Melford Rural District

Melford Rural District was a rural district in the county of West Suffolk, England. It was created in 1894, under the Local Government Act 1894 from that part of the Sudbury rural sanitary district in West Suffolk (the rest becoming Belchamp Rural District in Essex). It was named after Long Melford and administered from Sudbury.^[1] Shortly after its creation, in 1896, the parish of Glemsford was made a separate urban district.

Melford
Location within West Suffolk, 1894 Glemsford UD in yellow. Location within West Suffolk, 1935
History
• Created	1894
• Abolished	1974
• Succeeded by	Babergh
Status	Rural district
• HQ	Sudbury

On 1 April 1935 it lost the parishes of Cavendish and Hawkedon to the Clare Rural District. At the same time the Glemsford Urban District was abolished and restored to the district.^[2]

Since 1 April 1974 it has formed part of the District of Babergh.

Parishes

At the time of its dissolution it consisted of the following 21 civil parishes.

• Acton
• Alpheton
• Assington
• Boxted
• Bures St. Mary
• Chilton
• Glemsford
• Great Cornard
• Great Waldingfield
• Hartest
• Lawshall
• Leavenheath
• Little Cornard
• Little Waldingfield
• Long Melford
• Nayland-with-Wissington
• Newton
• Shimpling
• Somerton
• Stanstead
• Stoke-by-Nayland

Statistics

Year	Area[3]		Population [4]	Density (pop/ha)
	acres	ha
1911	49,850	20,174	12,791	0.63
1921			12,189	0.60
1931			11,618	0.58
1951	47,398	19,181	12,957	0.68
1961	47,397		13,317	0.69