Municipal borough (1836–1889) County borough (1889–1974)
Preston Municipal Borough, also known as the County Borough of Preston from 1889, was a local government district coterminate with the town of Preston in Lancashire, northwest England from 1836 to 1974.[1]
Preston was one of only a few industrial towns in Lancashire to have a functioning corporation in 1835, its charter dating to 1685,[2] and was reformed as a municipal borough by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835.[3]
The Local Government Act 1888 created elected county councils throughout England and Wales. However, any municipal borough with a population of 50,000 or more at the census of 1881 was to be independent of the administration of the county council, with the new status of county borough.[4] Preston, with an 1881 population of 96,532[5] duly became a county borough on 1 April 1889, outside the jurisdiction of Lancashire County Council.
The county borough's boundaries were widened on three occasions: in 1934, 1952 and 1956.[6]
^*Youngs, Frederic A. Jr. (1991). Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Vol.2: Northern England. London: Royal Historical Society. p. 680. ISBN0861931270.
^Cassidy, Irene. "Preston". History of Parliament Online. History of Parliament Trust. Retrieved 19 April 2012.