Soke of Peterborough
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Administration | |
|---|---|
| Status: | Administrative county |
| HQ: | Peterborough |
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| History | |
| Created: | 1889 |
| Abolished: | 1965 |
| Succeeded by: | Huntingdon and Peterborough |
| Population | |
| 1901: | 41,122 |
| 1961: | 74,758 |
The Soke of Peterborough is an area in England that is traditionally associated with the City of Peterborough and Diocese of Peterborough, but considered part of Northamptonshire. It was also described as the liberty of Peterborough, or Nassaburgh.
The civil government of the liberty was vested in the Marquess of Exeter, as lord of the hundred; a custos rotulorum, magistrates appointed by the crown; and a high bailiff of the city appointed by the dean and chapter of Peterborough Cathedral.[1] It had a separate court of Quarter Sessions, which acted as the county administration.[2] The Quarter Sessions, for example, set up the Liberty of Peterborough Constabulary in 1857 under the County and Borough Police Act 1856.
Under an amendment by Lord Exeter[3] to the Local Government Act 1888, the Soke became an administrative county in its own right, separate from the remainder of Northamptonshire, with an elected county council taking over the administrative functions of the Quarter Sessions; but this formal change hid a great deal of continuity, as Justices of the Peace were often elected Councillors, the Clerk of the Peace became the Clerk to the Council and so on.
The Local Government Act 1894 divided the Soke into three local government districts - the municipal borough of Peterborough, and the two rural districts of Peterborough and Barnack.
The administrative county had an area of approximately 83 ½ square miles (216.37 km²) with only one, minor, boundary change in its lifetime.
The county's population, as recorded at the ten-yearly censuses[4], was:
| 1901 | 41,122 |
| 1911 | 44,718 |
| 1921 | 46,959 |
| 1931 | 51,839 |
| 1939 | 58,303 (estimate) |
| 1951 | 63,791 |
| 1961 | 74,758 |
The Soke had a very small population for a county and so, in 1965, the administration was merged with that of the neighbouring small county of Huntingdonshire to form the slightly more viable administrative county of Huntingdon and Peterborough.
In 1974 the area became part of the non-metropolitan county of Cambridgeshire.
Since 1998, an area broadly corresponding to the Soke, now called the City of Peterborough, is a unitary authority. Because of intervening development and a new town project in Peterborough, this has a much larger population than the Soke had.
For parliamentary purposes, the city formed a parliamentary borough returning two members from 1541, with the rest of the Soke being part of Northamptonshire parliamentary county. The 1832 Reform Act did not affect the borough, while the rural portion of the Soke was included in the northern division of Northamptonshire. In 1885 the borough's representation was reduced to one member. In 1918 a new Peterborough constituency was formed including the whole of the Soke and neighbouring parts of the administrative county of Northamptonshire. In 1948 the boundaries of the constituency were adjusted to correspond to those of the Soke.[5]
[edit] See also
- City of Peterborough
- Diocese of Peterborough
- Huntingdon and Peterborough
- History of Northamptonshire
[edit] References
- ^ Lewis, Samuel, Topographical Dictionary of England, Vol. III, London 1831
- ^ Description of Peterborough in 1840
- ^ The Times, 7 August 1888
- ^ Vision of Britain
- ^ Yongs, F.A. Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Volume II: Northern England, London, 1991
