ABSTRACT
Local government in feudal times could virtually be defined as how lords of the manor chose to run their estates. Administrative units of ‘county’, ‘borough’ and ‘parish’ date back to Norman times, when justice – an important element of local governance – was dispensed via the county assizes, which also raised militias or defensive forces. From the late seventeenth century ‘improvement commissioners’ were appointed to attend to paving and lighting, financed by local rates. From 1600 the Poor Law obliged parishes to look after the poor and indigent via an ‘overseer for the poor’; from 1723 ‘workhouses’ were set up to accommodate those unable to care for themselves, though the ‘care’ provided was scarcely worth the name by modern standards.
