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I think the situation in the colonies is a different matter to the situation in the UK itself. In terms of racial segregation, there was really only de facto segregation, rather than de jure segregation.
Obviously, prior to the abolition of the slave trade in britain, there were black slaves, but not in the same numbers as there were in sugar growing colonies. There would have been a few cities where large numbers of slaves would be processed, but the serving classes in the UK were the lower social orders, not imported slaves. Even then, one could be black and free, being black did not automatically confer inferior status in law.
We did, however, have laws limiting the particiation of Catholics, Jews and non-Anglican protestants, up until, I believe the 19th century.
Mostly our legal constraints on the person have historically settled onto the working classes and the very poor. And....y'know...the Irish....and women.
Within the colonies, however, we would often institute very codified and strictly hierarchical systems which would take account of racial background and class. In the British colonial mindset, the average middle-class / upper-class administrator would have far more in common with the ruling elites of the countries they governed than than the working-classes of their own culture.
It's a different history to America. Class is/was a much bigger factor in our political culture, I think.
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