Bingley Urban District

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Bingley Urban District
Sign on road in from Crossflatts.jpg
The old Bingley Coat of Arms, on a sign on the road in from Crossflatts
Area
 • Coordinates 53°50′46″N1°50′20″W / 53.846°N 1.839°W / 53.846; -1.839
Population
 • 190118,449
 • 196122,272 [note 1]
History
 • Preceded byBingley Improvement Commissioners
 • Origin Local Government Act 1894
 • Created1894
 • Abolished1974
 • Succeeded by Bradford Metropolitan District Council
StatusDefunct
Government
 • TypeLocal government
 •  HQ Bingley Town Hall
 •  Motto Opes industria parit
(Latin: Industry begets wealth) [1]
Bingley Urban District Map of boundary as of 1971

Bingley Urban District covered the town of Bingley, West Riding of Yorkshire, England, and its surrounding areas for 80 years between 1894 and 1974. It had replaced an Improvement Commissioners council, and the UDC itself was replaced in 1974 by the newly formed Bradford Metropolitan District Council. The urban district council had responsibility for many local services, including fire service and medical provision, which are now the remit of regional or national agencies.

Contents

In 2016, limited council control was returned to the town by the election of Bingley Town Council, but its remit and the area it controls are considerably smaller than the former BUDCs authority.

History

Myrtle Grove, which became the council headquarters in 1926 Myrtle Grove, Bingley.jpg
Myrtle Grove, which became the council headquarters in 1926

Bingley was given improvement commissioners in 1847 under a local act of Parliament, the Bingley Improvement Act 1847 (10 & 11 Vict. c. cclviii). [2] This act was passed due to a great increase in the town's population, linked in with the arrival of the railway and increased industrialisation, which had in turn led to slum-like and squalid living conditions, which were recognised as needing improvement. [3] The improvement commissioners' district only covered the built-up area of the town. In 1863 a separate local board was established to provide equivalent services and regulation for the surrounding remainder of the township of Bingley. [4] [5]

Under the Local Government Act 1894, improvement commissioners' districts and local board districts were both converted into urban districts. [6] [7] Bingley was unusual in having both types of district, one surrounding the other. The old improvement commissioners' district became Bingley Urban District, whilst the surrounding former local board district was named the "Bingley Outer Urban District". The outer district was abolished less than four years later in 1898, being absorbed into Bingley Urban District, which also took in the neighbouring Wilsden Urban District at the same time. [8] [9] However, this only occurred after a great debate about sewerage and other utilities, with Bradford Corporation wanting assurances that the new and larger area would not supply fresh water to areas under its control. [10] By 1955, the BUDC was responsible for Bingley, Cottingley, Cullingworth, Eldwick, Flappitt, Gilstead, Harden, Low Springs, Ryecroft and Wilsden. [11]

From the inception of Bingley Urban District Council (BUDC), they occupied a building on the main street that had been built in 1878 and was formerly occupied by a co-operative society. [12]

Bingley Urban District Council Act 1901
Act of Parliament
Coat of arms of the United Kingdom (1901-1952).svg
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long title An Act to authorise the Urban District Council of Bingley to purchase the undertaking of the Cullingworth Gas Company Limited to make certain street works and to make better provision for the health local government and improvement of the district and for other purposes.
Citation 1 Edw. 7. c. cxix
Dates
Royal assent 26 July 1901

In 1904, the BUDC paid £14,000 to buy up some properties on the Old Main Street and part of the graveyard of All Saints Church. This enabled them to build the new main road straight past what is now the new fire station, and across the graveyard, cutting it into two sections. This required its own act of Parliament, the Bingley Urban District Council Act 1901 (1 Edw. 7. c. cxix), and the removal of interred bodies from the site, whilst the headstones were used to line the paths around the graveyard. [13] [14] [15]

As a local council, they had responsibility for public services such as a fire brigade, water supply, medical needs and power supplies (gas and electricity). [16] The BUDC also controlled the public tips in the area of which they had four in 1946; Dowley Gap, Cullingworth, Harden and Wilsden. [17] BUDC invoked several bye-laws relating to public health in the district, and these covered slaughterhouses, markets, the cemetery, smoke abatement, recreation grounds, suppression of litter and even the sale of contraceptives in automated machines. [18] On the social side, the BUDC organised community events such as Boer War commemorative event in 1905 (for the 1899–1902 campaign) and promoting a visit by General Booth in 1907. [19]

In February 1914, the BUDC enabled the Bradford tram system to be extended into Bingley from Nab Wood (Saltaire). It was opened through Bingley to Crossflatts by October 1914. [20] This entailed the widening of Cottingley Bridge and affording at least a 40 feet (12 m) width on the Main Street in Bingley. The BUDC was also to be responsible for the supply of electricity, which they bought from the Keighley Corporation Tramways company. [21] In 1928, the St Ive's estate was purchased for the area by the BUDC for £39,500. [22] In 1923, certain offices of the BUDC were transferred from their previous BUDC offices (some being located in the Mechanics Institute) to Myrtle Grove, on the western side of the town in the rapidly developing Myrtle Park area. By 1926, all of the BUDC's operations had been transferred to Myrtle Grove which had now become the Town Hall. [23]

In 1936, many jobs that are now the responsibility of private enterprises, official regional, or national agencies, were undertaken by the BUDC. These included: [24]

The novelist John Braine worked for the BUDC in Bingley Library for several years in the 1950s. During this period, he wrote Room at the Top , which allowed him to give up his day job. However, some commented that the novel painted Bradford (and the wider area) as a "seedy, immoral place", and the BUDC criticised the library in Bingley for buying six copies of the novel. [25] [26]

In 1974, the Bingley Urban District was merged into the newly formed Metropolitan District of Bradford, along with the other Aire Valley urban districts of Baildon, Ilkley, Shipley and Silsden, and the Municipal Borough of Keighley. [27] [28]

Population

Population of the Bingley Urban area, 1901–1961
19011905191119161921192619311936193919411946195119561961
18,449 [29] 18,900 [30] 18,759 [31] 18,615 [30] 18,942 [29] 19,650 [30] 20,553 [29] 22,552 [30] 22,504 [29] 21,370 [30] 21,470 [30] 21,568 [32] 21,660 [a] [33] 22,272 [31]
  1. ↑ Estimated population

    Chronology

    Notable people

    Notes

    1. ↑ Not all census information is available for 1894 or 1974 (though 1971 would have been the last census before the BUDC was subsumed into Bradford Metropolitan District Council.)

    References

    1. ↑ Pine, L G (1983). A Dictionary of mottoes. London: Routledge & K. Paul. p. 163. ISBN   0-7100-9339-X.
    2. ↑ "Bingley Improvement Act 1847". legislation.gov.uk. The National Archives. Retrieved 8 January 2024.
    3. ↑ Cattell 2016, p. 28.
    4. ↑ "No. 22761". The London Gazette . 11 August 1863. p. 4000.
    5. ↑ "Six-inch map, 1894". National Library of Scotland. Ordnance Survey. Retrieved 8 January 2024.
    6. ↑ "Local Government Act 1894" (PDF). legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
    7. ↑ "Bingley Conservation Area Assessment" (PDF). bradford.gov.uk. March 2004. p. 11. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
    8. ↑ Annual Report of the Local Government Board. 1898. pp. 284, 293. Retrieved 8 January 2024.
    9. ↑ "Bingley Outer UD through time | Census tables with data for the Local Government District". www.visionofbritain.org. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
    10. ↑ "County council inquiry at Bingley". Leeds Mercury. No. 18, 298. Column D. 26 November 1896. p. 7.
    11. ↑ Battersby 1955, p. 26.
    12. ↑ Hartley, W (1900). Fifty Years of Co-operation in Bingley: A Jubilee Record of the Bingley Industrial Co-operative. Bingley: Bingley Industrial Co-Operative Society Ltd. p. 67. OCLC   27480859.
    13. ↑ "Bingley conservation area assessment" (PDF). bradford.gov.uk. March 2004. p. 12. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
    14. ↑ Firth, Gary; Hitt, Malcolm (2009). Bingley Past and Present. History Press. p. 24. ISBN   978-0-7524-5345-3.
    15. ↑ Cattell 2016, p. 50.
    16. ↑ "Electricity Act 1947". www.legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
    17. ↑ Findlater, A. J. M. (1946). Report 1946, by Bingley Urban District Council (Report). Bingley: Bingley Urban District Council. p. 13. OCLC   779793338.
    18. ↑ Battersby 1955, p. 20.
    19. ↑ Cattell 2016, p. 16.
    20. ↑ King 1998, p. 139.
    21. 1 2 King 1998, p. 51.
    22. ↑ Clayton, Emma (7 December 2013). "Plenty of outdoor fun at St Ives" . infoweb.newsbank.com. Retrieved 25 February 2021.
    23. ↑ Cattell 2016, pp. 74–75.
    24. ↑ Cattell 2016, p. 33.
    25. ↑ Wilson, Charles, ed. (30 October 1986). "John Braine; only one room at the top". The Times. No. 62602. p. 20. ISSN   0140-0460.
    26. ↑ Clayton, Emma (21 June 2017). ""The 50s were a golden era in Bradford": Reflections on a lost industrial age" . infoweb.newsbank.com. Retrieved 25 February 2021.
    27. ↑ Cattell 2016, p. 34.
    28. ↑ "Part I. (Hansard, 25 June 1947)". api.parliament.uk. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
    29. 1 2 3 4 "Bingley UD through time | Population Statistics | Total Population". www.visionofbritain.org. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
    30. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Battersby 1955, p. 45.
    31. 1 2 "Bingley UD through time | Census tables with data for the Local Government District". www.visionofbritain.org. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
    32. ↑ Battersby 1955, p. 6.
    33. ↑ Battersby, J (1957). Report 1957, by Bingley Urban District Council (Report). Bingley: Bingley Urban District Council. p. 5. OCLC   779793338.
    34. 1 2 3 Cattell 2016, p. 19.
    35. ↑ Tate, Chris (5 January 2015). "Green-minded Bingley group celebrates two years of regeneration work at neglected park" . infoweb.newsbank.com. Retrieved 25 February 2021.
    36. ↑ "About Bingley & surrounding district". www.bingleyhistory.co.uk. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
    37. ↑ Cattell 2016, p. 32.
    38. ↑ Historic England. "Old Fire Station (Grade II) (1133369)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 27 December 2020.
    39. ↑ Cattell 2016, p. 42.
    40. ↑ "No. 33064". The London Gazette . 7 July 1925. p. 4553.
    41. ↑ Historic England. "St Ives Estate (Grade II) (1001707)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 20 May 2020.
    42. ↑ "Volume II supplies and services". Statutory Instruments. London: HMSO. 1948. p. 851. OCLC   16661395.
    43. ↑ Cattell 2016, p. 43.
    44. ↑ "Bingley Arts Centre (home of Bingley Little Theatre) | Theatres Trust". database.theatrestrust.org.uk. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
    45. ↑ Amis, Kingsley. "Braine, John Gerard". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/39825.(Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
    46. ↑ "Snowden, Tom" . Who's Who & Who Was Who . Vol. 2007 (2020 online ed.). A & C Black. Retrieved 10 September 2020.(Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
    47. ↑ Jenkins, Simon, ed. (8 August 1990). "Pat Wall (obituary)". The Times. No. 63779. p. 12. ISSN   0140-0460.

    Sources

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