The parish system in Europe was established between the 8th and 12th centuries, and an early form was long established in England by the time of the
Norman Conquest. Parishes often shared their boundaries with
manors, and a parish could contain multiple manors but a manor could also spread across two parishes. Initially, churches and their priests were the gift and continued patronage (benefaction) of the
lord of the manor, but not all were willing and able to provide, so residents would be expected to attend the church of the nearest manor that had one. Later, the churches and priests became to a greater extent the responsibility of the
Catholic Church thus this was formalised; the grouping of manors into one parish was recorded, as was a manor-parish existing in its own right. Boundaries changed little, and for centuries after 1180 'froze', despite changes to manors' extents. This consistency was a result of
canon law which prized the
status quo in issues between local churches and so made boundary changes and sub-division difficult. The consistency of these boundaries until the 19th century is useful to historians, and is also of cultural significance in terms of shaping local identities; reinforced by the use of grouped parish boundaries, often, by successive local authority areas; and in a very rough, operations-geared way by most postcode districts. There was (and is) wide disparity in parish size. For example,
Writtle in Essex traditionally measures whereas two neighbouring parishes are
Shellow Bowells at , and
Chignall Smealy at . Until the
break with Rome, parishes managed ecclesiastical matters, while the manor was the principal unit of local administration and justice. Later, the church replaced the manor court as the rural administrative centre, and levied a local tax on produce known as a
tithe. The parish authorities were known as vestries and consisted of all the ratepayers of the parish. As the number of ratepayers of some parishes grew, it became increasingly difficult to convene meetings as an open vestry. In some, mostly built-up, areas the
select vestry took over responsibility from the entire body of ratepayers. This innovation improved efficiency, but allowed governance by a self-perpetuating elite. As the administration of the poor laws was the main civil function of parishes, the Poor Law Amendment Act 1866, which received
royal assent on 10 August 1866, declared all areas that levied a separate rate or had their own
overseer of the poor to be parishes. This included the Church of England parishes (until then simply known as "parishes"),
extra-parochial areas,
townships and
chapelries. To have collected rates this means these beforehand had their own vestries, boards or equivalent bodies. Parishes using this definition subsequently became known as "civil parishes" to distinguish them from the ecclesiastical parishes. The Church of England parishes, which cover more than 99% of England, have become officially (and to avoid ambiguity) termed
ecclesiastical parishes. The limits of many of these have diverged; most greatly through changes in population and church attendance (these factors can cause churches to be opened or closed). Since 1921, each has been the responsibility of its own
parochial church council. In the late 19th century, most of the "ancient" (a legal term equivalent to
time immemorial) irregularities inherited by the civil parish system were cleaned up, and the majority of
exclaves were abolished. The
census of 1911 noted that 8,322 (58%) of "parishes" in
England and Wales were not geographically identical when comparing the
civil to the
ecclesiastical form.
1894 reforms In 1894, civil parishes were reformed by the
Local Government Act 1894 (
56 & 57 Vict. c. 73) to become the smallest geographical area for local government in rural areas. The act abolished the civil (non-ecclesiastical) duties of
vestries. Parishes which straddled county boundaries or
sanitary districts had to be split so that the part in each urban or rural sanitary district became a separate parish (see
List of county exclaves in England and Wales 1844–1974). The sanitary districts were then reconstituted as
urban districts and
rural districts, with parishes that fell within urban districts classed as urban parishes, and parishes that fell within rural districts were classed as rural parishes.
Rural parishes The 1894 act established elected civil parish councils as to all rural parishes with more than 300 electors, and established annual
parish meetings in all rural parishes. Civil parishes were grouped to form either rural or urban districts which are thereafter classified as either type. The parish meetings for parishes with a population of between 100 and 300 could request their county council to establish a parish council. Provision was also made for a grouped parish council to be established covering two or more rural parishes. In such groups, each parish retained its own parish meeting which could vote to leave the group, but otherwise the grouped parish council acted across the combined area of the parishes included.
Urban parishes Urban civil parishes were not given their own parish councils, but were directly administered by the council of the urban district or borough in which they were contained. Many urban parishes were coterminous (geographically identical) with the
urban district or
municipal borough in which they lay. Towns which included multiple urban parishes often consolidated the urban parishes into one. The urban parishes continued to be used as an electoral area for electing guardians to the
poor law unions. The unions took in areas in multiple parishes and had a set number of guardians for each parish, hence a final purpose of urban civil parishes. With the abolition of the Poor Law system in 1930, urban parishes became a geographical division only with no administrative power; that was exercised at the urban district or borough council level.
19651974 reforms In 1965 civil parishes in London were formally abolished when
Greater London was created, as the legislative framework for Greater London did not make provision for any local government body below a
London borough. (Since the new county was beforehand a mixture of
metropolitan boroughs, municipal boroughs and urban districts, no extant parish councils were abolished.) In 1974, the
Local Government Act 1972 retained rural parishes, but abolished most urban parishes, as well as the urban districts and boroughs which had administered them. Provision was made for smaller urban districts and boroughs to become
successor parishes, with a boundary coterminous with an existing urban district or borough or, if divided by a new district boundary, as much as was comprised in a single district. There were 300 such successor parishes established. In urban areas that were considered too large to be single parishes, the parishes were simply abolished, and they became
unparished areas. The distinction between types of parish was no longer made; whether parishes continued by virtue of being retained rural parishes or were created as successor parishes, they were all simply termed parishes. The 1972 act allowed the new district councils (outside London) to review their parishes, and many areas left unparished in 1972 have since been made parishes, either in whole or part. For example,
Hinckley, whilst entirely unparished in 1974, now has four civil parishes, which together cover part of its area, whilst the central part of the town remains unparished.
Sub-divisions Some parishes were sub-divided into smaller territories known as
hamlets,
tithings or
townships.
Revival Nowadays the creation of town and
parish councils is encouraged in
unparished areas. The
Local Government and Rating Act 1997 created a procedure which gave residents in unparished areas the right to demand that a new parish and parish council be created. This right was extended to
London boroughs by the
Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 – with this, the
City of London is at present the only part of England where civil parishes cannot be created. If enough electors in the area of a proposed new parish (ranging from 50% in an area with less than 500 electors to 10% in one with more than 2,500) sign a
petition demanding its creation, then the local district council or unitary authority must consider the proposal. ==Governance==