Post by YL on Apr 11, 2020 16:42:32 GMT
This constituency covers the north-western part of the county of South Yorkshire, and was created in this form in 2010. For local government purposes the areas in it are part of Sheffield or Barnsley, but many people in much of it will regard their communities as separate.
It isn't mentioned in the constituency name, but the largest parish in the constituency in terms of population is Ecclesfield, a suburban area on the northern edge of Sheffield which includes a number of communities with their own identity, such as Chapeltown, Ecclesfield village itself, the old village of Grenoside which is proud of its sword dancing tradition, and the more modern area of High Green which combines some modern commuter style detached housing with some deprived council estates. The ward of East Ecclesfield also includes a small part of the north Sheffield cottage estate belt.
To the west of Ecclesfield is the rather isolated feeling steel town of Stocksbridge, in a valley on the edge of the Pennines. Stocksbridge shares its ward with the smaller Don valley communities of Oughtibridge, one of those places you probably won't pronounce correctly unless you already know how, and Wharncliffe Side, and a large rural area which is mostly uninhabited moorland but includes small Pennine villages such as Midhopestones and Bolsterstone.
The Barnsley part of the constituency is based around the town of Penistone, which is surrounded by more attractive countryside in the Pennines and their eastern foothills including some fairly prosperous villages and the Wentworth Castle stately home, the result of an entertaining aristocratic feud with the owners of Wentworth Woodhouse. To the east, on the edge of the Barnsley urban area and near an M1 junction, is Dodworth (the W is silent), which is historically a mining area, but better off than many coalfield communities in South Yorkshire.
The constituency covers a similar area to the old Penistone constituency, abolished in 1983, which was usually a safe Labour seat. Between 1983 and 2010 the Sheffield part was almost all in Sheffield Hillsborough and the Barnsley part was in Barnsley West & Penistone, both of which were always won by Labour, although the Alliance came close in Hillsborough in 1983. However, it contains relatively little in the way of natural Labour strongholds, and so has always been seen as a likely marginal. There are pockets of deprivation, especially in Stocksbridge, parts of High Green, the southern edge of Dodworth, and around Ecclesfield village, but overall the constituency is less deprived than the English median. The constituency's population is older than average and not very ethnically diverse, and levels of higher education are slightly below average for the UK.
The last MP for Sheffield Hillsborough, Angela Smith, won the seat fairly narrowly for Labour in 2010, and increased her majority in 2015, before seeing it cut substantially to only 1,322 by the Tories in 2017. Smith left Labour in February 2019 to join Change UK-The Independent Group, before later joining the Lib Dems; however the Lib Dems had already selected a candidate, Penistone West councillor Hannah Kitching, and Smith ended up fighting Altrincham & Sale West in the 2019 election. At that election Miriam Cates, who had represented Oughtibridge on Bradfield Parish Council, won the seat for the Tories with a fairly comfortable majority.
Local elections in the constituency can be unpredictable. The Sheffield wards were historically strong for the Liberal Democrats, but then went through a phase from 2014 of splitting their representation between Labour and UKIP; more recently the Ecclesfield wards appear to be returning to the Lib Dems, while Stocksbridge & Upper Don has been won by Labour with a split opposition vote. On the Barnsley side, Penistone East has been fairly solid for the Tories, while Penistone West had been a Labour/Tory marginal, but starting in 2018 has swung dramatically to the Lib Dems, who also won a seat in Dodworth in the 2019 local elections, when they topped the poll across the constituency.
It isn't mentioned in the constituency name, but the largest parish in the constituency in terms of population is Ecclesfield, a suburban area on the northern edge of Sheffield which includes a number of communities with their own identity, such as Chapeltown, Ecclesfield village itself, the old village of Grenoside which is proud of its sword dancing tradition, and the more modern area of High Green which combines some modern commuter style detached housing with some deprived council estates. The ward of East Ecclesfield also includes a small part of the north Sheffield cottage estate belt.
To the west of Ecclesfield is the rather isolated feeling steel town of Stocksbridge, in a valley on the edge of the Pennines. Stocksbridge shares its ward with the smaller Don valley communities of Oughtibridge, one of those places you probably won't pronounce correctly unless you already know how, and Wharncliffe Side, and a large rural area which is mostly uninhabited moorland but includes small Pennine villages such as Midhopestones and Bolsterstone.
The Barnsley part of the constituency is based around the town of Penistone, which is surrounded by more attractive countryside in the Pennines and their eastern foothills including some fairly prosperous villages and the Wentworth Castle stately home, the result of an entertaining aristocratic feud with the owners of Wentworth Woodhouse. To the east, on the edge of the Barnsley urban area and near an M1 junction, is Dodworth (the W is silent), which is historically a mining area, but better off than many coalfield communities in South Yorkshire.
The constituency covers a similar area to the old Penistone constituency, abolished in 1983, which was usually a safe Labour seat. Between 1983 and 2010 the Sheffield part was almost all in Sheffield Hillsborough and the Barnsley part was in Barnsley West & Penistone, both of which were always won by Labour, although the Alliance came close in Hillsborough in 1983. However, it contains relatively little in the way of natural Labour strongholds, and so has always been seen as a likely marginal. There are pockets of deprivation, especially in Stocksbridge, parts of High Green, the southern edge of Dodworth, and around Ecclesfield village, but overall the constituency is less deprived than the English median. The constituency's population is older than average and not very ethnically diverse, and levels of higher education are slightly below average for the UK.
The last MP for Sheffield Hillsborough, Angela Smith, won the seat fairly narrowly for Labour in 2010, and increased her majority in 2015, before seeing it cut substantially to only 1,322 by the Tories in 2017. Smith left Labour in February 2019 to join Change UK-The Independent Group, before later joining the Lib Dems; however the Lib Dems had already selected a candidate, Penistone West councillor Hannah Kitching, and Smith ended up fighting Altrincham & Sale West in the 2019 election. At that election Miriam Cates, who had represented Oughtibridge on Bradfield Parish Council, won the seat for the Tories with a fairly comfortable majority.
Local elections in the constituency can be unpredictable. The Sheffield wards were historically strong for the Liberal Democrats, but then went through a phase from 2014 of splitting their representation between Labour and UKIP; more recently the Ecclesfield wards appear to be returning to the Lib Dems, while Stocksbridge & Upper Don has been won by Labour with a split opposition vote. On the Barnsley side, Penistone East has been fairly solid for the Tories, while Penistone West had been a Labour/Tory marginal, but starting in 2018 has swung dramatically to the Lib Dems, who also won a seat in Dodworth in the 2019 local elections, when they topped the poll across the constituency.
