weymouth now seemed unattractive. In anticipation of
6750-399: The GWR promoted two nominally independent lines, the Berks and Hants Railway and the Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway. At the first meeting of the nascent GWR company on 9 July 1844, Charles Alexander Saunders, secretary of the GWR, suggested that the necessary sum of £650,000 could be secured on a GWR guarantee; the GWR would be the lessee of the line, and would directly subscribe half of
6875-558: The GWR) and the Taunton to Yeovil branch of the B&ER. The routes of the line had been designed in some haste, and after passage of the act a number of modifications were decided upon; the initially planned GWR route for connecting Bath to the WS&WR had been from the Radstock branch to Twerton , west of Bath, but on 7 October 1845 Isambard Kingdom Brunel , engineer to the GWR and
7000-492: The Kennet and Avon company was evidently bought off by the GWR, for they dropped their scheme; their minutes of 9 September 1846 record the first instalment of £5,000 having been received in payment. Having deliberated, the Board of Trade announced their decision: they found in favour of the WS&WR scheme, rejecting the LSWR's Swindon line. The Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway obtained its authorising act of Parliament ,
7125-546: The LSWR Yeovil Junction station. The exchange station, called Clifton Maybank, was needed because of the gauge difference : goods had to be shifted from wagons of one gauge to wagons of the other. It opened on 13 June 1864. The Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway had been built to be part of the Great Western Railway system, and as such used broad-gauge track. In 1874 the GWR decided that it
7250-459: The LSWR and the GWR. The standard-gauge Salisbury and Yeovil Railway opened to Yeovil on 1 June 1860; although this was an independent company, the line was part of the LSWR's strategy of reaching the West of England, and on 19 July 1860 the LSWR continuation from Yeovil towards Exeter opened. The GWR built a branch from near their Yeovil station to a goods exchange station at Clifton Maybank , near
7375-420: The LSWR on what is now the 4 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ( 1,435 mm ) standard gauge (referred to at the time as "narrow gauge"), and they were anxious to ensure that any new independent railway should be on their own preferred track gauge; this rivalry is characterised as the " gauge wars ". The proposed LSWR line to Swindon, the heart of GWR territory, was met with furious opposition, and
7500-465: The LSWR £16,309, and it is likely that the broad gauge rail was never used. The Bristol and Exeter Railway had opened its line to Yeovil (from Taunton ) on 1 October 1853, but its station was at Hendford , on the west side of the town; on 2 February 1857 they opened a connecting line from Hendford to the WS&WR Yeovil station. The GWR pressed ahead with the Bradford to Bathampton section; forming
7625-605: The WS&WR added that to their own scheme: the capital cost was now to be £1.5 million. The cities of Bath and Bristol felt left out of these connections to the South Coast, and the Taunton Courier recorded that a deputation of merchants and traders of Bristol had gone to the Great Western Board; they were not warmly received, and They did obtain that Board's direct admission ... that it
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#17327811671187750-579: The WS&WR, reported that a better route was through the Avon valley from Bradford to Bathampton , east of Bath. The course of the WS&WR between Frome and Bruton was modified to make it more suited to main line running; this change, and an extension to the quay at Weymouth, were authorised by the Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway (Amendment) Act 1846 ( 9 & 10 Vict. c. cccxiii) of 3 August 1846. Next, insurmountable difficulties were discovered over
7875-536: The Westbury junction, diverging before reaching the Frome station, so a west-to-north curve was laid in, and when it was ready, passenger trains operated from Frome to Bristol via Radstock from 5 July 1875. The line between Thingley Junction and Frome was already double track, and the Yeovil Pen Mill to Evershot section had been doubled in 1858, but the rest was single. The Dorchester to Weymouth section
8000-505: The Wilts, Somerset & Weymouth company. Money was difficult to find even for the GWR, and attention was given to reaching places that might bring in extra traffic without great expenditure in getting there. Frome, on the edge of the Somerset coalfield, was such a place, and the line was built there from Westbury. Captain R. W. Lufman of the Board of Trade inspected the section from Westbury to Frome, and approved it, and it opened to
8125-738: The administration of the poor laws was the main civil function of parishes, the Poor Law Amendment Act 1866 , which received royal assent on 10 August 1866, declared all areas that levied a separate rate or had their own overseer of the poor to be parishes. This included the Church of England parishes (until then simply known as "parishes"), extra-parochial areas , townships and chapelries . To have collected rates this means these beforehand had their own vestries, boards or equivalent bodies. Parishes using this definition subsequently became known as "civil parishes" to distinguish them from
8250-512: The arrival of railways in their town, the Borough of Weymouth changed from local solar time to railway time on 1 January 1852, a move that was rather premature. At last the mineral branch from Frome to Radstock, just over 8 miles long, was opened on 14 November 1854. The 19 + 1 ⁄ 2 miles (31 km) of the Salisbury branch from Warminster was at last opened on 30 June 1856, to
8375-638: The arrival of the railways in the 1840s, and the closure of the Somerset Coal Canal (which provided much of their traffic) in 1904. In 1848 the Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway company built their line through the parish, to link the Swindon-Bath line (near Chippenham) with Westbury via Melksham and Trowbridge ; the line was handed over to the Great Western Railway in 1850 and is still in use. From 1905 to 1955 there
8500-435: The capital. The Bristol and Exeter Railway (B&ER), a broad gauge line friendly to the GWR, was proposing a line to Weymouth from its own main line at Durston , west of Bridgwater , and the WS&WR promoters decided to add a branch to their own line from Frome to Yeovil to meet the B&ER line there, forming a large triangle and making (with the GWR line) a direct route from London to Weymouth. In September 1844
8625-399: The charter, the charter may be transferred to a parish council for its area. Where there is no such parish council, the district council may appoint charter trustees to whom the charter and the arms of the former borough will belong. The charter trustees (who consist of the councillor or councillors for the area of the former borough) maintain traditions such as mayoralty . An example of such
8750-486: The company was unable to fund continuing construction work. Only the large, established railway companies with an actual income could raise money, and as the pressure increased, the directors realised that the only way forward was to sell their line to the GWR. That decision was taken by them in October 1849, and the transfer took place on 14 March 1850; it was confirmed by an act of Parliament on 3 July 1851, which dissolved
8875-537: The council are carried out by a paid officer, typically known as a parish clerk. Councils may employ additional people (including bodies corporate, provided where necessary, by tender) to carry out specific tasks dictated by the council. Some councils have chosen to pay their elected members an allowance, as permitted under part 5 of the Local Authorities (Members' Allowances) (England) Regulations 2003. The number of councillors varies roughly in proportion to
9000-464: The council of the urban district or borough in which they were contained. Many urban parishes were coterminous (geographically identical) with the urban district or municipal borough in which they lay. Towns which included multiple urban parishes often consolidated the urban parishes into one. The urban parishes continued to be used as an electoral area for electing guardians to the poor law unions . The unions took in areas in multiple parishes and had
9125-466: The council will an election be held. However, sometimes there are fewer candidates than seats. When this happens, the vacant seats have to be filled by co-option by the council. If a vacancy arises for a seat mid-term, an election is only held if a certain number (usually ten) of parish residents request an election. Otherwise the council will co-opt someone to be the replacement councillor. The Localism Act 2011 introduced new arrangements which replaced
9250-525: The creation of town and parish councils is encouraged in unparished areas . The Local Government and Rating Act 1997 created a procedure which gave residents in unparished areas the right to demand that a new parish and parish council be created. This right was extended to London boroughs by the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 – with this, the City of London
9375-550: The cut-off line, from Reading to Taunton via Westbury, was opened, it ran through Westbury and Frome stations. Westbury was not originally aligned for an east–west main line, and Frome station was on an awkward curve; there was a 30 mph (48 km/h) speed restriction at both places for West of England and Weymouth trains, and at Westbury they conflicted with the heavy coal traffic from the Trowbridge line towards Salisbury. The Developments (Loan Guarantees and Grants) Act 1929
9500-463: The desire to have a more local tier of government when new larger authorities have been created, which are felt to be remote from local concerns and identity. A number of parishes have been created in places which used to have their own borough or district council; examples include Daventry (2003), Folkestone (2004), Kidderminster (2015) and Sutton Coldfield (2016). The trend towards the creation of geographically large unitary authorities has been
9625-517: The directors took the decision to start work. This was to be a trunk main line, and the first task was to double the line east of Patney, which had been built as the Berks and Hants Extension Railway , and to build a new line from Patney to meet the WS&WR line at Westbury, the Stert and Westbury cut-off . This was started in 1895, and goods traffic first ran on the route on 29 July 1900, followed by local passenger trains on 1 October. This shortened
9750-526: The distance from Paddington to Westbury, and therefore to Yeovil and Weymouth, by over 14 miles (23 km). As part of the work, Westbury station was much extended, as its status as a junction station becoming more important. The next phase of work was to construct the Langport cut-off , which ran west from Castle Cary to join the Bristol and Exeter line northeast of Taunton. This was opened in stages: it
9875-439: The ecclesiastical parishes. The Church of England parishes, which cover more than 99% of England, have become officially (and to avoid ambiguity) termed ecclesiastical parishes . The limits of many of these have diverged; most greatly through changes in population and church attendance (these factors can cause churches to be opened or closed). Since 1921, each has been the responsibility of its own parochial church council . In
10000-487: The end of the war. The railmotors were successful, but they had the limitation that they were unable to cope with peaks of traffic, or to run longer distances, and by 1922 the fleet was substantially reduced, and many were withdrawn in 1935. There was a continuing need to respond to local passenger traffic, heightened as improved roads made motor buses more efficient, and in the 1930s a number of halts were opened south of Yeovil, and also Strap Lane Halt near Bruton . When
10125-534: The established English Church, which for a few years after Henry VIII alternated between the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England , before settling on the latter on the accession of Elizabeth I in 1558. By the 18th century, religious membership was becoming more fractured in some places, due in part to the progress of Methodism . The legitimacy of the parish vestry came into question, and
10250-455: The government at the time of the Local Government Act 1972 discouraged their creation for large towns or their suburbs, but there is generally nothing to stop their establishment. For example, Birmingham has two parishes ( New Frankley and Sutton Coldfield ), Oxford has four, and the Milton Keynes urban area has 24. Parishes could not however be established in London until the law was changed in 2007. A civil parish can range in area from
10375-584: The harbour at Weymouth, but any such branch extension was forgotten. A local company, the Weymouth and Portland Railway was authorised to build a branch onto the Isle of Portland , with a street tramway from Weymouth station to the Channel Islands quay. The line was opened on 18 October 1865; locomotives were prohibited on the tramway to the quay, and horse traction was used; the line was leased jointly to
10500-420: The hilly route between Dorchester and Weymouth, and a major deviation was needed there; this had to be authorised in the 1847 parliamentary session (on 25 June 1847) so that much time had been lost before construction could start there. By now the Southampton and Dorchester Railway , friendly to the LSWR, had reached Dorchester (on 1 June 1847). The line had been independently promoted, and it had wooed both
10625-439: The junction at Thingley was laid out so that trains reversed into a siding before continuing on the Westbury line. At the same time the spur from Staverton , north of Trowbridge, to Bradford-on-Avon was physically completed, but rails were not laid and it was not presented for opening, so it lay unused for the time being. In this period, actually obtaining money that had been subscribed was proving exceptionally difficult, and
10750-476: The late 19th century, most of the "ancient" (a legal term equivalent to time immemorial ) irregularities inherited by the civil parish system were cleaned up, and the majority of exclaves were abolished. The census of 1911 noted that 8,322 (58%) of "parishes" in England and Wales were not geographically identical when comparing the civil to the ecclesiastical form. In 1894, civil parishes were reformed by
10875-402: The line under Dundas Aqueduct for the Kennet and Avon Canal proved particularly difficult. Yolland visited for an inspection on 16 January 1857. He found numerous shortcomings with the track, signalling and buildings and he refused opening. However he reinspected a fortnight later, and the faults had evidently been rectified, for he approved the opening: it took place on 2 February 1857. It was
11000-438: The line was constructed via Melksham and Trowbridge as far as Westbury . It was inspected by the Board of Trade inspector on 26 August 1848 and approved for opening. After a trial trip for the directors on 2 September, this section was opened to the public on 5 September 1848. At this date, before the introduction of interlocking signalling, facing junctions on the main line were regarded as potentially dangerous, and therefore
11125-537: The line, the GWR created a Frome, Yeovil and Weymouth Railway company which was authorised by an act of Parliament of 30 June 1852 to complete that route: its capital was to be £550,000 with borrowing powers of £183,000. The intention evidently was to arouse local interest—and money—but the latter was not forthcoming and the company was dissolved without achieving anything. The railway was now open from Thingley Junction, Chippenham, to Frome and Warminster. The authorised spur to Bradford-on-Avon had been built in 1848, before
11250-465: The mid 19th century. Using a longer historical lens the better terms are "pre-separation (civil and ecclesiastical) parish", "original medieval parishes" and "new parishes". The Victoria County History , a landmark collaborative work mostly written in the 20th century (although incomplete), summarises the history of each English "parish", roughly meaning late medieval parish. A minority of these had exclaves , which could be: In some cases an exclave of
11375-410: The narrow gauge Bristol and North Somerset Railway , which had reached Radstock in 1873. It too had seen coal traffic as it main purpose, but it was a passenger railway too. Now that the break of gauge had been eliminated (by the conversion of the Frome to Radstock branch), the two lines could be worked together, and a passenger service was started from Frome. The original mineral line had a junction from
11500-455: The network was complete in 1857. In the early years of the 20th century the GWR wanted to shorten its route from London to the West of England and built "cut-off" lines in succession to link part of the WS&WR network, so that by 1906 the express trains ran over the Westbury to Castle Cary section. In 1933 further improvements were made, and that part of the line was established as part of
11625-465: The new district councils (outside London) to review their parishes, and many areas left unparished in 1972 have since been made parishes, either in whole or part. For example, Hinckley , whilst entirely unparished in 1974, now has four civil parishes, which together cover part of its area, whilst the central part of the town remains unparished. Some parishes were sub-divided into smaller territories known as hamlets , tithings or townships . Nowadays
11750-568: The night-time and Sunday diversion of London–Bristol trains, involving reversal at Westbury or Trowbridge. The new curve was hastily laid in on the earthworks of the original 1857 Devizes branch, and it opened on 11 March 1895. The GWR, the Bristol and Exeter Railway and the South Devon Railway had long since amalgamated, and there was an important through route from London Paddington to Taunton , Exeter and Plymouth . However
11875-488: The other conurbations. Civil parishes vary greatly in population: some have populations below 100 and have no settlement larger than a hamlet , while others cover towns with populations of tens of thousands. Weston-super-Mare , with a population of 71,758, is the most populous civil parish. In many cases small settlements, today popularly termed villages , localities or suburbs, are in a single parish which originally had one church. Large urban areas are mostly unparished, as
12000-605: The outer Melksham suburbs of Bowerhill and The Spa , and the dispersed settlement of Sandridge which includes Sandridge Common. The northern boundary of the parish is the Roman road from Silchester to Bath ; downstream from Melksham the Bristol Avon forms the southwestern boundary, and parts of the southern boundary are the Semington Brook and the Kennet and Avon Canal . The Local Government Act of 1894 created
12125-448: The parish has city status). Alternatively, in parishes with small populations (typically fewer than 150 electors) governance may be by a parish meeting which all electors may attend; alternatively, parishes with small populations may be grouped with one or more neighbours under a common parish council. Wales was also divided into civil parishes until 1974, when they were replaced by communities , which are similar to English parishes in
12250-408: The parish of Melksham Without, dividing the ancient parish of Melksham into an urban area (Melksham Within) and a rural area (Melksham Without). The latter consists of the ancient settlements of Beanacre , Shaw and Whitley , surrounding Melksham Within on all sides except the west. Until the 17th century, the area to the east was royal forest, and this part is lightly populated and agricultural. To
12375-476: The parish shares some land in common with the parish of Broughton Gifford , namely farmland to the north of Holbrook Farm, bounded to the west by the Avon. The parish spans three electoral divisions. The north of the parish is part of Melksham Without North and Shurnold division, while the east and south are part of Bowerhill division; both divisions also extend to parts of Melksham town. In the south-west, Berryfield
12500-401: The parish the status of a town, at which point the council becomes a town council . Around 400 parish councils are called town councils. Under the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 , a civil parish may be given one of the following alternative styles: As a result, a parish council can be called a town council, a community council, a village council or occasionally
12625-404: The parish. As the number of ratepayers of some parishes grew, it became increasingly difficult to convene meetings as an open vestry. In some, mostly built-up, areas the select vestry took over responsibility from the entire body of ratepayers. This innovation improved efficiency, but allowed governance by a self-perpetuating elite. The administration of the parish system relied on the monopoly of
12750-562: The parish; the church rate ceased to be levied in many parishes and became voluntary from 1868. During the 17th century it was found that the 1601 Poor Law did not work well for very large parishes, which were particularly common in northern England. Such parishes were typically subdivided into multiple townships , which levied their rates separately. The Poor Relief Act 1662 therefore directed that for poor law purposes 'parish' meant any place which maintained its own poor, thereby converting many townships into separate 'poor law parishes'. As
12875-499: The perceived inefficiency and corruption inherent in the system became a source for concern in some places. For this reason, during the early 19th century the parish progressively lost its powers to ad hoc boards and other organisations, such as the boards of guardians given responsibility for poor relief through the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 . Sanitary districts covered England in 1875 and Ireland three years later. The replacement boards were each entitled to levy their own rate in
13000-411: The population of the parish. Most rural parish councillors are elected to represent the entire parish, though in parishes with larger populations or those that cover larger areas, the parish can be divided into wards. Each of these wards then returns councillors to the parish council (the numbers depending on their population). Only if there are more candidates standing for election than there are seats on
13125-447: The public on 7 October 1850. Warminster , a thriving market town on the future Salisbury line, was also an objective, and the section from Westbury opened on 9 September 1851. The branch line from Frome to Radstock, centre then of the Somerset coalfield, was started too, but then difficulties with getting possession of the necessary land delayed things so much that the branch was put in abeyance. To generate much-needed capital to complete
13250-519: The route was not direct: it ran via Bristol Temple Meads station, and the GWR was sometimes called the great way round . The LSWR had a significantly shorter route from London Waterloo to Exeter via Salisbury. The GWR had a line from Reading to Devizes, joining with the WS&WR lines there, and it was clear that filling in some gaps would create a coherent direct route between Reading and Taunton. The GWR had more than once obtained Parliamentary powers to build such lines but they had lapsed, when in 1895
13375-492: The sale to the GWR, but for reasons that are not clear, this section was not opened; Devizes was to have a branch from the time of the original WS&WR act of 1846. Also, before the sale of the WS&WR, the GWR had undertaken to build a line from Bradford to Bath. The citizens of Bradford and Devizes now observed the rival towns of Trowbridge and Frome benefiting from their new rail connection, while they languished without an active railway. Matters escalated until they applied for
13500-457: The south the land was similarly rural but was used for military purposes in the mid-20th century, with RAF Melksham based at Bowerhill , and this area now consists of light industry and housing estates. There is another housing estate separate from the town at Berryfield , to the south. The civil parish elects a parish council . It is in the area of Wiltshire Council unitary authority , which performs most local government functions. Unusually,
13625-513: The south-west is Beanacre Manor, from c.1595 with a 17th-century dairy, Grade II* listed. Two further buildings are listed Grade II*: Woolmore Manor, built in 1631 and now on the south-east edge of Melksham, near modern Bowerhill ; and Christ Church, Shaw , designed in 1905 in Arts and Crafts Gothic style by C.E. Ponting . A packhorse bridge dating from 1725 spans the River Avon, providing
13750-613: The way they operate. Civil parishes in Scotland were abolished for local government purposes by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1929 ; the Scottish equivalent of English civil parishes are the community council areas established by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 , which have fewer powers than their English and Welsh counterparts. There are no equivalent units in Northern Ireland . The parish system in Europe
13875-494: The west: it would infill the Hungerford (Berks and Hants) to Devizes (WS&WR) section, and build a new line from Yeovil (WS&WR) to Exeter via Axminster . This latter line was not built by the GWR, but its development as a scheme provoked renewed hostility from the LSWR camp, and also opposition from the otherwise friendly B&ER. Starting from the junction at Thingley , a couple of miles southwest of Chippenham,
14000-458: Was a sharp curve connecting the LSWR to the WS&WR line at Dorchester, as the LSWR station had not been aligned for making this connection; Yolland required that LSWR trains on the connecting curve be restricted to 6 mph (10 km/h) and carry a travelling porter. The line to Weymouth opened 20 January 1857; all these lines were single track, broad gauge, except that double track mixed gauge
14125-475: Was a small station, Beanacre Halt , near Beanacre on the road towards Whitley. The Devizes Branch Line was completed in 1857 and also taken over by the GWR, but closed in 1966. It connected with the main line near Holt and passed near Outmarsh, where there was a station, Semington Halt . Today the Kennet and Avon Canal is a well-used recreational waterway, following its restoration in the 1970s and 1980s and formal re-opening in 1990. The Wilts & Berks Canal
14250-670: Was abandoned in 1914 and its route south and east of Melksham has been built over; preservation and restoration efforts began in 1977 and in 2012 a planning application was submitted for a new section of canal (called the Melksham Link) to connect the Semington junction, via Berryfield, with the Avon below Melksham. The A350 primary route runs north–south through the parish on its section from Chippenham to Melksham and passes through Beanacre. South of Melksham, on its way to Westbury , its original route past Berryfield and Outmarsh
14375-606: Was already mixed gauge, for the LSWR trains. After the gauge conversion, more sections were provided with double track: Frome to Witham in spring 1875; Witham to Castle Cary in 1880; Castle Cary to Yeovil Pen Mill in 1881; Evershot to Maiden Newton in 1882; Maiden Newton to Grimstone in 1884; and Grimstone to Dorchester in 1885. The Bathampton to Bradford section was doubled on 17 May 1885. The Abbotsbury Railway finally succeeded in opening its line after serious delays and difficulties, on 9 November 1885. The company prospectus had promised extensive mineral deposits, and
14500-496: Was an early railway company in south-western England. It obtained Parliamentary powers in 1845 to build a railway from near Chippenham in Wiltshire, southward to Salisbury and Weymouth in Dorset . It opened the first part of the network but found it impossible to raise further money and sold its line to the Great Western Railway (GWR) in 1850. The GWR took over the construction and undertook to build an adjacent connecting line;
14625-484: Was complete at last. From the completion of the core network in 1857, a number of independent branches and other lines made connection. The first was the Bridport Railway , a branch line from Maiden Newton to Bridport , which opened 12 November 1857. Bridport was an important town, and had been on a number of projected main lines, but none of those came to being, and the town had to content itself with
14750-525: Was elevated to avoid the difficulty. From 2 July 1906 express trains and other through traffic was diverted on to the new line. The cut-off route saved a further 20 miles (32 km) compared with the former route. The GWR was anxious to develop local passenger traffic; the early distribution of stations was somewhat sparse. Local requests prompted the GWR to provide a station at Upwey, on the Dorchester to Weymouth section; it opened on 21 June 1871. When
14875-498: Was established between the 8th and 12th centuries, and an early form was long established in England by the time of the Norman Conquest . These areas were originally based on the territory of manors , which, in some cases, derived their bounds from Roman or Iron Age estates; some large manors were sub-divided into several parishes. Initially, churches and their priests were the gift and continued patronage (benefaction) of
15000-447: Was neither expected nor intended that the line to Thingley was to be used as a Communication between Bath and Bradford, but that the intercourse between those two places would be continued as heretofore by coaches and canal. Hadfield adds in a footnote on the same page that "In fact the [west] curve at Thingley [near Chippenham] was specifically authorised (but not built) to give connection between Bath and Trowbridge ." At this period
15125-481: Was opened from Castle Cary to Charlton Mackrell on 1 July 1905. On 2 April 1906 part of the line was opened at the western end, from a new junction at Cogload , near Taunton, to Somerton . Finally the central section, and the entire route was opened on 20 May 1906. It followed part of a branch line from Yeovil towards Taunton ; the relevant section was upgraded to double track main line standards, and in an area where persistent flooding problems had been experienced, it
15250-499: Was provided from Dorchester to Weymouth for the use of LSWR trains, and the Dorchester curve was mixed gauge. The GWR had been forced to agree to lay rails for narrow gauge trains, and the LSWR could be charged 60% of gross receipts over that section. To ensure a strange sort of equity, the Board of Trade required that the LSWR should lay mixed gauge on its line for the same distance, about 8 miles (13 km), eastward from Dorchester, ending "abruptly in mid-country" near Wool . That cost
15375-631: Was renamed Monkton and Came Bridge (Golf Links) Halt on 1 October 1905. In the same year a similar railmotor service was started between Chippenham and Trowbridge, with new halts at Lacock , Beanacre , Broughton Gifford and Staverton . In 1910 the siding accommodation at Limpley Stoke was much enlarged to handle mineral traffic coming from the Camerton line ; it was remarshalled there for onward transit. Britain had been involved for some time in hostilities in South Africa, and in October 1899
15500-704: Was replaced in 2004 by the Semington bypass, about 400m to the east. The new route required the construction of an aqueduct to carry the Kennet and Avon Canal, the New Semington Aqueduct . The Hampton Park West industrial area, between the old and new routes, has the headquarters of Avon Rubber and G Plan Upholstery , and a divisional headquarters of Wiltshire Police . [REDACTED] Media related to Melksham Without at Wikimedia Commons Civil parishes in England In England,
15625-464: Was time to convert to what had become the standard gauge, and the whole of the WS&WR system were converted in a massive operation in June 1874. On 18 June the network was cleared of broad gauge rolling stock and the work of altering the gauge began, and the first standard gauge train ran on 22 June. The Radstock branch, built as a mineral railway, could now connect directly with its northerly neighbour,
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