County boundaries in fact changed very little between c.1000 and 1840. Some
tidying up took place in the early 1840s, to add detached places to an
adjacent county. Changes were made in various stages after the 1880s
further to accommodate the expansion of new cities; to simplify some of the
most convoluted county boundaries; possibly for other reasons. However,
generally, there was little change until 1974.
It is perhaps unfortunate that the Poor Law Unions were not sufficiently
used to create a new structure. They were subsequently used to create
sanitary authorities, which then became rural districts, but where a Poor
Law Union straddled a county boundary, the result was two rural districts,
not one. Stourbridge Union had its workhouse in Kingswinford,
Staffordshire, which meant that the Staffordshire portion became
Kingswinford Rural District. This was subsequently abolished to create
Brierley Hill Urban District; perhaps some others too.
Peter King
49, Stourbridge Road,
Hagley
Stourbridge
West Midlands
DY9 0QS
[log in to unmask]
01562-720368
-----Original Message-----
From: From: Local-History list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of GATLEY David
Sent: 02 December 2013 14:55
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Yorkshire/Lancs boundary
The truth is boundaries have never been static things but have extensively
altered throughout time.
In the late 1880s the boundaries of many of the new County Boroughs were
altered to bring in adjacent areas, even in those instances in which they
fell in another county. I can't speak of any examples from Yorkshire but
Warrington, then a Lancashire town, was extended to include Latchford in
Cheshire situated on the opposite bank of the Mersey and a detached portion
of Thelwall (where I was born - the maternity hospital being located there)
was also incorporated into the town.
Similarly parts of Staffordshire were added to Birmingham then a
Warwickshire town.
The 1974 reforms managed to annoy just about everyone without actually doing
what they set out to do, which was to create efficient providers of local
services. The Prime Minister Edward Health then being keen to annoy as few
Tory voters as he could.
The irony of all this is that way back in the 1830s and early 1840s Edwin
Chadwick created the basis of a far more efficient system and democratic
form of local government when he created the Poor Law Unions. Had the
existing counties then been abolished and the Poor Law Unions given
responsibility for all local government services, and the franchise extended
to include all males and females aged over 14 then we would all be a lot
better off today. In deed I do wonder if this was what Edwin Chadwick wanted
to do. As it was the Poor Law Unions were given responsibility for vital
registration (hence they were also known as Registration Districts) and some
powers over sanitation. Sadly Chadwick's achievements were thrown out in the
1880s in favour of a system of local government based on the ancient
counties and boroughs, although the areas of many rural district councils
coincided with the old Poor Law Unions.
Incidentally the 1851, 1861 and 1871 Censuses include statistical tables for
Registration Counties, which were groups of Poor Law Unions which roughly
corresponded to the ancient counties.
Here endeth the lecture! :-)
David
----
Dr David Alan Gatley
Senior Lecturer, Sociology
Faculty of Arts and Creative Technologies Staffordshire University College
Road Stoke-on-Trent
ST4 2DE
________________________________________
From: From: Local-History list [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Nick Hudd [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 02 December 2013 14:31
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [LOCAL-HISTORY] Yorkshire/Lancs boundary
If you look at the history of diocesan boundaries, which I suppose are in
some ways comparable as an organisational concept, you find that they have
not been immutable, though it is often assumed that they have been
Nick Hudd
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