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Local Government Act 1888





COUNTY COUNCILS

County councils were established for Administrative Counties . These were based on the areas used by Quarter Sessions courts, much of whose administrative authority was taken over by the county councils.

Where towns which were Urban Sanitary Districts lay across county boundaries, the whole town was included in the administrative county in which the largest population lay in the 1881 Census . In all, 22 towns were effected, examples being Banbury (Oxfordshire/Northamptonshire), Mossley (Cheshire/Lancashire/Yorkshire), Peterborough (Huntingdonshire/Northamptonshire]], Tamworth (Staffordshire/Warwickshire) and Todmorden (Lancashire/Yorkshire).

A new County Of London was also created matching the former area of the Metropolitan Board Of Works . Boroughs with a population of more than 50,000 at 1 June 1888 , or which had been Counties Corporate were excluded from the administrative counties, becoming county boroughs (see below).

The act also altered what it calls the "counties", ensuring that the boundaries used for what it terms "non-administrative purposes" would be synchronised with the borders between the administrative counties.


COUNTY BOROUGHS


Towns which were Municipal Boroughs at 1 June 1888 and which had a population of more than 50,000, or certain towns which already constituted a county corporate became county boroughs.


LIST OF ADMINISTRATIVE COUNTIES AND COUNTY BOROUGHS CREATED IN 1889


England


† In 1890 the Isle Of Wight was separated from the County of Southampton to form an Administrative County.


Wales


† Newport became a county borough in 1891, administratively removed from Monmouthshire


SOURCES

  • The Local Government Act 1888, 51 & 52 Vict. c. 41