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25-517: Watford Rural District was a rural district in Hertfordshire from 1894 to 1974. It initially surrounded but did not include the town of Watford , which was a separate urban district . It gradually ceded territory to other districts, and by the time of its abolition in 1974 the district comprised three separate pieces of land, lying to the north-west, north-east, and south of Watford. Watford Poor Law Union had been created in 1835 following

50-479: A local board . Under the Local Government Act 1894 , rural sanitary districts became rural districts from 28 December 1894. Several parts of Watford Rural District were later removed from it by the creation of new urban districts: Rickmansworth in 1898, Bushey in 1906, and Chorleywood in 1913. The district also ceded territory to Watford itself on several occasions. Watford Rural District contained

75-458: 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

100-418: A level lower than that of 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

125-571: 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

150-661: 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

175-742: 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

200-574: 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

225-632: The Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 . Under the Public Health Act 1872 sanitary districts were created, and the boards of guardians of poor law unions were made responsible for public health and local government for any part of their district not included in an urban authority. The Watford Rural Sanitary District therefore covered the area of the Watford Poor Law Union except for the town of Watford, which had

250-476: The council consolidated its offices and meeting place at Wynyard House, 99 Langley Road, Watford, a large house which had previously been Wynyard School , a boarding school. The council remained at Wynyard House until its abolition. Under the Local Government Act 1972 the Watford Rural District was abolished in 1974; its territory was split, with the parish of Aldenham going to Hertsmere ,

275-550: 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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300-567: 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

325-690: The following civil parishes : Until 1904 the council held its meetings at the Watford Union Workhouse at 60 Vicarage Road (which later became Watford General Hospital). From 1904 the council met instead at Watford Place at 27 King Street, which was the office of the solicitor who acted as clerk to the council. Other office functions were carried out at various addresses within Watford, including 9 Market Street (from at least 1901 to 1930), 7 Church Street (1930 to 1937) and 25 King Street, immediately adjoining Watford Place (1932 to 1947). In 1947

350-533: The functions of the earlier sanitary districts, but also had wider authority over matters such as local planning, council housing , and playgrounds and cemeteries. Matters such as education and major roads were 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

375-594: 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

400-532: 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

425-448: 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

450-592: 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

475-505: 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

500-490: The part of Abbots Langley within the designated area of Hemel Hempstead New Town going to Dacorum , and the remainder to Three Rivers . Local government in England 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

525-458: 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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550-485: 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

575-595: 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

600-491: 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

625-410: 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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