The setting up of rural local government districts had its origins in the union of parishes following the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834.
It consisted of the parishes of Barking, Cranham, Dagenham, Great Warley, Havering atte Bower, Hornchurch, Rainham, Romford, Upminster and Wennington.
The Poor Law union area was used again for the purposes of the Public Health Act 1875 and Romford Rural Sanitary District was created in 1875.
[2] The arrangement did not last and in October 1896 the parish council resolved to seek amalagmation with Romford Urban.
A boundary change in 1993 transferred the remaining parts of Great Warley to the Brentwood Borough of Essex.