[2] In 1872, sanitary districts were established, with responsibility for public health and local government given to the boards of guardians of poor law unions for areas without urban authorities.
Robert Lowridge Baker, vicar of Ramsden, was appointed the council's first chairman.
[5][6] Until at least the First World War, the council was based at the Witney Union Workhouse on Tower Hill.
[7] It later used various premises in Witney as its offices, including Blanket Hall at 100 High Street between the 1920s and 1950s, and Hillside at 6 Market Square in the 1950s and 1960s.
Witney Rural District was abolished under the Local Government Act 1972, with the area becoming part of West Oxfordshire on 1 April 1974.