Civil parishes in Merseyside

A map of Merseyside, showing the Metropolitan Boroughs: (1) Liverpool; (2) Sefton; (3) Knowsley; (4) St Helens; and (5) Wirral.

A civil parish is a country subdivision, forming the lowest unit of local government in England. There are 23 civil parishes in the ceremonial county of Merseyside, most of the county being unparished; Liverpool and Wirral are completely unparished. At the 2001 census, there were 177,663 people living in the 23 parishes, accounting for 13.0 per cent of the county's population.

History

Parishes arose from Church of England divisions, and were originally purely ecclesiastical divisions. Over time they acquired civil administration powers.^[1]

The Highways Act 1555 made parishes responsible for the upkeep of roads. Every adult inhabitant of the parish was obliged to work four days a year on the roads, providing their own tools, carts and horses; the work was overseen by an unpaid local appointee, the Surveyor of Highways.^[2]

The poor were looked after by the monasteries, until their dissolution. In 1572, 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 1601, which made parishes responsible for administering the Poor Law; overseers were appointed to charge a rate to support the poor of the parish.^[3] The 19th century saw an increase in the responsibility of parishes, although the Poor Law powers were transferred to Poor Law Unions.^[4] The Public Health Act 1872 grouped parishes into Rural Sanitary Districts, based on the Poor Law Unions; these subsequently formed the basis for Rural Districts.^[5]

Parishes were run by vestries, meeting annually to appoint officials, and were generally identical to ecclesiastical parishes,^[6] although some townships in large parishes administered the Poor Law themselves; under the Divided Parishes and Poor Law Amendment Act 1882, all extra-parochial areas and townships that levied a separate rate became independent civil parishes.^[7]

Civil parishes in their modern sense date from the Local Government Act 1894, which abolished vestries; established elected parish councils in all rural parishes with more than 300 electors; grouped rural parishes into Rural Districts; and aligned parish boundaries with county and borough boundaries.^[7] Urban civil parishes continued to exist, and were generally coterminous with the Urban District, Municipal Borough or County Borough in which they were situated; many large towns contained a number of parishes, and these were usually merged into one. Parish councils were not formed in urban areas, and the only function of the parish was to elect guardians to Poor Law Unions; with the abolition of the Poor Law system in 1930 the parishes had only a nominal existence.^[8]

The Local Government Act 1972 retained civil parishes in rural areas, and many former Urban Districts and Municipal Boroughs that were being abolished, were replaced by new successor parishes; urban areas that were considered too large to be single parishes became unparished areas.^[9]

Merseyside showing the former local authorities

The current position

Recent governments have encouraged the formation of town and parish councils in unparished areas, and the Local Government and Rating Act 1997 gave local residents the right to demand the creation of a new civil parish.^[10]

A parish council can become a town council unilaterally, simply by resolution;^[9] and a civil parish can also gain city status, but only if that is granted by the Crown.^[9] The chairman of a town or city council is called a mayor.^[9] The Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 introduced alternative names: a parish council can now choose to be called a community; village; or neighbourhood council.^[11]

Halewood

Prescot

Whiston

Maghull

Civil parishes with town status

List of civil parishes and unparished areas

Image	Name	Status	Population	District	Former local authority	Refs
	Cronton	Civil parish	1,379	Knowsley	Whiston Rural District	[12] [13]
	Halewood	Town	20,309	Knowsley	Whiston Rural District	[12] [13]
	Huyton with Roby	Unparished area	49,859	Knowsley	Huyton with Roby Urban District	[14] [15]
	Kirkby	Unparished area	40,374	Knowsley	Kirkby Urban District	[16] [17]
	Knowsley	Civil parish	11,343	Knowsley	Whiston Rural District	[12] [13]
	Prescot	Town	11,184	Knowsley	Prescot Urban District	[18] [13]
	Tarbock	Unparished area (Parish Council abolished 1 April 2014)	2,382	Knowsley	Whiston Rural District	[12] [13]
	Whiston	Town	13,629	Knowsley	Whiston Rural District	[12] [13]
	Liverpool	Unparished area	439,473	Liverpool	Liverpool County Borough	[19] [20]
	Aintree Village	Civil parish	7,126	Sefton	West Lancashire Rural District	[21] [22]
	Bootle	Unparished area	59,011	Sefton	Bootle County Borough	[23] [24]
	Crosby	Unparished area	45,872	Sefton	Crosby Municipal Borough	[25] [26]
	Formby	Civil parish	23,586	Sefton	Formby Urban District	[27] [28] [29]
	Hightown	Civil parish	2,247	Sefton	Crosby Municipal Borough	[25] [22]
	Ince Blundell	Civil parish	518	Sefton	West Lancashire Rural District	[21] [22]
	Litherland	Unparished area	18,629	Sefton	Litherland Urban District	[30] [31]
	Little Altcar	Civil parish	892	Sefton	West Lancashire Rural District	[21] [22]
	Lydiate	Civil parish	6,672	Sefton	West Lancashire Rural District	[21] [22]
	Maghull	Town	22,225	Sefton	West Lancashire Rural District	[21] [22]
	Melling	Civil parish	2,810	Sefton	West Lancashire Rural District	[21] [22]
	Sefton	Civil parish	772	Sefton	West Lancashire Rural District	[21] [22]
	Southport	Unparished area	90,336	Sefton	Southport County Borough	[32] [33]
	Thornton	Civil parish	2,262	Sefton	West Lancashire Rural District	[21] [22]
	Billinge Chapel End	Civil parish	6,554	St Helens	Billinge and Winstanley Urban District	[34] [35]
	Bold	Civil parish	2,283	St Helens	Whiston Rural District	[12] [35]
	Eccleston	Civil parish	10,528	St Helens	Whiston Rural District	[12] [35]
	Haydock	Unparished area	15,684	St Helens	Haydock Urban District	[36] [37]
	Newton le Willows	Unparished area	21,418	St Helens	Newton le Willows Urban District	[38] [39]
	Rainford	Civil parish	8,344	St Helens	Rainford Urban District	[40] [35]
	Rainhill	Civil parish	11,913	St Helens	Whiston Rural District	[12] [35]
	Seneley Green	Civil parish	6,163	St Helens	Ashton in Makerfield Urban District	[41] [35]
	St Helens	Unparished area	91,414	St Helens	St Helens County Borough	[42] [43]
	Windle	Civil parish	2,542	St Helens	Whiston Rural District	[12] [35]
	Bebington	Unparished area	58,226	Wirral	Bebington Municipal Borough	[44] [45]
	Birkenhead	Unparished area	103,206	Wirral	Birkenhead County Borough	[46] [47]
	Heswall	Unparished area	29,977	Wirral	Wirral Urban District	[48] [49]
	Hoylake	Unparished area	35,655	Wirral	Hoylake Urban District	[50] [51]
	Wallasey	Unparished area	84,348	Wirral	Wallasey County Borough	[52] [53]

See also

• List of civil parishes in England

References

External links

• Office for National Statistics : Geographical Area Listings
• Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council : Parish and Town Councils
• Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council : Parish and Town Councils
• St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council : Parish and Town Councils