Thedwastre was formed under the Local Government Act 1894, from the part of the Stow Rural Sanitary District which was in West Suffolk (the rest forming East Stow Rural District in East Suffolk).

[1] The rural district comprised the following civil parishes:[2] The council held its first meeting on 10 January 1895 at the Stow Union Workhouse in the parish of Onehouse, just outside Stowmarket.

Hervey Aston Oakes was appointed the council's first chairman, and it was decided that subsequent meetings would be held at the courthouse in Stowmarket.

[5] The council remained based in Stowmarket (and therefore outside its administrative area) until 1959, when it moved to purpose-built premises on Cooks Road in Elmswell.

The council's former offices were subsequently converted into retirement housing and renamed Manns Court.