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 below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

is a subnational entity, forming the lowest unit of local government in England. There are 219 civil parishes in the ceremonial county of

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...

; Blackpool is completely unparished; Pendle and

Ribble Valley Ribble Valley is a local government district with borough status within the non-metropolitan county of Lancashire, England. The total population of the non-metropolitan district at the 2011 Census was 57,132. Its council is based in Clitheroe. ...

are entirely parished. At the 2001 census, there were 587,074 people living in the 219 parishes, accounting for 41.5 per cent of the county's population.

History

Parishes arose from

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...

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 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 ...

, until their

dissolution Dissolution may refer to: Arts and entertainment Books * ''Dissolution'' (''Forgotten Realms'' novel), a 2002 fantasy novel by Richard Lee Byers * ''Dissolution'' (Sansom novel), a 2003 historical novel by C. J. Sansom Music * Dissolution, in mu ...

. 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; 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. The

Public Health Act 1872 In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

grouped parishes into Rural Sanitary Districts, based on the Poor Law Unions; these subsequently formed the basis for Rural Districts. Parishes were run by

vestries A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquially ...

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

township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, C ...

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 was an Act of Parliament in Britain which gave the Local Government Board increased powers relating to dissolving and creating poor law unions. It followed the similar Divided Parishes and Poor ...

, 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 22 August 2009 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 level un ...

, 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,

Municipal Borough Municipal boroughs were a type of local government district which existed in England and Wales between 1835 and 1974, in Northern Ireland from 1840 to 1973 and in the Republic of Ireland from 1840 to 2002. Broadly similar structures existed in S ...

County Borough County borough is a term introduced in 1889 in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, to refer to a borough or a city independent of county council control, similar to the unitary authorities created since the 1990s. An equivalent te ...

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 retained civil parishes in rural areas, and many former Urban Districts 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 unpa ...

s.Office of Public Sector Information : ''Local Government Act 1972''
Retrieved 22 August 2009

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) allows a community at the village, neighbourhood, town or similar level beneath a district or borough council to demand its own elected parish or town council. This right only applies to communitie ...

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 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, city status ...

, but only if that is granted by

the Crown The Crown is the state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their subdivisions (such as the Crown Dependencies, overseas territories, provinces, or states). Legally ill-defined, the term has different ...

. 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 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 responsibilities of a mayor as well ...

. The

Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 The Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 (c 28) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Act allows for the implementation of many provisions outlined in the Government white paper ''Strong and Prosperous Com ...

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 22 August 2009 Lancashire parishes map

List of civil parishes and unparished areas

References

External links

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

Lancashire County Council : ''Parish Contact Details''

Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council : ''Town and Parish Councils''

Burnley Borough Council : ''Parish and Town Councils''

Chorley Council : ''Parish Council Contact Details''

Fylde Borough Council : ''Parish Councils''

Hyndburn Borough Council : ''Parish and Town Councils''

Lancaster City Council : ''Parish Councils''

Borough of Pendle : ''Parish Councils''

Preston City Council : ''Parish Council Contact Details''

Ribble Valley Borough Council : ''Parish Councils''

Rossendale Borough Council : ''Parish and Town Councils and Councillors''

South Ribble Borough Council : ''Parish and Town Councils''

West Lancashire Borough Council : ''Parish Councils''

Wyre Borough Council : ''Town and Parish Councillors by Council''
{{Lancashire

Civil parishes 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 below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority. ...

Lancashire-related lists

History

The current position

List of civil parishes and unparished areas

See also

References

External links