A History Of The Parish System

The division of much of England into parishes is an ancient system; the word 'parish' being derived from the Latin parochia which term was often used by the early Christian Church to describe those divisions. Parishes arose from common law and Church divisions, and whilst originally defined by ecclesiastical divisions, have over the course of time taken on various roles relating to the civil administration of the parish.

Local administration hasn't always taken the structured form we expect to see today. In earlier times a local officer was unsalaried and was expected to take what fees and perquisites he could with his office. An example of this being a reference from the 14th-century. where a coroner, Geoffrey Rodlaund from Cranfield, negotiated 4s. from Southill to view 2 dead men, a strong bargaining position for the coroner as ordinarily it would have been impossible to leave a body unburied for any significant period of time. Other references suggest that whilst Rodlaund usually charged 2s. per corpse, he would accept 1s. 6d. for quantity.

The Highways Act of 1555 required that parishes took responsibility for the upkeep of roads within the parish boundary. Every adult inhabitant of the parish was obliged to work unpaid for four days a year on maintaining the roads and each was expected to provide their own equipment to carry out that work. The work was overseen by an unpaid local appointee, the Surveyor of Highways. This responsibility was transferred to Highway Boards in 1855 and later fell within the scope of County Councils. Bedfordshire County Council came into being as a result of the Local Government Act of 1888, consisted 68 elected County Councillors, and was required to administer 254 miles of main roads within the county.

The poor had been looked after by the monasteries until the dissolution. In 1572, the 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 of 1600 which made parishes responsible for administering the Poor Law. Parishes appointed overseers, who could 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. These often later became Rural Districts, and the parish of Southill fell within the jurisdiction of the Biggleswade Rural District. The parishes were run by vestries, meeting annually to appoint their officials. Most took the form of 'open' or 'common' vestries where all parishioners could attend, but a few were 'select' (i.e. elected).

Civil parishes in their modern sense were established in 1894, by the Local Government Act of 1894. The Act abolished vestries, and established elected Parish Councils in all rural civil parishes with more than 300 electors.

In 1974 the Local Government Act (1972) retained civil parishes in rural areas and small urban areas, but abolished them in larger urban areas. (In Wales civil parishes were abolished by the 1972 Act, and replaced with Community Councils.) Many former urban districts and municipal boroughs that were being abolished rather than succeeded were continued as new parishes. Urban areas that were considered too large to be single parishes were refused this permission and became unparished areas.

New civil parishes can be created, in some cases splitting existing civil parishes, while in others creating new ones from unparished areas. More than 100 new parishes have been created since 1997, many of them in towns and large urban areas. For example, in 2001 the Milton Keynes urban area became entirely parished with ten new parishes.