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Wikipedia:WikiProject UK geography/How to write about parishes

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Civil parishes in England are the lowest level divisions. Although parishes are generally inherently notable a fundamental part of this guide is to reaffirm the long established position that when a parish has the same name as a settlement we generally only have one article for both meanings and facts are presented for both (while clarifying which facts are for settlement or parish), see below for exceptions. This rule applies to current and former parishes. This page deals with writing about the parishes including how to deal with those with the same name as settlements, for general guidance on how to write about the settlements see WP:UKCITIES. It also discusses how to deal with unparished areas.

Article title edit

Generally use the name the Ordnance Survey uses and don't use "X Parish" or "X CP" use just "X". If disambiguation is needed the usual conventions at WP:UKPLACE should be followed. In the rare cases where local disambiguation is needed (see below) "X (parish)" or "X (civil parish)" is used, it has not yet been agreed which one should be preferred. In some cases the parish name is an alternative (often older alternative name) for a settlement and the name of the settlement is used and the parish name redirects there for example Aston upon Trent (parish name) redirects to Aston-on-Trent (village name).

Content edit

  • Use {{Infobox UK place}} for most, {{Infobox historic subdivision}} may be used for former ones. Articles should have the district, county and England mentioned in the lead as well as the coordinates in the infobox.
  • For current parishes, put the most recent population data in the lead.
  • Other settlements or notable features in the parish.
  • An image, if the parish is named after a settlement preferably one of the settlement otherwise one somewhere in the parish.
  • Bordering parishes and location from large settlement like county town.
  • Listed buildings.
  • When the parish was formed/abolished.
  • Its local governing body, most have a parish council covering just the parish but some like Swilland have a grouped council and some like Chickney have a parish meeting.
  • Where the parish council meets if known, particularly for parishes which do not share their name with a settlement such as Stone Rural.

Former parishes edit

Former civil parishes may be "typically presumed" to be notable following the policy at WP:GEOLAND. Three particular types of civil parish which historically existed in England and Wales need particular consideration as to whether their status as a former parish alone is sufficient to justify a separate article:

  • Urban parishes - Between 1894 and 1974 civil parishes within urban districts or municipal boroughs were legally classed as urban parishes, which meant they did not have parish councils and were directly administered by the urban district council or borough council. Urban parishes had some limited applications as an area for electing poor law guardians until 1930, but in that regard were more akin to electoral wards than administrative areas. Many urban parishes were also short-lived, having been created in 1894 from parts of larger parishes which had previously straddled urban and rural districts, but were later abolished and absorbed into a larger urban parish, often covering the whole urban district or borough. Parishes which were only ever urban parishes should not have a separate article solely on the basis of having been a former parish. As such, we do not have separate articles for Sandridge Urban (redirects to St Albans) or South Mimms Urban (redirects to Barnet Urban District). If a place which was a former urban parish is sufficiently notable to qualify for its own page on other grounds, such as Milber, it may be mentioned that it was a former urban parish, but make clear what the effective authority actually was (in that case the urban district council of Newton Abbot). The focus for such articles as do exist for places that were also former urban parishes is likely to be the name's continuing use for a suburb / village etc.
  • Rural parishes arising from splits - When parishes that straddled urban and rural districts were split in 1894 many new rural parishes covering the rural parts of older parishes were created, such as North Prendergast from the parts of Prendergast outside the borough boundaries of Haverfordwest and Hoddesdon Rural from the parts of Hoddesdon outside the urban district. Whilst these were rural parishes and so were eligible for a parish meeting or parish council, for such rural parishes which have since been abolished it may be more appropriate to discuss them on the page of the parish with which they have since been merged or from which they were originally split, rather than automatically presume notability sufficient to justify a free-standing article.
  • Former extra-parochial areas and townships - Many extra-parochial areas were converted into civil parishes in the 1850s and 1860s, and townships which had the right to levy their own poor law rates (a form of tax) were declared to be civil parishes in 1866. Many such newly-created parishes were very small and short-lived. As for split rural parishes, it may be more appropriate to discuss such parishes on the page of the parish with which they have since been merged or the wider ancient parish a township belonged to.

It is informative to mention the population of a former civil parish at the last available census prior to its abolition, but to avoid confusion this should be placed in a history or governance section where it can be read in the context of that abolition, rather than in the lead.

Unparished areas edit

Areas where there is no civil parish today are described as unparished areas. Parishes within Greater London were abolished in 1965. In the rest of England the urban parishes were abolished in 1974 alongside the urban districts and municipal boroughs which had contained them. Some smaller urban districts and boroughs were given successor parishes. Some larger towns and cities like Worksop and Bath were instead given charter trustees to preserve certain civic dignities such as the right to appoint a mayor or city status. A small number of unparished areas have been created since 1974 where an area has been removed from civil parishes, such as Ebbsfleet Valley.

Unparished areas by definition are not administrative areas and do not have official names. Where abolished urban districts or boroughs within the same modern district adjoin, there is no "unparished area boundary" between them - for example whilst Dorking and Leatherhead were separate urban districts prior to 1974, both now form part of the single wider unparished area of the modern district of Mole Valley.

As such, unparished areas do not meet the notability threshold of WP:GEOLAND. That said, the settlements after which the abolished urban districts or boroughs were named will generally be notable as settlements. It may be appropriate to mention in a governance section on the pages for those settlements that they are now an unparished area, but this information is best presented alongside discussion on the current administrative arrangements for that settlement. Care should be taken not to give the impression that there is an officially defined unparished area with the name and boundaries of the pre-1974 urban district or borough. As such, it is best not to mention unparished areas in the lead.

A small minority of the urban districts or boroughs abolished in 1974 were not named after individual settlements but had instead compound names such as Braintree and Bocking, names coined specially for the urban district or borough such as Spenborough or Thurrock, or were named after other geographical features such as Colne Valley. Some of these names have continuing notability today (e.g. Colne Valley as a geographical feature, Thurrock as a modern borough). Where they do not have continuing notability today any article should be focussed on the historic district / borough and should not suggest that it somehow has an ongoing existence under that name; there is no "Braintree and Bocking unparished area", rather the former urban district now forms the unparished area of the modern Braintree district.

Parishes with the same name as settlements edit

Parishes and unparished areas that have the same name (including alternate names like the Aston example above) should be covered in one article. This applies even if the parish contains other settlements or large areas of rural land or has had significant boundary changes, see exceptions below.

Examples:

  • Sutton Cheney, contains other villages that were formerly separate parishes as well as large areas of rural land.
  • Northampton, doesn't include all of the town though Northampton Town Council covering the council exists.
  • Rothwell, West Yorkshire, unparished area covers many other settlements.
  • Goosnargh, doesn't include most of the modern village though does include historic centre. Also has different settlement population to parish.
  • Hatfield Peverel, has different BUA and BUASD population.
  • Wareside, parish was formerly "Ware Rural".

Exceptions edit

The first and most obvious exception is when the parish doesn't include any part (or almost none) of the settlement of the same name, normally this is because the settlement was transferred to a neighbouring town's urban district but the parish survived and wasn't renamed. Sometimes this is later sorted out by renaming the parish to match its (now) largest settlement like Pannal>Beckwithshaw and the "X (parish)" article can then be merged to the new name. If like Angerton, South Lakeland the "place" isn't notable then separate articles aren't needed. See below for other types of places.

Examples:

Parishes with the same name as other types of places edit

Parishes that have the same name as other types of places like buildings often have separate articles if the place would otherwise be notable but editor judgement should be used if there is enough content for two articles and if its appropriate to combine the articles as information for parishes often is inappropriate for buildings like castles but if the parish and building aren't very important and the parish only contained the building and its grounds it may be appropriate to combine.

Examples:

Merges and renames edit

When a parish is renamed the old name should generally not be described as a "former parish" but rather as a "former name" for the current parish and should generally not be in Category:Former civil parishes in England subcategories. Cuckfield Rural was renamed Ansty and Staplefield for example and thus the parish still exists just under a different name.

If a merger occurs and the new parish is later renamed to a name no longer matching a settlement the scope of the article when split should be for when the merger took place not when the rename of the newer parish took place for example Colton was merged into Marlingford in 1935 and the merged parish was renamed "Marlingford and Colton" in 2001. The scope of the Marlingford and Colton article is from 1935 not 2001 and the scope of the "Marlingford" article is until 1935 not 2001. if as with Tilton there is another merge in between the other parish being merged and the rename namely Whatborough being merged in 1994 after Halstead being merged in 1935 and the rename from "Tilton" to "Tilton on the Hill and Halstead" happening in 2015.

Categories edit

All civil parishes should be in "Civil parishes in X county" (or "Former civil parishes in X county" of which is done by the county the area of the former parish now lies rather than the county it was in when it functioned) and the district's category. If the parish is named after a settlement it should also be in the likes of "Villages in X county" or "Towns in X county". Stapleton, Cumbria is in Category:Villages in Cumbria, Category:Civil parishes in Cumbria and Category:City of Carlisle for example.

A civil parish can have its own category, see Category:Stanhope, County Durham and Category:Rothwell, West Yorkshire. As with article scope the category should include places in the parish/unparished area as well as settlement.

Unresolved issues edit

  • Should "parish" or "civil parish" be used in running text after an initial mention and should ("parish)" or "(civil parish)" be used for rare cases where local disambiguation is needed.
  • For parishes named after multiple settlements like Halwell and Moreleigh, Pickwell with Leesthorpe or Stone Rural or at least not named after an individual settlement where should the coordinates be based? At the centre of the parish, at midpoint between the 2 settlements the parish is named after, at the parish's council/meeting place like village hall or at the parish's largest settlement.
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