Under the terms of the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 the townships formed part of the Leigh Poor Law Union comprising an area covering the whole of the ancient parish of Leigh and part of Winwick, established on 26 January 1837. A workhouse in Tyldesley was replaced by Leigh Union workhouse at Atherleigh in the 1850s. Tyldesley was constituted a civil parish in 1866. In 1863 the Local Government Act 1858 was adopted and the township was governed by a local board of health. The first Tyldesley Local Board was formed after elections on 24 October 1863. Among those elected were mill owners, Caleb Wright and Oliver Burton, and colliery owners, William Ramsden and George Green, a mixture of Tories and Liberals. The Local Board took over the gas works in 1865, built the first swimming baths and opened Tyldesley Cemetery in 1876 and built sewage works at Morleys Hall in Astley in 1884. The local board offices were in Lower Elliot Street, where it had a fire station and depot. Under the Public Health Act 1875 the local board gained additional powers as an urban sanitary district and under the Local Government Act 1894 Tyldesley-with-Shakerley became an urban district with an elected council. Tyldesley Town Hall, originally the township's Liberal Club, opened in 1881, and was taken over by Tyldesley Urban District Council as its headquarters in 1924. Tyldesley UDC opened Tyldesley Park in 1902, the Carnegie Library officially opened in 1909, and after World War I council housing was built at Sale Lane and Mosley Common and after World War II in Shakerley.