Post by Deleted on Mar 30, 2020 21:30:54 GMT
Unabridged version. I'm aware that others like Adam in Stroud and maybe iain and cotswoldtory know some parts of the seat better and have known them for longer so if you have any additions or edits to recommend please do
Stroud
Stroud is situated at the southern end of Gloucestershire, not to be confused with South Gloucestershire which is the bit of the county that was unlucky enough to be dragged kicking and screaming into theMonstrosity County of Avon in the 1974 local government reorganisation. Stroud is not, to be honest, the perfect name for this constituency, but it is probably the best available and it is an old one: a constituency of this name first existed in 1832 and has existed almost continuously since except for a small period between 1950 and 1955 when it was replaced by a Stroud and Thornbury seat. It is a highly diverse seat, containing the historic market town of the same name at its centre, the western fringe of the Cotswolds AONB to the east and south east, a roughly 15 mile (25km) stretch of the bank of the Severn to the west (although this length is closer to 27 miles or 43km when all the twists and turns of the river as it runs towards the Bristol Channel are considered) the edge of the county town of Gloucester to the north, and a bizarre mixture of post-industrial areas, commuter towns, market towns and villages which looked to have been plucked straight out of an episode of Miss Marple or Midsomer Murders to the south. The Stroud valleys and the Severn Vale are very different in several ways: whilst one is incredibly hilly, containing a stretch of the famous Cotswold way, the other is flat and floods relatively frequency. The valleys also have a particular liberal, almost bohemian outlook which affects its politics in a big way while the Severn vale is much less liberal, in some places bordering on reactionary, with a large traditional Tory presence and some conservative left vote in the more built-up areas of the vale. Major settlements in the area include Cainscross, a town of around 6,500 people which almost merges into the town of Stroud yet maintains a distinct local identity; Stonehouse which is home to roughly 7,700 people and sits next to Cainscross yet has its own identity and a very different “feel”; Nailsworth at the south eastern edge which is a socially mixed town containing slightly under 5,800 people and Forest Green Rovers who play in league 2 of the English football league; Dursley at the southern edge which is a socially mixed market town of more than 6,000 on the Cotswold Way and contains elements of its industrial past, and my own home village of Cam which sits at the edge of Dursley and is home to 8,000 people as well as Cam Mill, the last remnant of a once massive textile industry in the area which stretches back to at least the early 19th century. It still employs around 100 people and now makes the cloth for tennis balls and snooker tables, which is also still present in other areas of the constituency. One point of local interest is that although Dursley is mentioned in the Doomsday Book, the discovery of a roman villa in the Box Road area of Cam in November 2019 means that the village is now older than Dursley: a source of some pride for some of the locals!
Several whole books have been written about the history of the Stroud area alone so I won’t go into much detail, but I will include a few relevant facts. During the civil war, the county's gentry were mostly devoted royalists, except for Stroud where they were devoted parliamentarians. The town of Stroud's non-conformist streak has a history going back to the 16th century: two priests removed form other offices after the restoration settled here and one became a Presbyterian minister in 1590. This evolved into a congregationalist church which is still prominent in the town today and John Wesley preached here in 1756. Later on, this was one of the more industrialised areas of Gloucestershire, mostly with the textile industry. Woollen mills once dotted the landscape of the Stroud valleys and the southern areas of the constituency. The heavy taxation of wool exports during the hundred year war made production viable in England, and this is partly what allowed the industry to grow in the Stroud Valleys. At one time, the area had a monopoly on the production of red cloth for the British army, and it was the rotating wheels of the machinery inspired the invention of the lawn mower, in turn making the game of lawn tennis possible, which to complete a rather circuitous chin of events led to the production of cloth for tennis balls which continues to this day. Some of this industry is still present in various parts of the seat. Other industries were also present: RA Lister, a company that is still a household name amongst many in engineering, was founded in Dursley in 1867 and the factory there only closed in the 2000s. Many other housing estates in the town are named after factories which once occupied the land. The town of Sharpness on the River Severn is the eighth largest port in South West England and contains a once large and busy dock, served by two separate rail lines and linking the Severn to the nearby city of Gloucester via the Gloucester-Sharpness canal. In stark contrast to other areas of the Cotswolds, some manufacturing remains, in particular in Dursley and in the "Golden Valley" stretching from Brimscombe through Thrupp out to Chalford. One final point of interest is that the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust was founded in Slimbridge in the constituency. Anybody with an interest in the history of the area, particularly its industrial history, could do a lot worse than visit the Museum in the Park in the centre of Stroud, especially if they have young children.
The political history of this constituency is very mixed. For the first 42 years if its existence it only elected Whig or Liberal MPs. It changed hands between the Liberals and the Conservatives at every election from 1885 to 1900 and then remained in Liberal hands until 1922, when it was gained by a Unionist candidate who lost it back to the Liberals in 1923. In 1924, suffragist Edith Picton-Turbervill ran for the Labour Party and pushed the Liberals into third for the first time. A newspaper advert encouraging Labour supporters to open their homes to campaigners from other areas wishing to help has survived from this election. In 1945 it was won by Labour, but then abolished. When it returned in 1955 it went marginally Tory and remained that way until the late seventies when the Tories started to pull away. The LibDems revived some of their old strength to finish ahead of the Labour party in 1983 and 87, and only narrowly behind in 1992, until Labour gained it on a 10.8% swing in 1997. They held it held it until 2010, and then again from 2017-19. Labour’s David Drew and Neil Carmichael for the Conservatives faced each other five times from 2001 to 2017, with Drew winning three elections and 123,713 votes and Carmichael winning two elections and 123,622 votes. Siobhan Bailie, who gained the seat for the Conservatives in 2019, is the constituency’s first ever female MP. Other notable former MPs include David Drew, still something of a local celebrity and former shadow minister, and Roger Knapman, who was the leader of a political outfit called UKIP – whatever happened to them? – from 2002-2006.
Today’s political profile is equally complex. The Greens have a strong and longstanding presence at local level, but this vote totally evaporates at general elections. They have stood here at every election since 1992 and have hit the 5% required to hold their deposit just twice, in 2005 and 2019 when Stroud-born Molly Scott-Cato MEP was the candidate, in the latter case probably costing Labour the seat. Their vote is mostly concentrated in Stroud Town which has had a reputation for an alternative, bordering on Bohemian, streak going back to the Edwardian era. The town is also the birth place of Extinction Rebellion, who were founded by a group that includes a local anti-vaccine Labour councillor. The Liberal Democrats, whose predecessors considered this a safe seat for most of the first quarter of the twentieth century, are nowhere to be seen. In 2010 they were a full 7.5 percentage points behind their national vote share: in 2015 and 17 they lost their deposit and in 2019 stood down as part of “Unite to Remain”, which was still somehow not the biggest farce of the whole brexit fiasco but certainly gave it a good shot. The True-Blue Tory Cotswolds are living proof that some stereotypes are accurate. These areas have been Tory since Noah and show no real sign of changing, although this area almost certainly voted remain at the referendum an probably for the Greens at the EU elections: there is some evidence of a wonderful quirk of Stroud politics whereby the Greens replace the LibDems amongst voters who are normally Tory-LibDem swing voters or Tory nationally and LibDem locally. The richer areas of Nailsworth and the Gloucester suburbs also vote heavily Tory while the Severn bank is a rural area with a fair amount of farming and votes Tory by a wide margin. Labour’s core vote comes from the major settlements. Stroud, with its mix of working class and bohemian middle-class votes for the party by a long way at general elections as does neighbouring Cainscross. Stonehouse, one of the most deprived parts of the district, also gives large margins for Labour. The party also do well in the town of Dursley, which has some Tory vote in the rich and leave-voting areas around the edge but a fairly solid Labour core made up of the post-industrial areas, the council estates and some of the more educated and liberal middle-class areas. Labour’s other strong area is Cam with more council estates and sheltered housing, although rapid house-building for Gloucester commuters is a causing a Tory trend. The winner of Cam and Dursley usually wins the seat. This is a fascinating marginal with a fascinating history and, in all probability, an equally fascinating future to come.
Stroud
Stroud is situated at the southern end of Gloucestershire, not to be confused with South Gloucestershire which is the bit of the county that was unlucky enough to be dragged kicking and screaming into the
Several whole books have been written about the history of the Stroud area alone so I won’t go into much detail, but I will include a few relevant facts. During the civil war, the county's gentry were mostly devoted royalists, except for Stroud where they were devoted parliamentarians. The town of Stroud's non-conformist streak has a history going back to the 16th century: two priests removed form other offices after the restoration settled here and one became a Presbyterian minister in 1590. This evolved into a congregationalist church which is still prominent in the town today and John Wesley preached here in 1756. Later on, this was one of the more industrialised areas of Gloucestershire, mostly with the textile industry. Woollen mills once dotted the landscape of the Stroud valleys and the southern areas of the constituency. The heavy taxation of wool exports during the hundred year war made production viable in England, and this is partly what allowed the industry to grow in the Stroud Valleys. At one time, the area had a monopoly on the production of red cloth for the British army, and it was the rotating wheels of the machinery inspired the invention of the lawn mower, in turn making the game of lawn tennis possible, which to complete a rather circuitous chin of events led to the production of cloth for tennis balls which continues to this day. Some of this industry is still present in various parts of the seat. Other industries were also present: RA Lister, a company that is still a household name amongst many in engineering, was founded in Dursley in 1867 and the factory there only closed in the 2000s. Many other housing estates in the town are named after factories which once occupied the land. The town of Sharpness on the River Severn is the eighth largest port in South West England and contains a once large and busy dock, served by two separate rail lines and linking the Severn to the nearby city of Gloucester via the Gloucester-Sharpness canal. In stark contrast to other areas of the Cotswolds, some manufacturing remains, in particular in Dursley and in the "Golden Valley" stretching from Brimscombe through Thrupp out to Chalford. One final point of interest is that the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust was founded in Slimbridge in the constituency. Anybody with an interest in the history of the area, particularly its industrial history, could do a lot worse than visit the Museum in the Park in the centre of Stroud, especially if they have young children.
The political history of this constituency is very mixed. For the first 42 years if its existence it only elected Whig or Liberal MPs. It changed hands between the Liberals and the Conservatives at every election from 1885 to 1900 and then remained in Liberal hands until 1922, when it was gained by a Unionist candidate who lost it back to the Liberals in 1923. In 1924, suffragist Edith Picton-Turbervill ran for the Labour Party and pushed the Liberals into third for the first time. A newspaper advert encouraging Labour supporters to open their homes to campaigners from other areas wishing to help has survived from this election. In 1945 it was won by Labour, but then abolished. When it returned in 1955 it went marginally Tory and remained that way until the late seventies when the Tories started to pull away. The LibDems revived some of their old strength to finish ahead of the Labour party in 1983 and 87, and only narrowly behind in 1992, until Labour gained it on a 10.8% swing in 1997. They held it held it until 2010, and then again from 2017-19. Labour’s David Drew and Neil Carmichael for the Conservatives faced each other five times from 2001 to 2017, with Drew winning three elections and 123,713 votes and Carmichael winning two elections and 123,622 votes. Siobhan Bailie, who gained the seat for the Conservatives in 2019, is the constituency’s first ever female MP. Other notable former MPs include David Drew, still something of a local celebrity and former shadow minister, and Roger Knapman, who was the leader of a political outfit called UKIP – whatever happened to them? – from 2002-2006.
Today’s political profile is equally complex. The Greens have a strong and longstanding presence at local level, but this vote totally evaporates at general elections. They have stood here at every election since 1992 and have hit the 5% required to hold their deposit just twice, in 2005 and 2019 when Stroud-born Molly Scott-Cato MEP was the candidate, in the latter case probably costing Labour the seat. Their vote is mostly concentrated in Stroud Town which has had a reputation for an alternative, bordering on Bohemian, streak going back to the Edwardian era. The town is also the birth place of Extinction Rebellion, who were founded by a group that includes a local anti-vaccine Labour councillor. The Liberal Democrats, whose predecessors considered this a safe seat for most of the first quarter of the twentieth century, are nowhere to be seen. In 2010 they were a full 7.5 percentage points behind their national vote share: in 2015 and 17 they lost their deposit and in 2019 stood down as part of “Unite to Remain”, which was still somehow not the biggest farce of the whole brexit fiasco but certainly gave it a good shot. The True-Blue Tory Cotswolds are living proof that some stereotypes are accurate. These areas have been Tory since Noah and show no real sign of changing, although this area almost certainly voted remain at the referendum an probably for the Greens at the EU elections: there is some evidence of a wonderful quirk of Stroud politics whereby the Greens replace the LibDems amongst voters who are normally Tory-LibDem swing voters or Tory nationally and LibDem locally. The richer areas of Nailsworth and the Gloucester suburbs also vote heavily Tory while the Severn bank is a rural area with a fair amount of farming and votes Tory by a wide margin. Labour’s core vote comes from the major settlements. Stroud, with its mix of working class and bohemian middle-class votes for the party by a long way at general elections as does neighbouring Cainscross. Stonehouse, one of the most deprived parts of the district, also gives large margins for Labour. The party also do well in the town of Dursley, which has some Tory vote in the rich and leave-voting areas around the edge but a fairly solid Labour core made up of the post-industrial areas, the council estates and some of the more educated and liberal middle-class areas. Labour’s other strong area is Cam with more council estates and sheltered housing, although rapid house-building for Gloucester commuters is a causing a Tory trend. The winner of Cam and Dursley usually wins the seat. This is a fascinating marginal with a fascinating history and, in all probability, an equally fascinating future to come.
