Place:Campden Rural, Gloucestershire, England

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Campden Rural District was, from 1894 to 1935, situated in the administrative county of Gloucestershire, England. The district lay on the north-eastern boundary of the Gloucestershire, and consisted of three separate areas nearly surrounded by the counties of Warwickshire and Worcestershire. The county and district boundaries were simplified in 1931 and the district was abolished in 1935.

Formation

The rural district was created by the Local Government Act 1894 from the part of Shipston-on-Stour Rural Sanitary District in Gloucestershire. (Part of the act stated that rural district councils should only cover an area within one county.) The remainder of Shipston RSD became Shipston-on-Stour Rural District in Warwickshire. The rural district was governed by a directly elected rural district council (RDC), which replaced the rural sanitary authority that had comprised the poor law guardians for the area. Campden Rural District Council continued to hold its meetings in the offices of Shipston Poor Law Union, outside its district.

Boundaries and constituent parishes

The rural district lay on the edge of three counties with very irregular boundaries, including a number of detached parishes. The district initially consisted of three parts:

1. Seven civil parishes (Admington, Chipping Campden, Clopton, Ebrington, Hidcote Bartrim, Mickleton and Quinton) formed a detached part of Gloucestershire surrounded by Warwickshire and Worcestershire:

2. Three parishes (Batsford, Bourton on the Hill, and Moreton in Marsh) formed an area to the south, separated from the main part of the district by the Worcestershire parish of Blockley.

3. A further two parishes (Lower Lemington and Todenham) lay to the east of Blockley.

Boundary changes and abolition

In February 1930 Warwickshire County Council made an application under the Local Government Act 1888 for an alteration of the county's boundary. The council sought to annex the entire Marston Sicca Rural District along with the parishes of Admington and Quinton and Clopton in Campden Rural District. Following the passing of the Local Government Act 1929, county councils gained the power to adjust boundaries by negotiation, subject to ministerial approval. At a public inquiry in Cheltenham, a scheme was set up to transfer parishes between Gloucestershire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire in December 1930. The alterations required were approved by the House of Commons and came into force on 1 April 1931.

At the same time five parishes were added to Campden Rural District (see notes on the list of parishes below).

The district was finally abolished in 1935 and its area redistributed. The bulk of the district was merged with Stow-on-the-Wold urban and rural districts to form the new North Cotswold Rural District.

List of Parishes

Research Tips

• The Warwickshire County Record Office is where paper and microfilm copies of all records for this part of Gloucestershire may be stored.
• Gloucestershire Archives in Gloucester is where paper and microfilm copies of all records which did not go to Warwickshire are stored.
  (GENUKI makes this clear in Gloucestershire, but not in Warwickshire.)

Online sources which may also be helpful:

• GENUKI Gloucestershire and GENUKI Warwickshire give pointers to other archive sources as well as providing some details on each parish in the individual counties. The emphasis here is on ecclesiastical parishes (useful before 1837)
• A listing of all the Registration Districts in England and Wales since their introduction in 1837 and tables of the parishes that were part of each district and the time period covered with detailed notes on changes of parish name, mergers, etc. Do respect the copyright on this material.
• The FamilySearch Wiki for Gloucestershire and The FamilySearch Wiki for Warwickshireprovides a similar but not identical series of webpages to that provided by GENUKI
• A Vision of Britain through Time has a group of pages of statistical facts for almost every parish in the county
• Unfortunately, A History of the County of Gloucester in the Victoria County History series provided by the website British History Online does not cover this part of Gloucestershire. However, there is a series of 7 volumes for Warwickshire.
• Comparing a map of Gloucestershire parishes in 1900 with a map of Gloucestershire parishes made in the 1943 helps to illustrate how the county borders changed through this period.
• Ancestry.co.uk has recently added Gloucestershire Burials, 1813-1988; Confirmations, 1834-1913; Baptisms, 1813-1913; Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1813; and Marriages and Banns, 1754-1938. (entry dated 1 Aug 2015)