The Borough of Castleford, West Yorkshire - official handbook cover 1955
Nealry all UK local authorities in the mid-20th Century produced an "official handbook" or guide to provide information on the place, its municipal and other services, industries as well as 'selling' the borough or council area to potential visitors or, as here, investors. This, like many others, is published by Burrow's of Cheltenham.
Castleford was celebrating its Charter of Incorporation as a Borough that was granted on 29 March 1955 and that, at 12 noon on Monday 23 May 1955, superceded the previous Urban District Council. The UDC had been formed in 1894 and Castleford had been unsuccessfully petitioning for Borough status over the ensuing decades. In 1938 a major boundary extension, that took Castleford UDC's population from 23,000 to 43,000 by the annexation of Whitwood UDC as well as parts of Glass Houghton, Ferry Fryston and Allerton Bywater, created the 'largest UDC in Yorkshire'. After 1955 it was the third largest non-County Borough in Yorkshire.
The cover alludes to the industrial nature of the Borough that was based on the 'heavies' of coal, chemicals and glass as well as textiles and, similar to neighbouring Pontefract, liquorice sweets! The Borough was, under the 1974 local government reorganisation, amalgamated to form part of the new City of Wakefield Council.
The Borough of Castleford, West Yorkshire - official handbook cover 1955
Nealry all UK local authorities in the mid-20th Century produced an "official handbook" or guide to provide information on the place, its municipal and other services, industries as well as 'selling' the borough or council area to potential visitors or, as here, investors. This, like many others, is published by Burrow's of Cheltenham.
Castleford was celebrating its Charter of Incorporation as a Borough that was granted on 29 March 1955 and that, at 12 noon on Monday 23 May 1955, superceded the previous Urban District Council. The UDC had been formed in 1894 and Castleford had been unsuccessfully petitioning for Borough status over the ensuing decades. In 1938 a major boundary extension, that took Castleford UDC's population from 23,000 to 43,000 by the annexation of Whitwood UDC as well as parts of Glass Houghton, Ferry Fryston and Allerton Bywater, created the 'largest UDC in Yorkshire'. After 1955 it was the third largest non-County Borough in Yorkshire.
The cover alludes to the industrial nature of the Borough that was based on the 'heavies' of coal, chemicals and glass as well as textiles and, similar to neighbouring Pontefract, liquorice sweets! The Borough was, under the 1974 local government reorganisation, amalgamated to form part of the new City of Wakefield Council.