Constituencies which aren't where they seem to be

[Adrian]

Are there any seats that you assumed were elsewhere? The first one that comes to mind is Wentworth, which isn't in leafy Surrey, but a mining village in Yorkshire.

[greatkingrat]

Chipping Barnet sounds like it should be in the Cotswolds.

[YL]

I used to assume that the constituency of Strangford contained the village of Strangford.

[WJ]

Walthamstow sounds like it should be in Greater Manchester somewhere while Denton & Reddish sounds very London to me.

Broxbourne-Broxtowe and Ashford-Ashfield always get me confused too.

[spqr]

I occasionally have to remind myself that Wansbeck isn't a constituency near Bristol.

[Pete Whitehead]

I always thought that South West Hertfordshire covered a bunch of communities in the South West corner of Hertfordshire but it appears actually to cover the entire Western edge of the county

[Deleted]

I always thought Hove would be to the east of the Brighton seats because the city is named Brighton & Hove while geographically it goes Hove then Brighton moving west to east.

It's like Hammersmith is north and Fulham is south.

Barking is west and Dagenham is east.

Brighton and Hove is the opposite.

[Deleted]

Harrow West not actually covering the most western parts of the borough threw me.

[swanarcadian]

Mole Valley sounds like something out of a childrens' book.

[Davıd Boothroyd]

Richmond Park doesn’t include any of the many lovely parks in that attractive North Riding town.

[Adrian]

Not quite relevant, but it interests me that many anomalies existed in boundaries and naming for hundreds of years without anyone being that bothered, before an array of people with too much time on their hands came along to straighten everything out. A random example is that the Suffolk hundred of Wangford didn't include its eponymous village. (The Boundary Commission does sometimes try to restart this tradition, e.g. an Eddisbury seat without Eddisbury in it.) And the Notts parish of Broadholme was recently forced into Lincolnshire (against the wishes of its people) because someone wanted a smoother county boundary.

[J.G.Harston]

Oct 25, 2017 17:47:53 GMT Adrian said:

Not quite relevant, but it interests me that many anomalies existed in boundaries and naming for hundreds of years without anyone being that bothered, before an array of people with too much time on their hands came along to straighten everything out. A random example is that the Suffolk hundred of Wangford didn't include its eponymous village. (The Boundary Commission does sometimes try to restart this tradition, e.g. an Eddisbury seat without Eddisbury in it.) And the Notts parish of Broadholme was recently forced into Lincolnshire (against the wishes of its people) because someone wanted a smoother county boundary.

I think that's how the anomoly arose of the county boundary running along one side of the B1190 but the parish boundary running along the other side, resulting in the parish having a mile-long salient that isn't actually connected to the village by any roads or paths.

[Khunanup]

Wirral South is actually the middle part of The Wirral (the southern parts are of course in Ellesmere Port and Neston, the area which is also known as South Wirral...)

[greenhert]

Oct 25, 2017 23:04:29 GMT ntyuk1707 said:

I love the constituency name of Gordon but it could practically refer to anywhere in Aberdeenshire.

Mid Aberdeenshire would have been more appropriate-it took in a large proportion of West Aberdeenshire when it was created in 1983, the other part of which went to Kincardine & Deeside.

[Foggy]

Bristol West should, at the very least, not contain Easton ward, anything east of the M32 or anywhere to the north or east of railway stations on the Severn Beach line (and indeed given the shape of Bristol properit arguably isn't possible to put together a viable seat truly worthy of the name 'Bristol West' anyway). Taunton 'Deane' makes it sound like it must be some other Taunton, rather than the familiar county town of Somerset.

Any seat with 'Deeside' in the name is provocatively ambiguous. Arundel and South Downs misses out the prettiest parts of said National Park. Banff of Banff and Buchan fame is clearly in Canada. Blackley and Broughton could be in lots of different places. Bootle is of course a safe Tory ward in Cumberland (same reason 'Egremont' should never be the name for a constituency). Skegness appears to be combined with the capital of Massachusetts.

Bradford-on-Avon looked at first to have been allotted 3 seats to itself which seemed rather generous, but apparently there's some city in West Yorkshire that's considered more deserving. The Brent area of Somerset would be even luckier with its apportionment... if there weren't a London Borough of the same name. The Pavilion in Brighton shouldn't get a constituency all to itself.

Castle Point could be almost anywhere. Charnwood sounds fictional. Christchurch is hit by earthquakes too frequently to be a proper British seat. Corby is only a make of trouser press and nothing more. 'Rainham' shouldn't be in a constituency name unless the one in Essex and the one in Kent can establish which is the 'real' one. For that matter, 'Ashford' could just as easily be the one in Middlesex. 'Don Valley' never contained the eponymous stadium. 

Easington lies in the south-eastern corner of East Riding, not in Durham. Eddisbury could've been anywhere. Edmonton is evidently in Alberta. The name 'Walton' shouldn't have the brass neck to turn up in both a Liverpool seat and a Surrey one! "Great" Grimsby must be some other Grimsby rather than the rubbish one in Lincolnshire, but Yarmouth is permitted a 'Great' to distinguish it from the one on the Isle of Wight. 

'Hazel Grove' could be anywhere if you're not familiar with the area. Hemsworth is merely the surname of the actor who plays (the Marvel version of) Thor and clearly not an actual place. There are enough Middletons to go around without one laying claim to be worthy of forming part of the name of a parliamentary seat. The capital of Jamaica has no business being paired with Surbiton. 

Southam and Southport did not appear to lie sufficiently far south to justify their names. Leigh is blatantly a village in Dorset. West Derby can't possibly be located on the Mersey, can it? Meriden looked similar enough to 'meridian' (and indeed ITV Meridian) to feel like it should be found further south than it is as well. The southern part of Middlesbrough doesn't stretch to Lake Erie. 

Newark does not contain the airport in New Jersey that its name promises. There are plenty of other Normantons, with no reason for the one in West Yorkshire to take precedence. Rayleigh is a bicycle manufacturing company and a place in North Carolina. The English Rochester ceased to exist in 1996 so the only famous one is now in upstate New York. 'Ross' is in Herefordshire, not the far north of Scotland. 

As mentioned, Rother Valley is in the wrong part of the country as the proper river Rother flows through Sussex rather than Yorkshire. The central part of the village of Sefton is far too small for a seat on its own. 'South Holland' is a province of the Netherlands, although the Deepings aren't located abroad. St Ives is in Huntingdonshire. It wasn't obvious to me for years where Stone is (a sign that Bill Cash literally lives under a rock, perhaps?)... at least it's next to Stoke-on-Trent both geographically and alphabetically!

Stratford-on-Avon is neither the correct Stratford (that's where the Olympic Park is) or on the right Avon. Cheam gives little clue as to which 'Sutton' is its neighbour. Vauxhall Motors FC don't play in Vauxhall constituency. 'Weaver Vale' is just plain silly.

[Davıd Boothroyd]

I wonder what people would have made of the former constituency of Liverpool Scotland.

[greenchristian]

Oct 25, 2017 13:13:27 GMT @benjl said:

Tell London folk you're from colne valley CLP and they are liable to think you live in the Uxbridge area!

It confuses those of us who grew up in Colchester as well.

[The Bishop]

Oct 26, 2017 1:04:48 GMT Foggy said:

Leigh is blatantly a village in Dorset

Gloucestershire also has a Leigh (not to mention a Barrow and Barnsley)

[Foggy]

Oct 26, 2017 10:27:08 GMT The Bishop said:

Oct 26, 2017 1:04:48 GMT Foggy said:

Leigh is blatantly a village in Dorset

Gloucestershire also has a Leigh (not to mention a Barrow and Barnsley)

I think I've heard of its Leigh and Barrow now that you mention it, but am not familiar with a Barnsley other than the Yorkshire one.

Anyway, the purpose of my long post was to show that we'll all have our own preconceptions, associations and connotations with regard to various place names that won't always match those of constituency names, and that we'll find some more obscure or nondescript than others. I don't seriously expect the BCE to bend completely to my will when it comes to nomenclature (sadly). 

[timrollpickering]

I do find it bizarre that New Addington and the countryside next to it are in a seat called Croydon Central.

Ilford North is too far north for that name (and Ilford South should just be "Ilford").