These had all previously been townships within the larger parish of Wigan, but as they appointed their own overseers of the poor they had each become separate civil parishes in 1866 with the passing of the Poor Law Amendment Act 1866.
A public meeting was held at the Stork Inn at Billinge Chapel End on 24 October 1872 where it was decided that the three parishes would form a group called the Billinge Local Government District, allowing them to establish their own board and become a separate urban sanitary district, independent of the Wigan Rural Sanitary District.
[1] The Local Government Board confirmed the creation of the district on 16 December 1872.
The Billinge Chapel End ward became a parish again, and was included in the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens in Merseyside.
No successor parish was created for rest of the urban district, covering Billing Higher End and Winstanley wards, which became part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan in Greater Manchester.