Berkhampstead
Poor Law Union had been created in 1835 following the
Poor Law Amendment Act 1834. Under the
Public Health Act 1872 sanitary districts were created, and the
boards of guardians of poor law unions were made responsible for public health and local government for any part of their district not included in an urban authority. The Berkhampstead Rural Sanitary District therefore covered the area of the Berkhampstead Poor Law Union except for the town of
Tring, which had a
local board. Under the
Local Government Act 1894 (
56 & 57 Vict. c. 73), rural sanitary districts became rural districts from 28 December 1894. The Act also directed that the new rural districts should be only in one county. Where rural sanitary districts straddled county boundaries, as Berkhampstead Rural Sanitary District did, they should be split into separate rural districts in each county, or otherwise boundary amendments should be made. Most of Berkhampstead Rural Sanitary District was in Hertfordshire, but it also included the parishes of
Marsworth,
Nettleden, and
Pitstone in
Buckinghamshire. Following discussion between Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire County Councils, the
Local Government Board agreed that Marsworth and Pitstone would join the
Linslade Rural District, whilst Nettleden would be administered by the Berkhampstead Rural District from the outset, pending its formal transfer to Hertfordshire. On 30 September 1895, nine months after Berkhampstead Rural District was created, Nettleden was transferred from Buckinghamshire to Hertfordshire (along with part of
Ivinghoe parish which was added to Nettleden at the same time) and thereafter the Berkhampstead Rural District was entirely in Hertfordshire. The link with the poor law union continued, with all the elected councillors of the rural district council being
ex officio members of the Berkhampstead Board of Guardians. The new district council held its first meeting on 31 December 1894 at the workhouse in Berkhamsted. Frederick Quincey Lane was appointed the first chairman of the council. He held the post until his death in 1907. When first created, the Berkhampstead Rural District included the town of
Berkhamsted (officially known as Great Berkhampstead at the time). An
urban district was created for the town on 15 April 1898, when the parish of Great Berkhampstead was split into a Great Berkhampstead Rural parish, which remained in the Berkhampstead Rural District, and a Great Berkhampstead Urban parish, which became the Great Berkhampstead Urban District. ==Parishes==