The Local Government Board
In 1871, the Poor Law Board was replaced by the Local Government Board which included a much broader range of responsibilities such as sanitation and public health.
In the 1870s, the Local Government Board mounted a campaign to reduce the levels of out-relief expenditure. It also increased the pressure on the few remaining unions such as Todmorden, Rhayader and Presteigne who had held out against the building workhouses. It was assisted in this by The Divided Parishes and Poor Law Amendment Act, 1876 (39&40 Victoria c.61). The primary aim of this Act was to enable the Board to tidy up the boundaries of unions, particularly those that had parishes detached from the main area of the union or that crossed county borders. However, the Act also empowered the Board to dissolve any union "when it is expedient to do so for the purpose of rectifying or simplifying the areas of management, or otherwise for the better administration of relief...". Under the threat of dissolution, Todmorden and Rhayader finally agreed to build workhouses, with Rhayader taking in its first inmates in August 1879, making it the last union in the whole of England and Wales to do so.. Presteigne, however, was dissolved in 1877 and its constituent parishes distributed to adjacent unions.

The Local Government Board Offices, Whitehall.
© Peter Higginbotham.
Bibliography
- Slack, Paul. The English Poor Law, 1531-1782, 1990, CUP.
- Webb, Sidney and Beatrice English Poor Law History, 1927, Longmans, Green & Co., London.
- Webb, Sidney and Beatrice English Poor Law Policy, 1910, Longmans, Green & Co., London.
Unless otherwise indicated, this page () is copyright Peter Higginbotham. Contents may not be reproduced without permission.