civil parish In England, 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, w ...

is a country subdivision, forming the lowest unit of

local government in England Local government in England broadly consists of three layers: civil parishes, local authorities, and regional authorities. Every part of England is governed by at least one local authority, but parish councils and regional authorities do not ex ...

. There are 22 civil parishes in the

ceremonial county Ceremonial counties, formally known as ''counties for the purposes of the lieutenancies'', are areas of England to which lord-lieutenant, lord-lieutenants are appointed. A lord-lieutenant is the Monarchy of the United Kingdom, monarch's repres ...

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial and metropolitan county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, Cheshire to the south, the Wales, Welsh county of Flintshire across ...

, most of the county being unparished;

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

and Wirral are completely unparished. At the 2001 census, there were 177,663 people living in the parishes, accounting for 13.0 per cent of the county's population.

History

Parishes arose from

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

divisions, and were originally purely ecclesiastical divisions. Over time they acquired civil administration powers.Angus Winchester, 2000, ''Discovering Parish Boundaries''. Shire Publications. Princes Risborough, 96 pages The

Highways Act 1555 The Highways Act 1555 ( 2 & 3 Ph. & M. c. 8), sometimes the First Statute of Highways, was an act of the Parliament of England, which placed the burden of upkeep of the highways on individual parishes and that was passed in 1555. The act was a ...

made parishes responsible for the upkeep of roads. Every adult inhabitant of the parish was obliged to work four days a year on the roads, providing their own tools, carts and horses; the work was overseen by an unpaid local appointee, the ''Surveyor of Highways''. The poor were looked after by the

monasteries A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone ( hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which m ...

, until their dissolution. In 1572, magistrates were given power to 'survey the poor' and impose taxes for their relief. This system was made more formal by the Poor Law Act 1601, which made parishes responsible for administering the

Poor Law In English and British history, poor relief refers to government and ecclesiastical action to relieve poverty. Over the centuries, various authorities have needed to decide whose poverty deserves relief and also who should bear the cost of hel ...

; overseers were appointed to charge a rate to support the poor of the parish. The 19th century saw an increase in the responsibility of parishes, although the ''Poor Law'' powers were transferred to

Poor Law Unions A poor law union 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 Ac ...

. The

Public Health Act 1872 Sanitary districts were established in England and Wales in 1872 and in Ireland in 1878. The districts were of two types, based on existing structures: *Urban sanitary districts in towns with existing local government bodies *Rural sanitary dis ...

grouped parishes into Rural Sanitary Districts, based on the Poor Law Unions; these subsequently formed the basis for

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 Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. I ...

s. Parishes were run by

vestries A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government of a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies. At their height, the vestries were the only form of local government in many places and spent nearly one-fi ...

, meeting annually to appoint officials, and were generally identical to ecclesiastical parishes, although some

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

s in large parishes administered the ''Poor Law'' themselves; under the

Divided Parishes and Poor Law Amendment Act 1882 The Divided Parishes and Poor Law Amendment Act 1882 ( 45 & 46 Vict. c. 58) was an act of Parliament in Britain which gave the Local Government Board increased powers relating to dissolving and creating poor law union A poor law union was a ...

, all

extra-parochial area In England and Wales, an extra-parochial area, extra-parochial place or extra-parochial district was a geographically defined area considered to be outside any ecclesiastical or civil parish. Anomalies in the parochial system meant they had no ch ...

s and

s that levied a separate rate became independent civil parishes.Modern British Surnames : ''Selected Events in the History of Civil Registration and Boundary Changes 1801-1996''
Retrieved 2009-08-22 Civil parishes in their modern sense date from the

Local Government Act 1894 The Local Government Act 1894 ( 56 & 57 Vict. c. 73) was an act of 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 leve ...

, which abolished

; established elected parish councils in all rural parishes with more than 300 electors; grouped rural parishes into Rural Districts; and aligned parish boundaries with county and borough boundaries. Urban civil parishes continued to exist, and were generally coterminous with the

Urban District An urban district is a division generally managed by a local government. It may also refer to a city district, district, urban area or quarter Specific urban districts in some countries include: * Urban districts of Denmark * Districts of Germa ...

Municipal Borough A municipal borough was a type of local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of ...

or County Borough in which they were situated; many large towns contained a number of parishes, and these were usually merged into one. Parish councils were not formed in urban areas, and the only function of the parish was to elect guardians to Poor Law Unions; with the abolition of the ''Poor Law'' system in 1930 the parishes had only a nominal existence. The

Local Government Act 1972 The Local Government Act 1972 (c. 70) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974. It was one of the most significant acts of Parliament to be passed by the Heath Gov ...

retained civil parishes in rural areas, and many former

s and

s that were being abolished, were replaced by new successor parishes; urban areas that were considered too large to be single parishes became

unparished area In England, an unparished area is an area that is not covered by a civil parish (the lowest level of local government, not to be confused with an ecclesiastical parish). Most urbanised districts of England are either entirely or partly unparis ...

s.Office of Public Sector Information : ''Local Government Act 1972''
Retrieved 2009-08-22 Merseyside County

The current position

Recent governments have encouraged the formation of town and parish councils in unparished areas, and the

Local Government and Rating Act 1997 The Local Government and Rating Act 1997 (c. 29) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that allows a community at the village, neighbourhood, town or similar level beneath a district or borough council to demand its own elected paris ...

gave local residents the right to demand the creation of a new civil parish. A parish council can become a town council unilaterally, simply by resolution; and a civil parish can also gain

city status City status is a symbolic and legal designation given by a monarch, national or subnational government. A municipality may receive city status because it already has the qualities of a city, or because it has some special purpose. Historically, ci ...

, but only if that is granted by

the Crown The Crown is a political concept used in Commonwealth realms. Depending on the context used, it generally refers to the entirety of the State (polity), state (or in federal realms, the relevant level of government in that state), the executive ...

. The chairman of a town or city council is called a

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

. The

Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 The Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 (c. 28) is an Acts of Parliament in the United Kingdom, Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Act allows for the implementation of many provisions outlined in the Governme ...

introduced alternative names: a parish council can now choose to be called a community; village; or neighbourhood council.Office of Public Sector Information : ''Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007''
Retrieved 2009-08-22

List of civil parishes and unparished areas

References

External links

Office for National Statistics : ''Geographical Area Listings''

Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council : ''Parish and Town Councils''

Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council : ''Parish and Town Councils''

St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council : ''Parish and Town Councils''
{{Merseyside

History

The current position

List of civil parishes and unparished areas

See also

References

External links