Post by warofdreams on Apr 20, 2020 14:12:24 GMT
If you're not local, it might be hard to place Rother Valley. The River Rother is the one which flows through Rotherham, and the constituency covers the part of the borough lying south and east of the town, which has its own seat.
Before the Industrial Revolution, this was a rural area, with agricultural villages, and Roche Abbey, now in ruins. All this changed with the arrival of coal mining. As a very general rule, mining started and ended earlier in the west, and later in the east. The last mine, in Maltby, a town to the east of Rotherham, closed only in 2013, though elsewhere some areas saw their mines close 30 years ago, or more. The seat is also defined by its motorway links, with the M1 and M18 running through it, offering opportunities for commuters and distribution.
The seat includes some southern suburbs of Rotherham, around Whiston, and Hellaby, a built-up parish immediately east of Rotherham, which is the wealthiest part of the seat. Most of the ex-mining villages have largely recovered from the closures of their mines, although each has some deprivation. Those villages in the west of the constituency are seeing more commuters to Sheffield. This is also the location of the large Rother Valley Country Park, alongside which a new theme park is being constructed. Further east, the small town of Dinnington merges into the Anstons, then yet further east are tiny villages in the only truly rural part of the constituency. Maltby, to the north east, is the most deprived area of the seat, having had least time to recover from the closure of its mine, and its population has fallen a little over the past 20 years.
The constituency was created in 1918, although until 1950 it covered a somewhat different area, stretching from Handsworth, now in Sheffield, to Swinton, north of Rotherham. But both before and after the boundary changes, it was a safe Labour seat, held with substantial majorities even in the poor years of 1918 and 1931, and with three-quarters of the vote or more in good years. Its first three MPs were all sponsored by the miners' union, as initially was Kevin Barron, who served from 1983 to 2019.
Barron was on the right of the Labour Party, and in recent years, strongly pro-Brexit. As in many other ex-mining seats, demographic change has not favoured the Labour Party, and with vote shares in the 2010s under 50%, the Conservatives began seeing the seat as a target. Following the Rotherham child abuse scandal, UKIP heavily targeted the borough, and in the 2015 general election, this saw them move into second place, with 28.8% of the vote. But in 2017, the Conservatives retook second, narrowing the majority to 7.8% even as Labour's vote share increased. Barron stood down in 2019, and the Conservatives gained the seat on a 10.4% swing.
The most recent council elections were in 2016, before UKIP's collapse. They were competitive everywhere, and although Labour won the majority of seats both in this constituency and in the borough, nowhere did they have a comfortable majority. The Conservatives had respectable votes in Hellaby, which they have won in the past, and in Wales, at the southern end of the seat, but nothing which would predict their 2019 success. Around the time that Maltby's mine closed, the town had some interesting politics, with a BNP borough councillor, and two Trade Union and Socialist Coalition town councillors, but that is all in the past, and this constituency at both Parliamentary and borough levels looks like a straight Conservative - Labour battle.
Before the Industrial Revolution, this was a rural area, with agricultural villages, and Roche Abbey, now in ruins. All this changed with the arrival of coal mining. As a very general rule, mining started and ended earlier in the west, and later in the east. The last mine, in Maltby, a town to the east of Rotherham, closed only in 2013, though elsewhere some areas saw their mines close 30 years ago, or more. The seat is also defined by its motorway links, with the M1 and M18 running through it, offering opportunities for commuters and distribution.
The seat includes some southern suburbs of Rotherham, around Whiston, and Hellaby, a built-up parish immediately east of Rotherham, which is the wealthiest part of the seat. Most of the ex-mining villages have largely recovered from the closures of their mines, although each has some deprivation. Those villages in the west of the constituency are seeing more commuters to Sheffield. This is also the location of the large Rother Valley Country Park, alongside which a new theme park is being constructed. Further east, the small town of Dinnington merges into the Anstons, then yet further east are tiny villages in the only truly rural part of the constituency. Maltby, to the north east, is the most deprived area of the seat, having had least time to recover from the closure of its mine, and its population has fallen a little over the past 20 years.
The constituency was created in 1918, although until 1950 it covered a somewhat different area, stretching from Handsworth, now in Sheffield, to Swinton, north of Rotherham. But both before and after the boundary changes, it was a safe Labour seat, held with substantial majorities even in the poor years of 1918 and 1931, and with three-quarters of the vote or more in good years. Its first three MPs were all sponsored by the miners' union, as initially was Kevin Barron, who served from 1983 to 2019.
Barron was on the right of the Labour Party, and in recent years, strongly pro-Brexit. As in many other ex-mining seats, demographic change has not favoured the Labour Party, and with vote shares in the 2010s under 50%, the Conservatives began seeing the seat as a target. Following the Rotherham child abuse scandal, UKIP heavily targeted the borough, and in the 2015 general election, this saw them move into second place, with 28.8% of the vote. But in 2017, the Conservatives retook second, narrowing the majority to 7.8% even as Labour's vote share increased. Barron stood down in 2019, and the Conservatives gained the seat on a 10.4% swing.
The most recent council elections were in 2016, before UKIP's collapse. They were competitive everywhere, and although Labour won the majority of seats both in this constituency and in the borough, nowhere did they have a comfortable majority. The Conservatives had respectable votes in Hellaby, which they have won in the past, and in Wales, at the southern end of the seat, but nothing which would predict their 2019 success. Around the time that Maltby's mine closed, the town had some interesting politics, with a BNP borough councillor, and two Trade Union and Socialist Coalition town councillors, but that is all in the past, and this constituency at both Parliamentary and borough levels looks like a straight Conservative - Labour battle.
