In England, a township (Latin: villa) is a local division or district of a large parish containing a village or small town usually having its own church. [1] A township may or may not be coterminous with a chapelry, manor, or any other minor area of local administration.
The township is distinguished from the following:
'Township' is, however, sometimes used loosely for any of the above.
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:
The local historian Dorothy Silvester has identified a "parish line", which divided northern from southern counties of England and Wales . In Denbighshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, the West Riding and North Riding of Yorkshire, and north of this line, parishes tended on the whole to be large, containing several townships. However, south of this line, parishes tended to contain single townships. [3] [4]
A township appointed overseers of the poor and surveyors of highways in the same way as a parish and they financed their obligations by levying a rate, in the same way as parish officials. The original definition of a civil parish was any place in respect of which a rate could lawfully be levied. Most townships disappeared before 1866 either being included into adjacent civil parishes or gaining their own separate civil parish status. [5]
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, [6] and the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan divides the borough into ten townships, which each have a township forum. [7] Wirral is divided into forty-four, for planning purposes. [8]
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; [9] in Herefordshire, Bromyard still has areas referred to by the names of three townships besides that of the central town area.
Hallamshire is the historical name for an area of South Yorkshire, England, approximating to the current City of Sheffield local government area.
Ecclesall Ward—which includes the neighbourhoods of Banner Cross, Bents Green, Carterknowle, Ecclesall, Greystones, Millhouses, and Ringinglow—is one of the 28 electoral wards in the City of Sheffield, England. It is located in the southwestern part of the city and covers an area of 3.6 square miles. The population of this ward in 2007 was 19,211 people in 7,626 households, reducing to 6,657 at the 2011 Census. Ecclesall ward is one of the four wards that make up the South West Community Assembly and one of five wards that make up the Sheffield Hallam Parliamentary constituency. The Member of Parliament is Olivia Blake, a Labour MP. Ecclesall is one of the least socially deprived wards in the entire country, with a 2002 deprivation score of 4.7—making it the 8,105th most deprived ward out of 8,414 wards in the country. The demographic consists largely of white, middle-class families.
Ruyton-XI-Towns, formally Ruyton of the Eleven Towns or simply Ruyton, is a village and civil parish next to the River Perry in Shropshire, England. It had a population of 1,379 at the 2011 Census.
The City of Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough in South Yorkshire, England. The metropolitan borough includes the administrative centre of Sheffield, the town of Stocksbridge and larger village of Chapeltown and part of the Peak District. It has a population of 584,853, making it technically the third largest city in England by population behind Birmingham and Leeds, since London is not considered a single entity. It is governed by Sheffield City Council.
The Salford Hundred was one of the subdivisions of the historic county of Lancashire in Northern England (see:Hundred. Its name alludes to its judicial centre being the township of Salford. It was also known as the Royal Manor of Salford and the Salford wapentake.
Littleborough is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, Greater Manchester, England, in the upper Roch Valley by the foothills of the South Pennines, 3 miles (4.8 km) northeast of Rochdale and 13 miles (20.9 km) northeast of Manchester; Milnrow and the M62 motorway are to the south, and the rural uplands of Blackstone Edge to the east. According to the 2001 census, Littleborough, and its suburbs of Calderbrook, Shore and Smithy Bridge, had a population of 13,807.
A civil parish is a country subdivision, forming the lowest unit of local government in England. There are 125 civil parishes in the ceremonial county of Bedfordshire, most of the county being parished: Luton is completely unparished; Central Bedfordshire is entirely parished. At the 2001 census, there were 312,301 people living in the 125 parishes, which accounted for 55.2 per cent of the county's population.
A civil parish is a country subdivision, forming the lowest unit of local government in England. There are 333 civil parishes in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, most of the county being parished. Cheshire East unitary authority is entirely parished. At the 2001 census, there were 565,259 people living in 332 parishes, accounting for 57.5 per cent of the county's population.
A civil parish is a subnational entity, forming the lowest unit of local government in England. There are 21 civil parishes in the ceremonial county of West Midlands, most of the county being unparished; Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton are completely unparished. At the 2001 census, there were 89,621 people living in the parishes, accounting for 3.5 per cent of the county's population.
A civil parish is a country subdivision, forming the lowest unit of local government in England. There are 22 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 parishes, accounting for 13.0 per cent of the county's population.
The areas of Sheffield, a city and metropolitan borough in the north of England, vary widely in size and history. Some of the areas developed from villages or hamlets, that were absorbed into Sheffield as the city grew, and thus their centres are well defined, but the boundaries of many areas are ambiguous. The areas of Sheffield do not play a significant administrative role, but the city is divided into 28 electoral wards for local elections and 6 parliamentary constituencies for national elections.
Sheffield was a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom 1832 to 1885. It elected two Members of Parliament (MPs) by the bloc vote system of elections.
Billinge is a village within the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens, Merseyside, England. It forms the larger part of the civil parish of Billinge Chapel End.
Vill is a term used in English, Welsh and Irish history to describe a basic rural land unit, roughly comparable to that of a parish, manor, village or tithing.
Frankby is a village and former civil parish, in the Wirral district, in Merseyside, England. It is located on the Wirral Peninsula between Greasby and Newton on the outskirts of the town of West Kirby and south of Hoylake. The hamlet of Larton is to the north west. Historically within the county of Cheshire, it is part of the Greasby, Frankby and Irby Ward and is in the parliamentary constituency of Wirral West.
Halesowen was a medieval parish in the West Midlands of England.
The ancient parishes of Cheshire refers to the group of parishes that existed in the English county of Cheshire, roughly within the period of 1200–1800. Initially, the ancient parishes had only an ecclesiastical function, but reforms initiated by King Henry VIII, developed by Queen Elizabeth I and expanded by later legislation led them to acquire various secular functions that eventually led to a split between the ecclesiastical parishes and the purely civil parishes that exist today.
Sheffield South East is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since its 2010 creation by Clive Betts, a member of the Labour Party.