The Borough of Stafford is a local government district with borough status in Staffordshire, England. It is named after Stafford, its largest town, which is where the council is based. The borough also includes the towns of Stone and Eccleshall, as well as numerous villages and surrounding rural areas.

The neighbouring districts are Newcastle-under-Lyme, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire Moorlands, East Staffordshire, Lichfield, Cannock Chase, South Staffordshire, Telford and Wrekin and Shropshire.

The town of Stafford was an ancient borough, being described as a borough in the Domesday Book of 1086.^[2] Its earliest surviving charter was issued by King John in 1206.^[3] Stafford was formally incorporated in 1614 by a charter from James I, which also granted the right to appoint a mayor.^[4]

The borough was reformed in 1836 to become a municipal borough under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835, which reformed many boroughs across the country. As part of those reforms the borough was enlarged to include the Forebridge area on the south bank of the River Sow, which had been added to the Stafford parliamentary borough (constituency) in 1832.^[5][6] The municipal borough was subsequently enlarged several times to take in the town's growing suburbs, notably in 1917 when it gained areas including Tillington, and in 1934 when it gained areas including Baswich.^[7]

The modern district was created on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972 covering four former districts, which were all abolished at the same time:^[8]

• Stafford Municipal Borough
• Stafford Rural District
• Stone Rural District
• Stone Urban District

The new district was named Stafford after its largest town.^[9] Stafford's borough status transferred to the new district from its creation, allowing the chair of the council to take the title of mayor, continuing Stafford's series of mayors dating back to 1614.^[10]

Many of the new borough's parishes had been within the historic Hundred of Pirehill.

Stafford Borough Council provides district-level services. County-level services are provided by Staffordshire County Council. Much of the borough is also covered by civil parishes, which form a third tier of local government.^[13][14]

The main part of the Stafford urban area, roughly corresponding to the pre-1974 borough, is an unparished area. Nearly half the modern borough's population lives in this area.^[38] The rest of the borough is divided into civil parishes. The parish council for Stone has declared that parish to be a town, allowing it to take the style "town council". Eccleshall is also commonly described as a town, having held a market charter from at least 1154, but its parish council has not formally declared it to be a town, nor is it a post town. The small parishes of Ellenhall and Marston have a parish meeting rather than a parish council.^[39]

The parishes are: