Local and Administrative Units of England
Frederic A. Youngs, Jr., noted historian of the Tudor period and
Professor of History at the University of Louisiana compiled the two volume
work titled Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England. It is a
"comprehensive guide, by counties, to the changes in nomenclature, status
and extent of all the parishes and other ecclesiastical and civil units in
England. By means of a skillfully (sic) devised and easy to use system of
abbreviations, the editor has compressed into [two] volume[s] a massive amount
of information, covering all the alterations affecting the ancient parishes,
civil parishes, local government units, and parliamentary constituencies, from
the early Middle Ages" up to 1 April 1974.
Local Administrative Units is used to find out when a parish was
created, incorporated into another parish, the name of the deanery, or the poor
law union (post 1833). The first volume covers the South, roughly a line drawn
from the Severn to the Wash. Volume two covers the Northern counties. Jeremy
Gibson used information found in Youngs to compile part four of Poor Law
Union Records (942 P37gj pts 1-4).
Local Administrative Units is arranged by section (parishes, local
government units, parliamentary constituencies, dioceses), next by county name,
then by parish name. An extensively list of notes, by county, is shown at the
end of each volume. The "How to Use the Guide" (introductory pages)
explains the type of information found in the entries. Since a massive amount
of information is included, abbreviations are use throughout the text. A list
of abbreviations is found in the introductory pages as well as at the beginning
of each county.
No listing of counties is given at the beginning of the volumes. Neither volume
contains a bibliography of the sources mentioned, except for four items
mentioned in the introduction. It appears he may have used the full title the
first time he cited a source, then shorted it thereafter.
Broxton, Cheshire is a place of interest to a recent patron. He said he
looked in the FHLC for the early 1800's but the library contain no records for
him. Verifying his statement in the catalog, the only subjects listed were
census, taxation and voting registers. Youngs showed Broxton to be a township
in Malpas ancient parish, the latter severed in 1840.