| Abstract | In 1849 the Barton on Irwell Union was constituted under the Poor Law Act of 1834, and included in its area were the townships of Urmston, Flixton and Davyhulme. It was one of the last of the Lancashire Unions to be created. With the enactment of the Public Health Act, 1872, the three townships became part of the area of the Barton upon Irwell Rural Sanitary Authority, which was co-extensive with its parent Union. In 1894, under the Local Government Act, an order was made by Lancashire County Council, and confirmed by the then Local Government Board, creating the township of Urmston a separate Urban District and constituting the townships of Flixton and Davyhulme, together with the townships of Clifton and Barton Moss, a Rural District, thereafter known as the Rural District of Barton on Irwell. The first meetings of the Urban and Rural District Councils took place on the 31st December 1894 and 9th January 1895, respectively.
In 1933, the Lancashire, Manchester and District Review Order of that year amalgamated the then Urban district of Urmston, comprising the township of Urmston only, with two parts of the Rural District of Barton-upon-Irwell, namely the parish of Flixton and most of the parish of Davyhulme. The order came into operation on the 1st April 1933 , and by it, the Urban District and ancient township of Urmston, as then existing, was amalgamated with the township and ancient ecclesiastical parish of Flixton and all but a small part of Davyhulme. Thus the order of 1933 mended a link broken thirty nine years earlier and re-united the three townships. On 1st April 1974 following another and wider amalgamation that of the Boroughs of Altrincham, Sale and Stretford, the Urban Districts of Bowdon, Hale and Urmston and parts of the Rural District of Bucklow were amalgamated to form the Borough of Trafford. |