In the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, an extra-parochial area or extra-parochial place was an area considered to be outside any parish

Parish

A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...

. They were therefore exempt from payment of any poor or church rate and usually tithe. Extra-parochial areas were gradually either integrated with a neighbouring or surrounding parish, or made separate civil parishes by the Extra-Parochial Places Act 1857 and the Poor Law Amendment Act 1868.

The term unparished area

Unparished area

In England, an unparished area is an area that is not covered by a civil parish. Most urbanised districts of England are either entirely or partly unparished. Many towns and some cities in otherwise rural districts are also unparished areas and therefore no longer have a town council or city...

s (now most urban areas) relates only to civil parishes and has no connection to extra-parochial areas.

Conversion to civil parishes

The Poor Law Amendment Act 1868 incorporated "for all civil parochial purposes" the remaining extra-parochial places, that were without an appointed Overseer of the Poor

Overseer of the Poor

An Overseer of the Poor was an official who administered poor relief such as money, food, and clothing in England and various other countries which derived their law from England.-England:...

, into a neighbouring parish with the longest common boundary.

Inner and Middle Temple

The historic extra-parochial areas of Inner Temple

Inner Temple

The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court in London. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wales, an individual must belong to one of these Inns...

 and Middle Temple

Middle Temple

The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers; the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn and Lincoln's Inn...

, within the liberties of the City of London

City of London

The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...

, still exist (and the combined extra-parochial area is shown on Ordnance Survey

Ordnance Survey

Ordnance Survey , an executive agency and non-ministerial government department of the Government of the United Kingdom, is the national mapping agency for Great Britain, producing maps of Great Britain , and one of the world's largest producers of maps.The name reflects its creation together with...

's most detailed OS MasterMap

OS MasterMap

OS MasterMap® is Ordnance Survey's flagship digital product, launched in November 2001. It is a database that records every fixed feature of Great Britain larger than a few metres in one continuous digital map. Every feature is given a unique TOID , a simple identifier that includes no semantic...

 mapping). Since the time of the Knights Templar

Knights Templar

The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon , commonly known as the Knights Templar, the Order of the Temple or simply as Templars, were among the most famous of the Western Christian military orders...

, 700 years before the separation of civil and ecclesiastical parishes, The Temple

Temple Church

The Temple Church is a late-12th-century church in London located between Fleet Street and the River Thames, built for and by the Knights Templar as their English headquarters. In modern times, two Inns of Court both use the church. It is famous for its effigy tombs and for being a round church...

 has been a Peculiar

Royal Peculiar

A Royal Peculiar is a place of worship that falls directly under the jurisdiction of the British monarch, rather than under a bishop. The concept dates from Anglo-Saxon times, when a church could ally itself with the monarch and therefore not be subject to the bishop of the area...

, exempt from the Bishop's jurisdiction (so the Master of the Temple is answerable only to the Queen, and not to the Bishop of London

Bishop of London

The Bishop of London is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of London in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers 458 km² of 17 boroughs of Greater London north of the River Thames and a small part of the County of Surrey...

). Likewise the Temple was too well connected with the Crown to submit to the jurisdiction of the City: the Honorable Societies of The Middle and The Inner Temple undertook the functions of local authorities (and still do to some extent).