Tyldesley Urban District

See caption — Tyldesley Town Hall
Wikimedia Commons

Tyldesley cum Shakerley Urban District and its successor, Tyldesley Urban District, was from 1894 to 1974 a local government district in Lancashire, England. In 1974 the urban districtAdministrative areas that had district councils and shared local government responsibilities with a county council. was abolished and its former area was transfered to the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan in Greater Manchester.

The townshipDivision of an ecclesiastical parish that had civil functions. of Tyldesley cum Shakerley was historically a villHistorical term describing a unit or area of land containing several dwellings in the large ancient parishAncient or ancient ecclesiastical parishes encompassed groups of villages and hamlets and their adjacent lands, over which a clergyman had jurisdiction. of Leigh, and became a member of the Leigh Poor Law UnionEstablished on 26 January 1837 in accordance with the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, covering the townships of Astley, Atherton, Bedford, Pennington, Tyldesley with Shakerley and Westleigh all in the ancient parish of Leigh, plus Culcheth, Lowton and part of Winwick. on its formation in 1837.^[1]

In 1863 the township adopted the Local Government Act 1858, and a local board was formed to govern the town. The Local Government Act 1894 reconstituted the area as an urban district, and Tyldesley cum Shakerley Urban District Council replaced the local board. In 1894 the area of the urban district was 2690 acres (1,089 ha), TyldesleyFormer industrial town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, in Greater Manchester. 1970 acres (797 ha) and ShakerleySuburb of Tyldesley in Greater Manchester, anciently a hamlet in the northwest of the township. 520 acres (210 ha). The urban district council consisted of fifteen members, representing five wards: North, East, South, West, and Shakerley.^[2]

The only change to boundaries was in 1933, when the Lancashire (Manchester and District) Review Order added AstleyVillage in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, formerly a coal-mining area, but now part of a commuter belt for the nearby city of Manchester. civil parishSmallest administrative unit in England. from the neighbouring Leigh Rural District and the urban district was renamed Tyldesley Urban District. The addition of Astley’s 2685 acres (1,087 ha) increased the area of the urban district to 5375 acres (2,175 ha).^[3]

In 1974 Tyldesley Urban District was abolished by the Local Government Act 1972 and its former area transferred to Greater Manchester to form part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan.

Tyldesley’s town hall was originally in Lower Elliot Street, opposite the council’s depot and fire station. In 1924 the council bought the town’s Liberal Club, which was opened in 1881 as its town hall. Tyldesley UDC was responsible for opening Tyldesley Park on Astley Street in 1902,^[4] the Carnegie Library in 1909, and council housing estates at Sale Lane, Mosley Common and Shakerley.