Stalybridge (UK Parliament constituency)

Stalybridge
Former borough constituency for the House of Commons
County	Cheshire
Major settlements	Stalybridge
1868–1918
Seats	One
Created from	North Cheshire South Lancashire (parts of)
Replaced by	Stalybridge & Hyde Mossley

Stalybridge officially sometimes written in early years as Staleybridge was a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament from 1868 until 1918 by one MP. It comprised the borough of Stalybridge which lay in Lancashire and Cheshire and which is in the east of today's Greater Manchester. On abolition for the 1918 general election under the Representation of the People Act 1918 the seat's main replacement became Stalybridge and Hyde.

Creation, boundaries and abolition

Map of the wider area in 1924. The seat took in the south-easternmost part of Lancashire and lay within the ancient Salford hundred division of Lancashire, skirting the more densely populated north bank of the Tame at Ashton under Lyne, taking in parts of historic Cheshire and both banks of the river above Ashton.

See also: Municipal Borough of Stalybridge

Parliament created this seat under the Reform Act 1867, the part of the second Reform Act that covered England and Wales, which defined its components as the: ^[1]

• Municipal Borough of Stalybridge
• The remaining portion of the township of Dukinfield
• Township of Stalley
• The District of the Local Board of Health of Mossley

It was marginally expanded in line with a local government change under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, to be:

Name of parliamentary borough	Contents and boundaries
Stalybridge	So much of the Municipal Borough of Stalybridge as it not included in the said Parliamentary borough. [2]

The seat was abolished by the Representation of the People Act 1918, with the majority of its electorate being included in the new constituency of Stalybridge and Hyde. A small area which was now part of the municipal borough of Mossley in Lancashire was added to the new constituency of Mossley.

Members of Parliament

• 1868 Constituency created

Previously part of North Cheshire and South Lancashire

Election		Member	Party
	1868	James Sidebottom	Conservative
	1871 by-election	Nathaniel Buckley	Liberal
	1874	Tom Harrop Sidebottom	Conservative
	1880	William Summers	Liberal
	1885	Tom Harrop Sidebottom	Conservative
	1900	Matthew White Ridley	Conservative
	1905 by-election	John Frederick Cheetham	Liberal
	Jan. 1910	John Wood	Conservative
1918 Constituency abolished: see Stalybridge and Hyde

Elections

Decades:

1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s

Elections in the 1860s

General election 1868: Stalybridge ^[3]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	James Sidebottom	2,405	53.6
	Liberal	Nathaniel Buckley	2,078	46.4
Majority			327	7.2
Turnout			4,483	84.0
Registered electors			5,338
	Conservative win (new seat)

Elections in the 1870s

Sidebottom's death caused a by-election.

By-election, 1 Mar 1871: Stalybridge ^[3]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Nathaniel Buckley	2,198	51.9	+5.5
	Conservative	Francis Powell [4]	2,033	48.1	−5.5
Majority			165	3.8	N/A
Turnout			4,231	86.0	+2.0
Registered electors			4,918
	Liberal gain from Conservative		Swing	+5.5

Sidebottom

General election 1874: Stalybridge ^[3]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Thomas Harrop Sidebottom	2,378	51.7	−1.9
	Liberal	Nathaniel Buckley	2,220	48.3	+1.9
Majority			158	3.4	−3.8
Turnout			4,598	89.6	+5.6
Registered electors			5,129
	Conservative hold		Swing	−1.9

Elections in the 1880s

General election 1880: Stalybridge ^[3]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	William Summers	2,706	51.6	+3.3
	Conservative	Thomas Harrop Sidebottom	2,542	48.4	−3.3
Majority			164	3.2	N/A
Turnout			5,248	93.6	+4.0
Registered electors			5,606
	Liberal gain from Conservative		Swing	+3.3

General election 1885: Stalybridge ^{[5] [6]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Thomas Harrop Sidebottom	3,169	51.8	+3.4
	Liberal	William Summers	2,950	48.2	−3.4
Majority			219	3.6	N/A
Turnout			6,119	95.3	+1.7
Registered electors			6,424
	Conservative gain from Liberal		Swing	+3.4

General election 1886: Stalybridge ^{[5] [6]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Thomas Harrop Sidebottom	3,220	55.0	+3.2
	Liberal	John Webb Probyn	2,638	45.0	−3.2
Majority			582	10.0	+6.4
Turnout			5,858	91.2	−4.1
Registered electors			6,424
	Conservative hold		Swing	+3.2

Elections in the 1890s

General election 1892: Stalybridge ^{[5] [7]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Thomas Harrop Sidebottom	3,280	52.7	−2.3
	Liberal	Joshua Macer Wright	2,943	47.3	+2.3
Majority			337	5.4	−4.6
Turnout			6,223	92.8	+1.6
Registered electors			6,703
	Conservative hold		Swing	-2.3

General election 1895: Stalybridge ^{[5] [7]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Thomas Harrop Sidebottom	3,389	55.1	+2.4
	Liberal	Joshua Macer Wright	2,757	44.9	−2.4
Majority			632	10.2	+4.8
Turnout			6,146	88.1	−4.7
Registered electors			6,980
	Conservative hold		Swing	+2.4

Elections in the 1900s

General election 1900: Stalybridge ^{[5] [8]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Matthew White Ridley	3,321	50.6	−4.5
	Liberal	John Frederick Cheetham	3,241	49.4	+4.5
Majority			80	1.2	−9.0
Turnout			6,562	88.0	−0.1
Registered electors			7,461
	Conservative hold		Swing	-4.5

Cheetham

1905 Stalybridge by-election ^[5]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	John Frederick Cheetham	4,029	56.7	+7.3
	Conservative	James Travis-Clegg	3,078	43.3	−7.3
Majority			951	13.4	N/A
Turnout			7,107	93.5	+5.5
Registered electors			7,601
	Liberal gain from Conservative		Swing	+7.3

General election 1906: Stalybridge ^[5]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	John Frederick Cheetham	3,836	53.1	+3.7
	Conservative	James Travis-Clegg	3,382	46.9	−3.7
Majority			454	6.2	N/A
Turnout			7,218	93.8	+5.8
Registered electors			7,691
	Liberal gain from Conservative		Swing	+3.7

Elections in the 1910s

General election January 1910: Stalybridge ^{[5] [9]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	John Wood	3,736	50.4	+3.5
	Liberal	Allan Heywood Bright	3,679	49.6	−3.5
Majority			57	0.8	N/A
Turnout			7,415	94.3	+0.5
Registered electors			7,860
	Conservative gain from Liberal		Swing	+3.5

General election December 1910: Stalybridge ^{[5] [9]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	John Wood	3,807	52.7	+2.3
	Liberal	Allan Heywood Bright	3,414	47.3	−2.3
Majority			393	5.4	+4.6
Turnout			7,221	91.9	−2.4
Registered electors			7,860
	Conservative hold		Swing	+2.3

General Election 1914–15:

Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1915. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place and by the July 1914, the following candidates had been selected;

• Unionist: John Wood
• Liberal: Walter Kenyon

See also

• History of parliamentary constituencies and boundaries in Cheshire

References

1. Reform Act 1867, Schedule B; Statutes of the Realm, Eyre & Spottiswoode (1880, London) at p. 1167
2. Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, Fifth Schedule; Statutes of the Realm, Eyre & Spottiswoode (1884, London) at p. 129
3. Craig, F. W. S., ed. (1977). British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885 (e-book) (1st ed.). London: Macmillan Press. ISBN   978-1-349-02349-3.
4. "Stalybridge Election" . Sheffield Daily Telegraph. 1 March 1871. p. 3. Retrieved 21 January 2018– via British Newspaper Archive.
5. Craig, F. W. S., ed. (1974). British Parliamentary Election Results: 1885-1918. London: Macmillan Press. p. 193. ISBN   9781349022984.
6. Debrett's House of Commons & Judicial Bench, 1886
7. Debrett's House of Commons & Judicial Bench, 1896
8. Debrett's House of Commons & Judicial Bench, 1901
9. Debrett's House of Commons & Judicial Bench, 1916

Sources

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "S" (part 4)