69-537: Purley Council Offices , also known as Purley Town Hall , is a former municipal building in Brighton Road, Purley , London. The structure, which was the headquarters of Coulsdon and Purley Urban District Council , is a Grade II listed building . Following significant population growth, largely associated with the increasing number of commuter homes in the area, the villages of Coulsdon , Purley and Sanderstead were brought together as an urban district within
138-402: A modillioned pediment containing an oculus in the tympanum . There were three recessed round headed doorways on the ground floor and three recessed French doors with iron balconies on the first floor. The side bays contained sash windows on both floors and the end bays contained sash windows on the ground floor and casement windows on the first floor. Internally, the principal rooms were
207-399: A chairman and councillors. The councillors were elected for a three-year term in a similar way to councillors in urban districts. They were elected for parishes or groupings of parishes, and were also the representatives for those areas on the board of guardians. In a few cases a parish or handful of parishes were administered by a rural district council in a neighbouring county. In this case
276-425: A chairman at its annual meeting. The parish councils were given the following powers and duties: Parish councils were generally limited to a rate of three pence in the pound, although this could be increased to sixpence in the pound with the permission of the parish meeting. Loans could not be obtained without the permission of both the parish meeting and the county council. Borrowing for certain specified purposes
345-518: A cost of £30,000 and was officially opened by the Lord Mayor of London , Sir William Neal , on 8 November 1930. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with seven bays facing onto Brighton Road with the end bays slightly set back; the central section of three bays, which slightly projected forward, featured a full-height tetrastyle portico with two Ionic order columns flanked by two Doric order pilasters supporting an entablature and
414-512: A decision had been made that all those with a population of 300 or more were to have a parish council. This limit had been chosen as the Local Government Board already possessed powers to group parishes below this population for the election of guardians. There were approximately 6,000 small parishes in this category. Parish councils were to be limited in their expenditure, and were to be confined to charging rates of one penny in
483-410: A freer voice will be given to the community than it has ever had before. New depths of life will have been stirred in the most neglected portions of our community, and we shall find among the labourers of the fields, as we have found among the artisans of the towns, a resolution that the condition of our people shall, so far as laws can better it, be bettered ... The Earl of Kimberley explained to
552-722: A high level of privacy, it also includes two private schools plus a restaurant and deli. The estate made headlines in a 2002 survey, which found that it had over the years attracted the highest-earning residents in the UK, having established itself as an attractive destination for wealthy city workers . Notable people to have lived on the Webb Estate include singer Francis Rossi , footballer Wilfried Zaha , television presenter Laura Hamilton , and former Downing Street Press Secretary Bernard Ingham . The Purley postal district encompasses Purley high street and extends through Woodcote to
621-558: A history going back at least 800 years. It was originally granted as an estate from holdings at Sanderstead and until as a district of Surrey and then, with neighbouring Coulsdon , as an urban district that became an electoral ward of the London Borough of Croydon, becoming part of the ceremonial county of London, in 1965. In 2018 the Purley ward was divided into two: Purley and Woodcote , and Purley Oaks and Riddlesdown . Purley
690-520: A meeting in Reading : The Tories cannot conceal from themselves the fact that all over the land – in the towns, in the villages, in the country districts, in the urban districts - there is a resolute determination that Parliament shall put its hand in earnest to the great work of social regeneration ... parish councils may sound dull and mechanical, we know that they will go to the very root of national life, and that when we have achieved these reforms
759-563: A meeting in Walworth that the party wanted to create: ... a complete hierarchy of councils popularly elected and with full powers belonging to such bodies. The Liberals tried to amend the Agricultural Smallholdings Act 1892 as it passed through parliament, seeking to add clauses creating parish councils which would have the power to buy and sell land in order to increase the number of smallholdings. In rejecting
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#1732797249650828-400: A parish council varied from 5 to 15 members, the number being fixed by order of the county council. The entire council was elected annually on 15 April. To be eligible for election to the council, a person was required to be resident within the parish, or within three miles of it, for at least twelve months prior to the election. The entire council was elected annually. The parish council elected
897-654: A venue for community events before being sold to a developer in 2002; it then remained derelict for a decade before being converted into twenty-three apartments in 2012. A scheme submitted by the developer seeking to undertake underground excavation to create an extra eight apartments was refused by the council in July 2015. Purley, London Purley is an area of the London Borough of Croydon in London , England, 11.7 miles (18.8 km) south of Charing Cross , with
966-445: A voluntary aided state school), and Laleham Lea School a co-educational prep-school.[ citation needed ] Purley has one of the UK's longest-established language schools, Purley Language College, founded in 1928. The current schools in Purley are: Purley used to have many different kinds of shops such as greengrocers, butchers, toy shops, tobacconists, a restaurant and a cinema. There was an earlier Sainsbury's store that closed in
1035-471: Is a suburban area of South London, and the quintessential suburban environment has been referenced in fictional and popular culture, most notably as the setting for the long running Terry and June sitcom. Purley had a population of 15,184 in 2022. The name derives from an estate, mentioned in about 1200 when it was deeded to one William de Pirelea, son of Osbert de Pirelea by the abbot of St. Peter's monastery near Winchester. The original meaning of Purley
1104-399: Is administered is as admirable as it is possible for the ingenuity and humanity of man to devise", and he called on the government to drop the proposals. Sir Charles Dilke , from the government's own benches, was unhappy that county councils would have the power to divide or group parishes. He felt that they were susceptible to influence by local landowners whose wishes might overcome those of
1173-579: Is in the second 5-year term having successfully been voted in favour in 2015 and 2020. The island opposite Purley Baptist Church has been refurbished and the Church, under the banner of 58:12 (a company and charity set up by the Church) are planning to redevelop it. Other partners in the development of a strategy for the regeneration of central Purley include the Purely Business improvement district,
1242-558: Is to be within one county, that the district of every District Council is to be within one county, and that the County Councils shall have the duty of readjusting the existing overlapping areas and divisions. We think the County Council far the best tribunal to undertake this duty. They understand the localities, and how the districts can best be divided. They are to have 12 months in which to discharge their duty; and if at
1311-474: The Charity Commissioners could provide for the parish council to become the trustees. Annual accounts of the charity were to be laid before the parish meeting. A parish council, or one-tenth of the electors of a parish, could apply to the county council for the division of the parish into wards. This was to be done where "the area or population of the parish is so large, or different parts of
1380-564: The Commons on 21 March 1893, Fowler set out the complicated system of local government that was in need of reform. England and Wales were divided into: 62 counties, 302 Municipal Boroughs, 31 Improvement Act Districts, 688 Local Government Districts, 574 Rural Sanitary Districts, 58 Port Sanitary Districts, 2,302 School Board Districts ... 1,052 Burial Board Districts, 648 Poor Law Unions, 13,775 Ecclesiastical Parishes, and nearly 15,000 Civil Parishes. The total number of Authorities which tax
1449-714: The Hertfordshire County Council split the parishes of Bushey and Watford into Bushey Urban and Watford Urban parishes in Watford Urban District and Watford Rural and Bushey Rural parishes in the Watford Rural District . The county council could also group small parishes under a joint parish council. The act specified that the first elections to the district councils and reconstituted boards of guardians would take place on 8 November 1894, or such other date that
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#17327972496501518-712: 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 under the Local Government Act 1888 ( 51 & 52 Vict. c. 41). The 1894 legislation introduced elected councils at district and parish level. The principal effects of the act were: The new district councils were based on
1587-626: The Purley Council Offices . The council was abolished in 1965, under the London Government Act 1963 , and its area transferred to Greater London and used to form part of the London Borough of Croydon. The urban district council was based in a colonial-style building opened in 1930. The building, on the A23 Brighton Road near Reedham Station , became the property of the London Borough of Croydon and
1656-497: The historic county of Surrey in 1915. In the 1920s the new civic leaders decided to procure council offices for the area: the site chosen was open land on the north side of Brighton Road. The new building was the subject of a design competition which was assessed by Philip Hepworth and won by W. B. Nicholls and Basil Hughes. The new building was designed in the Neo-Georgian style , built in red brick with stone dressings at
1725-661: The pound unless they had the consent of both the parish meeting and the district council. Turning to the government of towns he explained: We shall convert the Improvement Commissioners and Local Boards into Urban District Councils; we shall abolish all plural voting; we shall propose to abolish all qualifications, for we think the only qualification a man ought to possess is the confidence of his constituents; and we propose to make women capable of serving on these District Councils. He then turned to reform of rural authorities: Then as regards rural districts,
1794-473: The 1980s, when a new Sainsbury's was opened at Purley Fountain. The new Sainsbury's closed in 2001. A Tesco superstore was opened in 1991, and there has been a shift in the town's retail offering towards charity shops, restaurants and non retail businesses. Purley retail and commerce interests are represented by the Purley Business improvement district. This Business Improvement District (BID)
1863-518: The Act was 692. All but three of 118 additional districts were caused by the breaking up of cross-county rural sanitary districts (for example Monks Kirby Rural District was the part of Lutterworth RSD that was in Warwickshire , with the rest forming Lutterworth Rural District .) Where new rural districts were created due to boundary changes the county council were to provide names. In some areas
1932-523: The Commons completed its consideration of the bill on 8 January 1894. The passage of the bill through the House of Lords was completed on 12 February. The Lords made two amendments to the bill, the first raised the population for forming a parish council back to the original figure of 300, the second amendment provided that parochial charities would only transfer to the administration of a parish council with
2001-498: The English ratepayers is between 28,000 and 29,000. Not only are we exposed to this multiplicity of authority and this confusion of rating power, but the qualification, tenure, and mode of election of members of these Authorities differ in different cases. He explained that the government had chosen the civil parish as the basic unit of local government in rural areas. He estimated that there were approximately 13,000 rural parishes and
2070-681: The Guardians a popularly elected body, we do not propose to disturb the existing machinery. We take the Rural Sanitary Authority as it now exists, but elected and qualified under new conditions, and we continue that as the Rural District Council. Therefore, the Rural District Council will be the old Rural Sanitary Authority altered, and, I think, very much improved ... Then we propose to abolish all separate Highway Authorities in rural districts and to transfer
2139-544: The London borough of Croydon in 1965 helped consolidate the middle class domination of that borough. The Purley electoral ward returned Conservative party councillors in Croydon London Borough Council elections from 1965 up until the reorganisation of 2018. In 2018, Purley was split into two wards; Purley and Woodcote , and Purley Oaks and Riddlesdown . There are a number of football clubs in
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2208-509: The Purley & Woodcote Residents' Association and Purley Rotary who actively participate in the Neighbourhood Partnership forums hosted by Croydon Council.[ citation needed ] As of 2022, the largest ethnic group in Purley & Woodcote was ‘White’ , constituting 56.97% of the total population. The ‘ Asian ’ ethnic group was second largest, making up 20.13%, while ‘ Black , Caribbean or African’ accounted for 11.73% of
2277-519: The UK. A plaque at one end of the road explains that the French ministry of the interior donated the soil from Armentières, as a memorial to the alliance of World War One and the soldiers who died. At the other end stands an obelisk carved from a single piece of stone with the inscription "Aux soldats de France morts glorieusement pendant la Grande Guerre". The 32nd Surrey Battalion of the Home Guard
2346-741: The West, includes the Peaks Hill area to the North, and borders Purley Oaks in South Croydon. To the East it includes Riddlesdown and to the South it borders Kenley and Coulsdon. The current electoral ward of Purley and Woodcote is largely co-extensive with the postal district, but Riddlesdown is now in the neighbouring Purley Oaks and Riddlesdown ward. Woodcote is contained within Purley. Developed in
2415-521: The act was the fact that all electors had a single vote, and thus county councillors were popularly elected. The members of other local bodies were elected by a system of weighted voting, with those owning more property having multiple votes. The original Local Government Bill of 1888 had included provisions for creating district as well as county councils. However the President of the Local Government Board , Charles Ritchie , had some difficulty in having
2484-571: The administrative county, and to ensure that no parish or district extended into another county. Also parishes that crossed district boundaries were to be divided. Hundreds of orders were made by county councils, and it was not until 1898 that the process was complete. Many county councils took the opportunity to "tidy up" their boundaries with neighbouring authorities, and it was not uncommon for blocks of parishes to be exchanged. The division of parishes led to many ancient parishes being split into "urban" and "rural" portions. As an example, an order of
2553-556: The amendments, Henry Chaplin , President of the Board of Agriculture , claimed the government intended: ... on a proper and fitting occasion, when opportunity arises, to deal not only with the question of District Councils, but the question also of parochial reform. Parliament was dissolved in June 1892, and a general election called. The Liberals made the introduction of district and parish councils part of their programme. Following
2622-621: The approval of the Charity Commissioners . Both were agreed to. The act received the royal assent on 5 March 1894. In 1893 there were 688 urban Sanitary districts outside boroughs. These had various titles such as Local Government District or Local Board of Health District or Improvement Commissioners' District . Each of these variously titled entities became urban districts in 1894/5. Urban districts continued to be formed, and by 1927 there were 785. Municipal boroughs , while being classified as urban districts, had neither their titles nor constitutions altered. The governing body of
2691-665: The area are Kenley, Purley, Purley Walcountians and Sanderstead. Purley Cross gyratory connects routes leading south-east to East Grinstead and Eastbourne (the A22 ), west to Epsom and Kingston (the A2022 ), south to Redhill and Brighton (the A23 ), and north to Croydon and Central London (the A23 and A235 ). The A23 north from Purley forms the Purley Way , which leads to Croydon's trading and industrial hinterland and also to
2760-432: The area was the urban district council. All councillors were popularly elected for a three-year term. There were to be no ex officio or appointed members as had existed in some of the predecessor bodies. In order to be eligible for election, a candidate was required to be on the electoral register, and to have resided in the district for twelve months prior to the election. Women were permitted to be councillors. One-third of
2829-452: The area was too small to become a separate rural district, which was required by the act to have at least five councillors. These areas were to "be temporarily administered by the district council of an adjoining district in another county with which it was united before the appointed day" . The councillors elected for these areas were entitled to sit and act as members of the rural district council, although separate accounts were to be kept for
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2898-596: The area. Purley John Fisher Rugby Football Club is based in Old Coulsdon. Purley Cricket Club is part of Purley Sports Club. Purley Sports Club also provides tennis , squash , padel and netball . There are a number of field hockey clubs based in and around Purley that are part of the South East Hockey and the London Hockey league structures. Current hockey clubs in and around
2967-549: The area. These arrangements were usually ended within a few years of the act's coming into force, with the areas being transferred by alteration in either county or rural district boundaries. Some persisted until the 1930s, however, when county districts were reorganised under the Local Government Act 1929 . Exceptionally, the parish of Pennal , Merionethshire, was administered by Machynlleth Rural District in Montgomeryshire until 1955. Rural district councils inherited
3036-417: The bill dealt with poor law guardians and district councils. Among its provisions were that: The third part of the bill detailed the duties of the county council in dealing with divided areas and small parishes. The county council had the power to name divided parishes and to combine areas. The fourth and fifth parts of the bill dealt with the first election of councils and transitory provisions. Speaking in
3105-523: The bill on a number of grounds. He defended the ex-officio guardians who had "proved themselves the most efficient and the most useful members of the Board ;... you will find that the most regular attendants have been the ex officios, and that they have made the best Chairmen and the best members." He believed the reform of boards of guardians was unwarranted as "the system under which the Poor Law
3174-488: The coming of the railways some 150 years ago is found in the Bourne Society's 'Purley Village History' and in its Local History Records publications. The Webb Estate is a gated community with around 220 homes. It began as 260 acres of farmland before being purchased in the 1880s and transformed into Edwardian homes and landscaped gardens by estate agent William Webb. Known for having a "garden village" feel with
3243-453: The council chamber, which featured a barrel vaulted ceiling, and the two committee rooms. An extension to the rear was completed in May 1937. The building continued to serve as the headquarters of the urban district council for much of the 20th century but ceased to serve as the local of seat of government when the enlarged London Borough of Croydon was formed in 1965. It subsequently served as
3312-451: The council was elected on 15 April each year. UDCs could, by a resolution passed with a two-thirds majority, change to a system of elections of the whole council every three years. The council elected a chairman at their annual meeting, who was, during their term of office, a justice of the peace for the county. There were 574 rural sanitary districts in 1893, many of them crossing county boundaries. The number of rural districts formed by
3381-484: The county boundaries were so complicated that rural districts were in more than one administrative county. For example, Gloucestershire , Warwickshire and Worcestershire had many outlying detached parishes surrounded by other counties. Accordingly, the rural districts of Shipston on Stour , Stow on the Wold , Tewkesbury and Winchcombe included parishes in two or three counties. Rural district councils consisted of
3450-490: The defence of London. Purley grew rapidly in the 1920s and 1930s, providing spacious homes in a green environment. Northeast Purley stretches into the chalk hill spurs of the North Downs . One road, Promenade de Verdun , created by William Webb, has a distinction all of its own. It is 600 yards (550 m) long and has on one side Lombardy poplars planted in local soil mixed with French earth specially shipped over to
3519-575: The early 20th century, it is centred on Woodcote Village Green and is the location of Woodcote Model Village. Purley's Webb Estate lies on Woodcote road, close to Upper Woodcote Village. The Bourne river runs through Purley. The river is culverted but can flood in Purley valley. A local history society take their name from this river. Purley is home to a number of schools; including four Catholic schools. Two of which are in Peaks Hill neighbourhood of Purley, and these are The John Fisher School an all boys' state school (formerly an independent and then
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#17327972496503588-710: The election the Liberals under William Ewart Gladstone formed an administration with the support of the Irish Parliamentary Party . The Local Government Bill (also referred to as the Parish Councils Bill) was published by H. H. Fowler , the President of the Local Government Board, on 26 March 1893. The bill consisted of 71 clauses arranged in five parts. The first part dealt with rural parishes, and provided that: The second part of
3657-475: The end of that period they have not made this readjustment, it will devolve upon the Local Government Board to interfere and carry the matter out. The bill returned, in amended form, for a second reading in November 1893. In reintroducing the bill to the Commons, Fowler outlined the objections that had been made, and the government's response. Walter Long , the opposition spokesman on local government attacked
3726-429: The existing urban and rural sanitary districts . Many of the latter had lain in more than one ancient county, whereas the new rural districts were to be in a single administrative county . The act also reorganised civil parishes , so that none of them lay in more than one district and hence did not cross administrative boundaries. Although the Act made no provision to abolish the hundreds , which had previously been
3795-552: The former Croydon Airport , the predecessor of the present London Heathrow Airport and London Gatwick Airport . The town is on the main London-to-Brighton railway line and is served by Purley and Purley Oaks stations on that line, and Reedham station on the Tattenham Corner Line . Local Government Act 1894 The Local Government Act 1894 ( 56 & 57 Vict. c. 73) was an Act of
3864-399: The legislation passed by Parliament, and dropped the district council clauses for fear that the entire bill might be lost due to opposition from the government's own backbenchers. The Liberal opposition berated the government for failing to create district councils. At the same time they put forward proposals for establishing councils at parish level. John Morley , MP for Newcastle , told
3933-616: The number of elected Guardians, but there is required to be one Guardian for every constituent parish. There is a property qualification and plural voting, and voting by proxy. We could not ask the House to continue the existing powers in, much less to confer new powers upon, an authority so constituted and so irresponsible ... We therefore propose to abolish, firstly, all ex officio or non-elective Guardians ... there shall be no plural voting, no proxy voting , and no voting papers, but voting by Ballot and One Man One Vote ... Having made
4002-494: The only widely used administrative unit between the parish and the county in size, the reorganisation displaced their remaining functions. Several ancient hundred names lived on in the names of the districts that superseded them. The Local Government Act 1888 ( 51 & 52 Vict. c. 41) had introduced elected county councils. The passing of the act had been part of the price for Liberal Unionist support for Lord Salisbury's minority Conservative administration. An innovation in
4071-493: The parishioners. The bill then entered the committee stage. Arguments over the population at which parish councils should be established continued to be made, with amendments proposing limits of 100, 200, 500, 600 and 1,000. The figure finally reverted to the government figure of 200. Major Leonard Darwin , Liberal Unionist MP for Lichfield unsuccessfully introduced an amendment to create parish councils in urban districts containing more than one parish. After 34 days of debate,
4140-539: The population so situated, as to make a single parish meeting for the election of councillors impracticable or inconvenient, or that it is desirable for any reason that certain parts of the parish should be separately represented on the council" . Separate elections of councillors for each ward would then be held. The responsibility for defining the areas of the districts was given to the county councils established in 1888 . County councils were supposed to have regard to areas of existing sanitary districts and parishes in
4209-460: The population. Mixed/ multiple ethnicities made up 7.5%. ' Other ethnic groups' account for 3% of the population. The smallest ethnic group was ' Arab', making up only 0.6% of the wards population. 71.4% of the wards population were born in the UK. The remaining 28.6% were from overseas, with the largest amount being listed as from 'The Middle East & Asia'. The largest religion was listed as Christianity , at 51.3%. The second largest religion
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#17327972496504278-560: The powers of both the rural sanitary authority they replaced and any highway board in their area. In all rural parishes with a population of 300 or more, a parish council had to be elected. In parishes with more than 100 but less than 300 population, the parish meeting could request the county council to make an order to establish a parish council. Urban parishes (those within an urban district) were not given separate parish councils, but were directly administered by their urban district council or municipal borough council. The membership of
4347-400: The union is the administrative area with which we have to deal. Except in 25 cases, in which, if I may use the expression, the union consists of a single parish, the union is an aggregation of parishes. There are 648 unions altogether. There are 137 in two counties and 32 in three counties. The Guardians by whom the union is administered are elected or ex officio. The Local Government Board fixes
4416-520: The whole powers of the Highway Board or the highway parish to the Rural District Council. Finally he described how the boundaries of the districts and parishes were to be arrived at: At present we have rural sanitary districts, partly within and partly without the county, and we have parishes partly within and partly without rural sanitary districts. We have 174 rural sanitary districts and some 800 parishes so situate. We propose that every parish
4485-520: Was Islam , at 9.5%. Third was Hinduism , at 8.2%. Following that were Sikhism at 1%, Buddhism at 0.9%, Judaism at 0.2% and ' Other Religion ' at 0.8%. As well as this, ' No Religion ' accounted for 28% of the population. Purley lies within the Croydon South parliamentary constituency , where voters have consistently returned Conservative Party MPs to the local seat since 1974. Purley has been staunchly conservative and its amalgamation into
4554-734: Was known as the Factory Battalion, and had the specific task of guarding the Purley Way factories: its units were mainly based on staff from the individual firms. The factories adjoining Croydon Airport took the worst of the air raid of 15 August 1940: the British NSF factory was almost entirely destroyed, and the Bourjois factory gutted, with a total of over sixty civilian deaths. A comprehensive history of Purley and its growth around Caterham Junction (now Purley Station) with
4623-539: Was probably a wood or clearing where pear trees grow, derived from "Pirlea", which is from Anglo Saxon pir , pear or pirige , pear tree and leá , a clearing or a place. Under the Local Government Act 1894 , Purley became part of the Croydon Rural District of Surrey . In 1915 Purley and the neighbouring town of Coulsdon formed the Coulsdon and Purley Urban District which was based at
4692-619: Was sold to developers. It was left derelict for many years but was converted into flats in 2012. Plans to dig under the building and build additional flats were refused in 2015. Kenley Aerodrome , to the south of the town, is currently official property of the Ministry of Defence . It was one of the key fighter stations – together with Croydon Airport and Biggin Hill – during the World War II support of Dunkirk, Battle of Britain and for
4761-403: Was subject to the approval of the Local Government Board. No right of way could be extinguished or diverted without the permission of both the parish and rural district council. Parish councils could take over the maintenance of public footpaths within their parish, other than those along the edge of highways. Where a charitable trust (other than an ecclesiastical charity) existed in a parish,
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