Throughout the middle ages the manor was the basic unit of local government. However, Tudor governments began to place more responsibility on parishes. Rapid population growth and migration from rural to urban districts caused a reappraisal from the late 1820s, and many different authorities began to be created, sometimes with their own individual boundaries. The best known of these was the Poor Law union (from 1834); others included registration districts (which coincided with the Poor Law Unions), petty sessional divisions, police districts, coroners’ districts, urban and rural sanitary districts and burial boards.
