83-668: West Overton is a village and civil parish in the English county of Wiltshire , about 3.5 miles (5.6 km) west of Marlborough . The river Kennet runs immediately north of the village, separating it from the A4 road. The parish includes the village of Lockeridge , also near the river, further east (downstream). The area has many prehistoric sites, and the Avebury section of the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage site extends into
166-522: 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
249-417: 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
332-467: A unitary authority which is responsible for all significant local government functions. There was a church at Overton in the 12th century, and by the next century the churches at Fyfield and Alton Priors were dependent on it. St. Swithun's Priory , Winchester, appropriated Overton church and its chapels in 1291. The parish church of St Michael and All Angels was built in 1877–8, in flint with squared sarsen banding, by C.E. Ponting , architect to
415-476: A unitary authority , removing it from the non-metropolitan county (the area controlled by Wiltshire County Council). This reduced the population of the non-metropolitan county by almost a third. Swindon remains part of the wider ceremonial county of Wiltshire. As part of the 2009 structural changes to local government , Wiltshire's four remaining districts were abolished and their functions were taken over by Wiltshire County Council as from 1 April 2009. The way
498-515: 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
581-576: 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
664-477: 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
747-462: 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
830-559: 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
913-481: 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
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#1732779795639996-517: A detached part to the southwest, namely the chapelry of Alton Priors (its name deriving from ownership by St Swithun's Priory). The settlements at East and West Overton were adjacent, and since the later 18th century the merged village has been called West Overton. The village of Shaw, southwest of West Overton and straddling the Wansdyke earthwork, was apparently deserted in the 15th century. Alton Priors and Fyfield became separate civil parishes in
1079-529: 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
1162-431: 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
1245-756: 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. Wiltshire Council Wiltshire Council , known between 1889 and 2009 as Wiltshire County Council ,
1328-416: 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
1411-431: 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
1494-503: 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
1577-1079: 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
1660-409: 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
1743-598: 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
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#17327797956391826-943: 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
1909-521: 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
1992-507: 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
2075-539: 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
2158-537: Is likely that in the 12th and 13th centuries the entire parish lay within Savernake forest . The earlier manors were reflected in the later composition of Overton parish, which had tithings of East Overton, West Overton, Lockeridge and Shaw, together with the chapelry of Fyfield . The western boundary of the parish was defined by an ancient trackway on the summits of the Marlborough Downs . The parish had
2241-405: 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
2324-556: Is part of the Upper Kennet Benefice, created in 1978, which covers eight churches in the area. From 1901 to 1966 there was a Methodist chapel at West Overton. A National School was built at Lockeridge in 1875 to serve the parishes of West Overton and Fyfield. The building (and extensions) continues in use as Kennet Valley C of E Voluntary Aided Primary School. The parish has a village hall, Kennet Valley Village Hall, near Lockeridge. Overton manor house, close to
2407-728: Is the local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Wiltshire in South West England . Since 2009 it has been a unitary authority , being a county council which also performs the functions of a district council . The non-metropolitan county is smaller than the ceremonial county , the latter additionally including Swindon . Wiltshire Council has been controlled by the Conservative Party since 2000, and has its headquarters at County Hall in Trowbridge . Elected county councils were established in 1889 under
2490-700: Is undertaken by five planning committees , the powers of which cannot be exercised by the cabinet. Members of the authority are appointed to a wide range of outside bodies, providing them with some element of democratic accountability, such as the Kennet and Avon Canal Trust , the Wiltshire Victoria County History , and the Wiltshire Historic Buildings Trust . The county council has been under Conservative majority control since 2000. Political control of
2573-504: 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
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2656-555: The Local Government Act 1888 , taking over administrative functions previously carried out by unelected magistrates at the quarter sessions . The first elections to the new county council were held on 23 January 1889; the council had sixty seats, but in twenty-eight the candidate ran unopposed. The first provisional meeting of the council was held at Devizes Assize Court on 31 January 1889. The council formally came into its powers on 1 April 1889, on which day it held its first official meeting at Salisbury Guildhall . The first chairman
2739-1010: 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
2822-472: 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
2905-595: 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
2988-403: 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
3071-470: 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
3154-403: 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
3237-564: 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
3320-575: The 19th century. The Wiltshire Victoria County History has an account of the many owners of the manors of Overton, Lockeridge and Shaw. By 1870, when the Overton estate was sold to the trustees of London brewery owner Sir Henry Meux , it encompassed land at Fyfield, Lockeridge and Clatford , and the woodland at West Woods. After the death of his son in 1900, the estate was owned for a short time by Alec Taylor of Manton House. The Forestry Commission bought West Woods in 1931. The London to Bath road
3403-591: 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
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3486-511: 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
3569-515: 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
3652-467: The Meux estate. The tower – described by Pevsner as "just a little too thin to be genuine" was not completed until 1883. It replaced an earlier church which had become dilapidated, and the nave was built on the same foundations. Construction was financed by Sir Henry Meux , and reused the chancel arch and three nave windows; oak beams from the nave roof were made into internal doors, a lectern and panels of
3735-644: The National Trust. Overton Hill , with prehistoric features including The Sanctuary , is to the west of the village and partly in Avebury parish. The ancient Ridgeway , now a national trail, begins here and follows the parish boundary northwards. The medieval Wansdyke earthwork crosses the southernmost part of the parish. [REDACTED] Media related to West Overton at Wikimedia Commons Civil parishes in England In England,
3818-738: 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
3901-405: The changes were implemented was to create a single non-metropolitan district of Wiltshire matching the non-metropolitan county, but with no separate district council. Instead, the existing county council also took on the functions that legislation assigns to district councils, making it a unitary authority. The county council was given the option of omitting the word 'county' from its name as part of
3984-399: 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
4067-401: The church, is from the 16th and 17th centuries with later improvements; the main wing has a tile-hung upper floor under a thatched roof, and at right angles a former barn is in red brick. West Overton House, in the northeast of the village, is a former rectory of the late 18th century with later extensions. Shaw House, which replaced an earlier manor house 400m to the east, was built in brick in
4150-400: The churchyard. The church was recorded as Grade II* listed in 1958. Alton Priors was anciently a chapelry of Overton, its church being some five miles south of Overton church by road. In 1913, Alton Priors was detached from Overton vicarage and attached to the adjacent rectory of Alton Barnes . The benefice was united with those of Fyfield and East Kennett in 1929. Today the parish
4233-537: 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
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#17327797956394316-464: 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
4399-438: The council since the 1974 reforms has been as follows: Upper-tier authority Unitary authority The leaders of the council since 1998 have been: Following the 2021 election and by-elections and changes of allegiance up to April 2024, the composition of the council was: Six of the independent councillors sit together as a group. The next election is due in 2025. Since the last full review of boundaries in 2021
4482-466: 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
4565-431: The county council had met in rotation at Devizes, Marlborough , Salisbury and Warminster , and some advocated that the council should similarly travel around. Others made the case that the rapidly growing town of Swindon should be one of the meeting places. It was decided that Trowbridge should be the meeting place; although not central to the county geographically, it had the best railway connections to other parts of
4648-520: The county has been divided into 98 electoral divisions , each electing one councillor . Elections are held every four years. The council is based at County Hall, Trowbridge , which was purpose-built for the council and was completed in 1940. It also has offices in Chippenham , Devizes and Salisbury. At the council's first official meeting in 1889 there was a debate about where the council should meet in future. The quarter sessions which preceded
4731-472: The county, and there was also a large new Town Hall already under construction there which could serve as a meeting place. As it happened, the council did continue to hold meetings in other towns for the first few years, but gradually consolidated its offices and meeting place in Trowbridge. In 1896, the council acquired Arlington House at 72 Fore Street in Trowbridge to act as its offices. The building
4814-525: 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
4897-463: 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
4980-498: The early 19th century. Lockeridge House, standing on the other side of the river from Lockeridge village, was built in red brick around 1740 and is Grade II* listed. North of the A4, the parish extends onto the Marlborough Downs . On Overton Down is an earthwork built in 1960 as a long-term archaeology experiment. The Piggledene valley, with its sarsen stones, is a biological and geological Site of Special Scientific Interest managed by
5063-439: 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
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#17327797956395146-534: 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
5229-455: 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
5312-476: 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
5395-465: 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
5478-465: 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
5561-563: The northwest of the parish. Within that area, on the southern slopes of Overton Down, are seven Bronze Age round barrows, forming a cemetery which extends south onto Overton Hill , overlooking the river. In modern archaeology, this it the type site for the Overton Period of 2000–1650 BC. Also on Overton Hill, just over the parish boundary, is The Sanctuary , the site of a Neolithic monument which had two concentric circles of stones and four concentric circles of timber posts, and
5644-488: 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
5727-448: 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
5810-401: 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
5893-404: 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
5976-562: 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
6059-499: 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
6142-411: 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
6225-404: The pulpit. A fragment of a Norman church survives: the head of a small 12th-century window was reset into a wall of the porch. The church had three bells in 1553, one of which is still present. Another dates from 1606; in 1883 one old bell was recast and three made, bringing the peal to six. Ponting also designed the parish war memorial, a tall stone cross dedicated in 1921, which stands opposite
6308-404: The reforms, which it took, becoming 'Wiltshire Council'. Since 2009, Wiltshire Council has provided both county-level and district-level services. The whole county is also covered by civil parishes , which form a lower tier of local government. Most executive decisions are taken by the authority's cabinet , each member of which has a particular area of responsibility. Development control
6391-527: The south, within West Woods , is a Neolithic long barrow . A manor is named as Uferan Tune in a charter dated 939. In 1086, the Domesday survey recorded 13 households at (West) Ovretone , and land held by Wilton Abbey . Another 13 were at Fyfield and two at East Overton, both on land held by St. Swithun's Priory , Winchester; there were smaller settlements at Locherige (Lockeridge) and at Shaw. It
6474-666: 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
6557-438: Was John Thynne, 4th Marquess of Bath . The council was granted a coat of arms in 1937. Until 1974 the lower tier of local government comprised numerous boroughs , urban districts and rural districts . In 1974 the lower tier was reorganised and Wiltshire was left with five districts : Kennet , North Wiltshire , Salisbury , Thamesdown and West Wiltshire . In 1997, Thamesdown was renamed 'Swindon' and converted into
6640-529: Was turnpiked in 1743. In the 1970s, the opening of the M4 motorway , about 9 miles (14 km) to the north, reduced the amount of traffic on what was by then the A4. West Overton parish elects a joint parish council with the adjacent parish of Fyfield , named Kennet Valley Parish Council (the name Fyfield and West Overton was used until 2022). The parish falls within the area of the Wiltshire Council ,
6723-498: 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
6806-533: Was extended in 1900 to include a dedicated council chamber, and was extended again in 1913. In 1930, the council decided to build a new county hall in Devizes , which is nearer the geographical centre of Wiltshire, but construction was delayed and in 1933 the decision was reversed. Instead a new County Hall was subsequently built on the former Trowbridge Town Football Club site on Bythesea Road in Trowbridge. The new building opened in 1940. In 2012 County Hall
6889-402: Was linked to the stone circles at Avebury , 2.5km to the northwest, by two lines of stones known as West Kennet Avenue . North of the village, on the slopes of Overton Down, are an oval Iron Age enclosure and three Roman burial mounds, a short length of Roman road and an Anglo-Saxon inhumation cemetery. In the far north of the parish are further Bronze Age, Roman and later settlements. In
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