DOVER RURAL DISTRICT COUNCIL

RD/Do/A Administrative Records 1872-1970

RD/Do/AM1-19 Minutes of Dover Rural Sanitary Authority, Dover Rural District Council and Council committees 1872-1950

RD/Do/AC1-2 Minutes of the Highway Board [Rural Sanitary Authority] 1880-1894

RD/Do/AC3 Housing Committee minutes 1920-1922

RD/Do/AC4-5 Rating and Valuation Committee minutes 1927-1949

RD/Do/AC6 Minutes: all committees 1933-1938

RD/Do/ACr1/1-20 Annual reports: Medical Officer of Health 1951-1970

RD/Do/H Health 1901x1971

RD/Do/H1-3 Registers of factories, workshops, outworkers and Medical Officer of Health annual reports 1901x1971

RD/Do/Ho Housing 1937-1949

RD/Do/Ho1/1-3 Schedules of permitted numbers of persons per house 1937

RD/Do/Ho2/1-13 Housing survey (arranged by parish) 1946-1949

<p>Copy rate books for Temple Ewell and St. Margaret's at Cliffe (part), 1901, can be found in the Dover Borough archive under reference: Do/CF16</p>

Records are open for consultation unless otherwise indicated.

These were received as follows:

August 1980: Minutes of Dover Rural Sanitary Authority, Dover Rural District Council and Council Committees, 1872-1950

Deposited by Dover District Council, Legal and Administrative Department

Catalogued by M. Carter, December 1981

RD/Do/AM1-19

October & : November 1982 Records of Dover Rural District Council, 1880-1971

Deposited by Dover District Council, Environmental Health Department

Catalogued by M. Carter, November 1982

RD/Do/Ac1-6; RD/Do/ACr1/1-20; RD/Do/H1-3; RD/Do/Ho1/1-3, 2/1-13

Rural District Councils came into being, along with Urban District Councils and Parish Councils, under the Local Government Act of 1894. Based on the former sanitary authorities, their main functions were the provision of public health and highways services. They had a constitutional basis and operated on openly democratic lines

With the Town and Country Planning Act of 1932, control over the use and development of land was devolved to the Rural District Councils, supplementing their role of providing low-cost council housing.

Rural Districts also often shared responsibility for such things as allotments, footpaths and recreation grounds with Parish Councils.

In 1974, when the Local Government Act of 1972 became operational, Rural District Councils, along with their Urban counterparts, were abolished: their services being taken over by the newly created District Councils. (Tony Byrne, Local Government in Britain: Everyone's Guide to How It All Works (Penguin, 2000), pp.18-21; 34-41)

Dover Rural District Council consisted of the parishes of:

Alkham

Capel-le-Ferne

Coldred (1894-1963) (Shepherdswell with Coldred from 1963-1974)

Denton (1894-1963)

Denton with Wootton (1963-1974)

East Cliffe

Guston

Hougham - part (1894-1896)

Hougham Without

Langdon - East (1894-1963)

Langdon - West (1894-1963)

Langdon (1963-1974)

Lydden

Oxney (1894-1934)

Poulton (1894-1934)

Ringwold

River (1894-1960) (Temple Ewell and River from 1960-1974)

St Margaret's at Cliffe

Sibertswold (Shepherdswell) (1894-1963)

Shepherdswell with Coldred (1963-1974)

Temple Ewell (1894-1960)

Temple Ewell with River (1960-1974)

West Cliffe (1894-1934)

Whitfield

Wootton (1894-1963) (Denton with Wootton from 1963-1974)