Thanet Council Area (Kent)
The Local Government Act, passed in 1972, introduced from 1 April 1974 created many "new" council authorities in the UK, often using "invented" names.
The THANET council area is one of these "new" authorities.
Simply put, anyone living in the area covered by this new authority before 1 April 1974 lived in the County of Kent and the same person living in the same property on the 2 April 1974 lived in Thanet council area.
Confusing? Yes it is to non-UK residents and to those that have moved here since 1974. And, of course, the politicians who introduced all these changes could not/still can not see the irony in the introduction date! (April 1st is All Fools Day)
Prior to 1 April 1974, the area now covered by Thanet council consisted of these places:
- Margate Municipal Borough, Kent, England
- Ramsgate Municipal Borough, Kent, England
- Broadstairs and St Peter's Urban District, Kent, England
- Eastry Rural District (parishes of Acol, Minster, Monkton, St Nicholas-at-Wade and Sarre only), Kent, England
The new district was named Thanet, after the name of the isle which covered approximately the same area.
The 4 areas above are now correctly named in this fashion:
- Margate, Thanet, England
- Ramsgate Thanet, England
- Broadstairs, Thanet, England
- St Peter's-in-Thanet, Thanet, England
- Acol, Thanet, England
- Minster, Thanet, England
- Monkton, Thanet, England
- St Nicholas-at-Wade, Thanet, England
- Sarre, Thanet, England
For ancestral historians, this means council areas KENT and THANET are not interchangeable. This information could be crucial in trying to find the correect family member/address.