Rural district

From Freepedia

In the British Isles rural districts were a historic type of local government district which covered predominantly rural areas. They were sub-divisions of administrative counties.

England and Wales

In England and Wales they were created in 1894 (by the Local Government Act 1894) along with urban districts. They replaced the earlier system of Poor Law Unions and sanitary districts.

Rural districts had elected Rural District Councils (RDCs), which inherited the functions of the earlier sanitary districts and poor law unions, but also had wider authority over matters such as local planning, council housing, playgrounds and cemeteries. Matters such as education and roads were the responsibillity of county councils.

Originally there were 787 rural districts in England and Wales, as they were based directly upon the poor law unions which had preceded them. However many rural districts proved to be too small or poor to be viable, and in the early 1930s, 236 rural districts were abolished and merged and amalgamated into larger units. Further mergers took place over following decades and by 1965 their numbers had been reduced to 473.

The typical shape of a rural district was a doughnut shaped ring around a town (which would be either an urban district or a municipal borough). Many rural districts were fragmentary, consisting of a number of detached parts. Many rural districts contained small market towns as their administrative centre.

All rural districts in England and Wales were abolished in 1974 (by the Local Government Act 1972) and were typically merged with nearby urban districts or boroughs to form a uniform pattern of districts, which contained urban and rural areas.

Ireland

In what is now the Republic of Ireland (then a part of the United Kingdom) rural districts were created in 1898 by the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898. They were abolished in the early days of the Irish Free State in 1925 amid widespread accusations of corruption, and their functions transferred to the county councils.

In Northern Ireland they were abolished (along with all other local government of the old pattern), in 1973 and replaced with a system of unitary districts.

Germany

In Germany an equivalent of the rural district, the Landkreise still exists, see Districts of Germany.

Subnational entity
	Banner | Borough | Canton | Circuit | City | Commune | County | Council | Department | District | Division | Dominion | Duchy | Governorate | Hamlet | Municipality | Neighbourhood | Parish | Prefecture | Province | Region | Republic | State | Territory | Town | Township | Village | Voivodship | Community
Autonomous:	banner | city | community | county | prefecture | province | region | republic | ward
Civil:	parish | township
Federal:	capital | district | capital district | capital territory
Local:	council
Metropolitan:	borough | county
National:	capital district | capital territory
Rural:	council | district | municipality
Urban:	district
edit	See also: List of subnational entities, Matrix of subnational entities