52°24′04″N 0°15′47″E / 52.40098°N 0.26318°E / 52.40098; 0.26318

Ely
Local Board District (1850-1894)
Urban District (1894-1974)

Shire Hall, Lynn Road: Council's meeting place 1850 to 1940s
Area
 • 191116,742 acres (67.8 km2)
 • 196114,659 acres (59.3 km2)
Population
 • 1891[1]8,017
 • 1971[2]9,165
History
 • Created15 July 1850 (Local Board District)
31 December 1894 (Urban District)
 • Abolished31 March 1974
 • Succeeded byEast Cambridgeshire

The city of Ely formed a local government district in the Isle of Ely and Cambridgeshire from 1850 to 1974. It was administered as a local board district from 1850 to 1894, and as an urban district from 1894 to 1974. Unusually for somewhere which claimed city status, Ely was not a municipal borough.

History

Ely was declared to be a local board district on 15 July 1850, covering the two parishes of Ely Holy Trinty and Ely St Mary, plus the unparished area known as Ely College which surrounded the cathedral. The order creating the local board described the district as the "city of Ely", and the new body called itself the "City of Ely Local Board". The district also included a detached area of land in the Fens, some 5 miles (8.0 km) west of the city, known as Witcham Gravel.[3][4][5] After elections, the local board held its first meeting on 11 October 1850 at the Shire Hall on Lynn Road in Ely, which was also known as Sessions House and was primarily used as a courthouse. George Peacock, dean of Ely Cathedral, was appointed the first chairman of the board.[6]

The Ely Local Board District formed part of the Isle of Ely, a liberty within Cambridgeshire with its own quarter sessions, which became a separate administrative county when county councils were established in 1889. The new county council chose to base itself in March, unlike the quarter sessions it replaced, which had met alternately at Wisbech and at the Shire Hall in Ely.

Under the Local Government Act 1894, local board districts became urban districts on 31 December 1894. Ely Urban District Council held its first meeting on 8 January 1895, when Charles Bidwell was appointed the first chairman of the council. He ran the firm of Bidwells, and had been chairman of the old local board since 1888. The urban district council continued to meet at Shire Hall, as the local board had done.[7][8] The council called itself the "City of Ely Urban District Council".[9]

In 1912 the council built a fire station at 6 Lynn Road, immediately south of Shire Hall.[10]

The parishes within the urban district were simplified in 1933, when the detached area at Witcham Gravel was transferred to the parish of Witcham and the two parishes of Holy Trinity and St Mary merged to form a single parish called Ely Holy Trinity and St Mary.[2]

Position within Isle of Ely

During the Second World War, the responsibility for running fire brigades passed from district councils to the National Fire Service, and a new fire station for the city was built on Egremont Street.[10] After the war, the council converted the old fire station at 6 Lynn Road to become its offices and meeting place.[11][12][13]

In 1965 the two administrative counties of Isle of Ely and Cambridgeshire merged to form a single county called Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely, which therefore became the county-level authority covering Ely Urban District.

Abolition

Ely Urban District was abolished under the Local Government Act 1972. On 1 April 1974 the area became part of the new district of East Cambridgeshire. A successor parish was created covering the former Ely Urban District, with city status being granted to the new parish on 1 April 1974, the day it came into being, allowing the parish council to call itself City of Ely Council.[14]

The new East Cambridgeshire District Council initially used the old urban district council's offices at 6 Lynn Road for some of its departments, but the building has since been demolished, with the district council having consolidated its offices at The Grange on Nutholt Lane.[15] The City of Ely Council was based at the Old Gaol at 4 Lynn Road until the mid 1990s, then at 72 Market Street. In 2013 it acquired the Sessions House (formerly known as Shire Hall), which had ceased to operate as a magistrates court in 2011. The city council is therefore now based in the building where its predecessors, the local board and the urban district council, had met from 1850 until the 1940s.[16][17]

References

  1. ↑ "Ely Urban Sanitary District". A Vision of Britain through Time. GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth. Retrieved 18 June 2022.
  2. 1 2 "Ely Urban District". A Vision of Britain through Time. GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth. Retrieved 18 June 2022.
  3. ↑ Youngs, Frederic A. (1979). Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Volume 1: Southern England. London: Royal Historical Society. p. 574.
  4. ↑ "At the Court at Buckingham Palace, the 15th day of July 1850". London Gazette (21120): 2055. 23 July 1850. Retrieved 18 June 2022.
  5. ↑ "City of Ely Local Board of Health: Notice of audit". Cambridge Chronicle and University Journal. 22 May 1852. p. 2. Retrieved 18 June 2022.
  6. ↑ "Ely". Cambridge Independent Press. 12 October 1850. p. 3. Retrieved 17 June 2022.
  7. ↑ "Ely Local Board". Cambridge Chronicle and University Journal. 20 April 1888. p. 6. Retrieved 18 June 2022.
  8. ↑ "Ely Urban District Council". Cambridge Chronicle and University Journal. 11 January 1895. p. 6. Retrieved 18 June 2022.
  9. ↑ "City of Ely Urban District Council: Notice of audit". Cambridge Independent Press. 7 June 1895. p. 1. Retrieved 18 June 2022.
  10. 1 2 Blakeman, Pamela (2016). Ely History Tour. Stroud: Amberley Publishing. p. 9. ISBN 9781445656892. Retrieved 19 June 2022.
  11. ↑ Telephone Directory, 1946: Ely Urban District Council (all departments), Lynn Road
  12. ↑ Donald, Sir Robert (1965). Municipal Year Book and Public Utilities Directory. p. 1250. Offices: Lynn Road, Ely... Meeting: Council Chamber, U.D.C. Offices, Lynn Road, Ely
  13. ↑ Ordnance Survey 1:2500 map, 1972: Building between 4 Lynn Road and Court House labelled as "U D C Offices". Building in same location as "F E Station" as labelled on 1927 map.
  14. ↑ "1st April 1974". London Gazette (46255): 4401. 4 April 1974. Retrieved 18 June 2022.
  15. ↑ 1984 Telephone Directory, East Cambridgeshire District Council: Chief Executive, 24 St Mary's Street / Development Department, The Grange, Nutholt Lane / Finance Department, 11 Lynn Road / Housing and Environmental Services Department, 6 Lynn Road.
  16. ↑ Mansfield, Daniel (26 March 2013). "Ely Magistrates' Court bought for just £1 by City of Ely Council". Cambs Times. Retrieved 19 June 2022.
  17. ↑ "City of Ely Council". Retrieved 19 June 2022. City of Ely Council, Sessions House, Lynn Road, Ely, Cambridgeshire, CB7 4EG
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