Highway districts were areas in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

and

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

united for the maintenance and repair of highways. They were first formed in 1862 and consisted of groupings of

civil parishes In England, a civil parish is a type of Parish (administrative division), administrative parish used for Local government in England, local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishe ...

in rural areas. They were abolished in 1894 when their powers and duties passed to rural district councils.

Background

Parish

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 ...

had been responsible for keeping

highway A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It includes not just major roads, but also other public roads and rights of way. In the United States, it is also used as an equivalent term to controlled-access highway, or ...

s in repair since the reign of

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is known for his Wives of Henry VIII, six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. ...

. The Highway Act 1835 ( 5 & 6 Will. 4. c. 50) made changes to the administration of highways. From 1836 each parish was to appoint a surveyor, and was empowered to make a rate to keep the roads under its control in good order. The surveyor could be convicted and fined by the county justices for failing to keep the highways in repair. The 1835 Act also changed the law, with new roads not being declared highways, and therefore repairable by the parish, unless they met certain criteria. The Highways Act 1862 ( 25 & 26 Vict. c. 61) enabled justices of the peace of a county to divide the county into highway districts consisting of a number of parishes. This was done by means of a provisional order confirmed by the

quarter sessions The courts of quarter sessions or quarter sessions were local courts that were traditionally held at four set times each year in the Kingdom of England from 1388; they were extended to Wales following the Laws in Wales Act 1535. Scotland establ ...

. The order listed the parishes to be grouped together, the name to be given to the district and the number of waywardens to be elected by each parish.

Highway boards

The authority governing the highway district was called a highway board. The membership of the board consisted of one or more members elected annually by each parish, and known as waywardens, and by any county justices residing in the district. The highway board took over the property and liabilities of the parish surveyors in its district, appointing a clerk, treasurer and district surveyor. The costs of the administration was to be paid by a rate levied on the district, although the cost of repairing highways was still chargeable as a highway rate to individual parishes. There was no compulsion for districts to be formed, and some parishes continued to separately maintain highways until 1894.

Areas exempt

The Highways Act 1862 did not extend to all areas of

and

. Places within the area of the

Metropolitan Board of Works The Metropolitan Board of Works (MBW) was the upper tier of local government for London between 1856 and 1889, primarily responsible for upgrading infrastructure. It also had a parks and open spaces committee which set aside and opened up severa ...

boroughs A borough is an administrative division in various English language, English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History ...

and towns having local boards could not be grouped into a district. The

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...

and parts of South Wales were also exempt, as special legislation was already in place to establish highway authorities in those areas. The act stated that any place adopting the

Local Government Act 1858 A local board of health (or simply a ''local board'') was a local authority in urban areas of England and Wales from 1848 to 1894. They were formed in response to cholera epidemics and were given powers to control sewers, clean the streets, regulat ...

to form a local board would cease to be part of a highway district. A large number of communities, some with very small populations, quickly chose to form boards and avoid being part of a district. The number of applications was such that the Local Government Act Amendment Act 1863 ( 26 & 27 Vict. c. 17) was passed providing that no local board could be formed after 1 March 1863 with a population of fewer than 3,000, and that any local board which had not appointed a surveyor within three months of formation would be dissolved.

Changes in legislation

The Highways and Locomotives (Amendment) Act 1878 ( 41 & 42 Vict. c. 77) created a new class of highway – the main road. The act provided that all former turnpike roads that had become public highways since 1870 were designated as main roads. Other main roads were to be those between "great towns" and those leading to railway stations. In addition any other highway could be declared a main road by the justices of the county in quarter sessions. Half the cost of maintaining main roads was to be borne by the county at large. The

Local Government Act 1888 The Local Government Act 1888 (51 & 52 Vict. c. 41) was an Act of Parliament (United Kingdom), act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which established county councils and county borough councils in England and Wales. It came into effect ...

passed responsibility for main roads to the new

county council A county council is the elected administrative body governing an area known as a county. This term has slightly different meanings in different countries. Australia In the Australian state of New South Wales, county councils are special purpose ...

s from 1889, who were to bear all of the cost of their upkeep. The highway boards continued to have responsibility for highways other than main roads.

Abolition

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 ...

( 56 & 57 Vict. c. 73) passed all the powers, duties and liabilities of existing highway boards, highway authorities or surveyors to the newly created rural district councils. Rural district councils continued to exercise these powers until 1930, when the

Local Government Act 1929 The Local Government Act 1929 ( 19 & 20 Geo. 5. c. 17) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that made changes to the Poor Law and local government in England and Wales. The act abolished the system of poor law unions in England ...

transferred responsibility for rural highways to county councils.

References