Civil parishes in their modern sense were established afresh in 1894, by the Local Government Act 1894. The Act abolished vestries, and established elected parish councils in all rural civil parishes with more than 300 electors. These were grouped into rural districts. Boundaries were altered to avoid parishes being split between counties. Urban parishes continued to exist, and boundaries were usually changed to be the same as the urban district or municipal borough in which they were situated. Large towns originally split between multiple parishes were, for the most part, eventually joined into one parish. No parish councils were formed for urban parishes, and their only function was as areas electing guardians to Poor Law Unions. With the abolition of the poor law system in 1930 the parishes had only a nominal existence.