Township (England)

In many areas of England, the basic unit of civil administration was the parish, generally identical with the ecclesiastical parish. However, in some cases, particularly in Northern England, there was a lesser unit called a township, being a subdivision of a parish. This could happen for several reasons: • In some parts of Northern England, the parishes were too large to be managed conveniently. For example, Sheffield constituted a single parish, which had six townships in it — Ecclesall Bierlow, Brightside Bierlow, Attercliffe cum Darnall, Nether Hallam, Upper Hallam, and Sheffield itself. Whalley parish, in Lancashire, contained 47 townships and extended over 43,000 ha (105,000 ac). ==Modern use==

The use of the term 'township' persisted and has recently been revived as a name for subdivisions of boroughs in northern England. For example, the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale has township committees, and the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan divides the borough into ten townships, which each have a township forum. Wirral is divided into forty-four, for planning purposes. In Sheffield, Mosborough ward, which includes the districts of Halfway, Mosborough village, Waterthorpe, and Westfield, is one of the 28 electoral wards in the City of Sheffield. It is located in the eastern part of the city and is one of the wards that make up the Sheffield Attercliffe parliamentary constituency. The area is often referred to as Mosborough Townships, but this usage does not have any administrative significance. In Shropshire, the name of Ruyton-XI-Towns preserves the memory only of medieval townships, eleven of which had been united under one manor; in Herefordshire, Bromyard still has areas referred to by the names of three townships besides that of the central town area. ==References==