Poor Relief - Law Commission

4. The Divided Parishes and Poor Law Amendment Act 1876 (“the 1876 Act”) 178
was passed to deal with problems that had arisen through individual parishes in
England being geographically divided.
5. Section 1 of the 1876 Act applied in any case where a parish was divided so
that part of it was isolated in some other parish or parishes (or otherwise detached).
In such a case the Board was empowered, after making local inquiries, to make an
order either to constitute separate parishes out of the divided parish or to
amalgamate parts of the divided parish with the parish or parishes in which those
parts were included. The order would take effect after not less than three months
from the day that a copy of the order was sent to the overseers.
6. Section 2 of the 1876 Act provided that if 10% of the ratepayers liable to pay
the poor rate in any parish affected by a section 1 order objected to the order within
the three month period specified in section 1, the order would be deemed to be a
provisional order only. It would come into force only if confirmed by Act of
Parliament.
7. Section 3 of the 1876 Act provided that from the 25 th March after-
(a) the day that the order (if not objected to) took effect; or
(b) (in the case of an objection) the date of Royal Assent of the Act of
Parliament confirming the order,
every parish to which the order applied “shall be and continue to be constituted in the
manner directed by the said order”.
8. The purpose of the 1878 Act was therefore to confirm a number of Provisional
Orders made by the Board pursuant to the 1867 and 1876 Acts. The 1878 Act
confirmed the following Orders.
Parish of Birmingham Order
9. This Order, dated 17 April 1878, was made pursuant to section 2 of the 1867
Act. It provided for the repeal of part of an Act of 1831 for “better regulating the Poor
within the Parish of Birmingham”. 179 The repeal took effect on 4 July 1878. The
Order thereupon became spent.
178
39 & 40 Vict. c.61. The 1876 Act was finally repealed in full by the Distress for Rates Act 1960, s
15(1), Sch 2.
172