This had been created under the Public Health Acts of 1872 and 1875, giving public health and local government responsibilities for rural areas to the existing Boards of Guardians of Poor Law Unions.

As an exception to this rule, the Bedfordshire and Huntingdonshire County Councils agreed that the parish of Swineshead, despite being in Huntingdonshire, would be included in the Eaton Socon Rural District as it was surrounded by Bedfordshire parishes.

Similarly, the parish of Tilbrook in Bedfordshire was included in the St Neots Rural District as it formed a long salient sticking out from Bedfordshire into territory almost surrounded by Huntingdonshire.

[3] The county boundary was changed two years later to match the boundary which had been agreed for the Rural Districts, with Swineshead becoming part of Bedfordshire and Tilbrook part of Huntingdonshire on 30 September 1896.

[4][5][6][7][8] The link with the Poor Law Union continued, with all the elected councillors of both Eaton Socon and St Neots Rural District Councils being ex officio members of the St Neots Board of Guardians.