Editing Stamford Hill (section)

==Governance==
Stamford Hill has never been an administrative area in its own right; it has always been an area of [[Hackney, London|Hackney]]. Hackney was an administrative unit with consistent boundaries from the early Middle Ages to the creation of the larger modern borough in 1965. Hackney was based for many centuries on the [[Civil parish#Ancient parishes|Ancient Parish]] of [[Hackney (parish)|Hackney]].

The area was part of the [[Historic counties of England|historic (or ancient) county]] of [[Middlesex]], but military and most (or all) civil county functions were managed more locally, by the [[Tower division|Tower Division (also known as the Tower Hamlets)]], a historic 'county within a county', under the leadership of the [[Constable of the Tower of London|Lord-Lieutenant of the Tower Hamlets (the post was always filled by the Constable of the Tower of London)]]. The military loyalty to the Tower meant local men served in the Tower garrison and Tower Hamlets Militia, rather than the Middlesex Militia.<ref>The London Encyclopaedia, 4th Edition, 1983, Weinreb and Hibbert</ref><ref>East London Papers, Volume 8, Number 2, The Name 'Tower Hamlets'. M.J. Power, December 1965</ref>
 
The Ancient Parishes provided a framework for both civil (administrative) and ecclesiastical (church) functions, but during the nineteenth century, there was a divergence into distinct civil and ecclesiastical parish systems. In London, the Ecclesiastical Parishes sub-divided to better serve the needs of a growing population, while the Civil Parishes continued to be based on the same Ancient Parish areas.

The [[London Government Act 1899]] converted the parishes into [[Metropolitan Borough]]s based on the same boundaries, sometimes with minor rationalisations.
In 1965, [[Metropolitan Borough of Hackney|Hackney]] merged with [[Metropolitan Borough of Shoreditch|Shoreditch]] and [[Metropolitan Borough of Stoke Newington|Stoke Newington]] to form the new [[London Borough of Hackney]].