Clun

Clunton and Clunbury,
Clungunford and Clun,
Are the quietest places
Under the sun.


A love of the Shropshire countryside led me to purchase, for a small outlay, an official guide to the Rural District of Clun.  The front cover, showing the ruins of Clun Castle, is reproduced below.



The Guide was printed in either 1965 or 1966, just before the 1967 changes that led to Clun and Bishop's Castle RD, mentioned in the original post.

In the Guide we learn some stark statistics.  The area of the rural district was 132,512 acres and contained 24 parishes.  The rateable value in 1964 was £126,581 and the rate in the £ for 1965 was 10s 2d.  The offices of the district were outside its boundaries in The Square, Bishop's Castle.  (At that time Bishop's Castle was a municipal borough.)  In 1961 the population was a mere 8,604.

The 24 civil parishes were

Bedstone
Betws-y-Crwyn
Brompton and Rhistone
Bucknell
Chirbury
Clun
Clunbury
Clungunford
Colebatch
Edgton
Hopesay
Hopton Castle
Llanfairwaterdine
Lydbury North
Lydham
Mainstone
More
Myndtown
Norbury
Ratlinghope
Shelve
Stowe
Wentnor
Worthen

Wikipedia is quite helpful in describing the various changes to the rural district, see: 
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clun_and_Bishop%27s_Castle_Rural_District

In 1967 Bishop's Castle MB was included in the Rural District and the name changed to Clun and Bishop's Castle RD.  Bishop's Castle became a 'Rural Borough' within the Rural District.  The concept of a Rural Borough was new to me; thankfully Wikipedia provided a useful explanation, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_Government_Act_1958#Rural_boroughs

One of the provisions of the 1958 Local Government Act gave a County Council or local government commission the power to include small non-County municipal boroughs in a rural district. To quote the article: "However, some of the civic dignities of the borough corporation would be retained. The boroughs thus effected would be known as 'boroughs included in rural districts', or as rural boroughs."

Altogether seven rural boroughs were created, the majority in Shropshire, shown by an asterisk:

Bishop's Castle, to Clun and Bishop's Castle Rural District in 1967 (*)
Bridgnorth, to Bridgnorth Rural District in 1967 (*)
Lostwithiel, to St Austell Rural District in 1968
Ludlow, to Ludlow Rural District in 1967 (*)
South Molton, to South Molton Rural District in 1967
Oswestry, to Oswestry Rural District in 1967 (*)
Wenlock, to Bridgnorth Rural District in 1966 (*)