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.

The link with the Poor Law Union continued, with all the elected councillors of the Rural District Council being ex officio members of the Woburn Board of Guardians.

The first meeting of the new council was held on 4 January 1895 in the board room of the Woburn Union Workhouse.

[5] The Rural District Council tried to have itself similarly disbanded on the same date, but the process of formally abolishing it took a few months longer, with an inquiry being held at Woburn Town Hall in September 1899.

[7] Its area was split in the same way that the Poor Law Union had been, with the three parishes of Chalgrave, Hockliffe, and Tilsworth joining the Eaton Bray Rural District and the remaining fourteen parishes joining the Ampthill Rural District.