Post by greenhert on May 4, 2020 23:11:40 GMT
West Dorset was first created as a constituency in 1885. It covers all of the former West Dorset district except for the ward of Owermoigne near Weymouth.
West Dorset is the largest Dorset constituency by area, and includes the Jurassic Coast UNESCO World Heritage Site,and the Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Its largest town is Dorchester (also encompassing Poundbury and Fordington) which is also the county town of Dorset. Dorchester has a rich history for a town whose population only now exceeds 20,000 people: it was first properly settled by the Romans who called it Durnovaria; it was a centre of Puritan emigration to what is now the eastern USA; it was the site of the "Bloody Assizes" trials where George Jeffreys sentenced 300 men to death or transportation for their part in the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685; the Tolpuddle Martyrs were also tried here in 1834 and sentenced to transportation in Australia, and Thomas Hardy's novel the Mayor of Casterbridge is set there, Casterbridge being a fictionalised version of Dorchester. Bridport is a rope-making town which is also home to the longest continuously running business in the UK, R J Balson & Son, which apparently can trace its line of butchers back to 1515, and a growing arts scene. Lyme Regis, on the border with Devon and the centre of the aforementioned Jurassic Coast, has been dubbed "the pearl of Dorset" and aside from being a pleasant seaside town was where Mary Anning discovered the remains of Jurassic-era dinosaurs and other prehistoric reptiles like Ichtyhosaurus. Beaminster was once an important flax and linen town although the lack of a railway line meant its prosperity declined significantly; it is now the home of Clipper, one of the first companies to obtain Fairtrade status in the UK. Sherborne was the site of a famous abbey and King Alfred the Great himself was educated there; Sherborne is also home to Sherborne Castle and Sherborne School, whose alumni include Alan Turing, who cracked Enigma, and actor Jeremy Irons. With the county town in its boundaries, West Dorset attracts a higher proportion of degree holders than the rest of Dorset, although Bridport's qualification levels are significantly lower than Dorchester's, and Bridport also has a considerably lower proportion of people in professional, managerial and administrative occupations than either Dorchester or Sherborne.
West Dorset has been continuously held by the Conservatives since 1885, although it was marginal between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats during the Blair years. The Liberal Democrats, having continuously been runners up since February 1974, fell back sharply in 2015 but have recovered somewhat since then. Its most notable MP was Sir Oliver Letwin, who became Shadow Home Secretary under Michael Howard and later became Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster under David Cameron. In 2015 it was revealed that in 1985 he co-authored with Hartley Booth (Conservative MP for Finchley from 1992-97) the "Broadwater Farm memo" urging Margaret Thatcher to ignore social deprivation and racism problems in estates like the Broadwater Farm estate. Sir Oliver was one of 21 Conservative MPs to be deprived of the whip for voting against a no-deal Brexit on 3 September 2019, a fortnight after he had announced he would be standing down from Parliament at the subsequent general election of December 2019. Chris Loder subsequently became Conservative MP for this constituency, and the very first West Dorset MP without the privilege of having had a private school background. Locally the urban divisions in West Dorset are competitive between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, with Dorchester being the strongest Liberal Democrat town in the constituency; the villages are mainly Conservative with some Independent opposition. Bridport's aforementioned growing arts scene can somewhat account for the Green gain in Bridport in 2019 (the only Green gain/hold outside Weymouth in Dorset in May 2019). Labour are not competitive anywhere in West Dorset except somewhat in Bridport (even then they finished last in May 2019) and the last time any Labour councillors were elected in the former West Dorset district was 1999.
West Dorset is the largest Dorset constituency by area, and includes the Jurassic Coast UNESCO World Heritage Site,and the Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Its largest town is Dorchester (also encompassing Poundbury and Fordington) which is also the county town of Dorset. Dorchester has a rich history for a town whose population only now exceeds 20,000 people: it was first properly settled by the Romans who called it Durnovaria; it was a centre of Puritan emigration to what is now the eastern USA; it was the site of the "Bloody Assizes" trials where George Jeffreys sentenced 300 men to death or transportation for their part in the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685; the Tolpuddle Martyrs were also tried here in 1834 and sentenced to transportation in Australia, and Thomas Hardy's novel the Mayor of Casterbridge is set there, Casterbridge being a fictionalised version of Dorchester. Bridport is a rope-making town which is also home to the longest continuously running business in the UK, R J Balson & Son, which apparently can trace its line of butchers back to 1515, and a growing arts scene. Lyme Regis, on the border with Devon and the centre of the aforementioned Jurassic Coast, has been dubbed "the pearl of Dorset" and aside from being a pleasant seaside town was where Mary Anning discovered the remains of Jurassic-era dinosaurs and other prehistoric reptiles like Ichtyhosaurus. Beaminster was once an important flax and linen town although the lack of a railway line meant its prosperity declined significantly; it is now the home of Clipper, one of the first companies to obtain Fairtrade status in the UK. Sherborne was the site of a famous abbey and King Alfred the Great himself was educated there; Sherborne is also home to Sherborne Castle and Sherborne School, whose alumni include Alan Turing, who cracked Enigma, and actor Jeremy Irons. With the county town in its boundaries, West Dorset attracts a higher proportion of degree holders than the rest of Dorset, although Bridport's qualification levels are significantly lower than Dorchester's, and Bridport also has a considerably lower proportion of people in professional, managerial and administrative occupations than either Dorchester or Sherborne.
West Dorset has been continuously held by the Conservatives since 1885, although it was marginal between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats during the Blair years. The Liberal Democrats, having continuously been runners up since February 1974, fell back sharply in 2015 but have recovered somewhat since then. Its most notable MP was Sir Oliver Letwin, who became Shadow Home Secretary under Michael Howard and later became Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster under David Cameron. In 2015 it was revealed that in 1985 he co-authored with Hartley Booth (Conservative MP for Finchley from 1992-97) the "Broadwater Farm memo" urging Margaret Thatcher to ignore social deprivation and racism problems in estates like the Broadwater Farm estate. Sir Oliver was one of 21 Conservative MPs to be deprived of the whip for voting against a no-deal Brexit on 3 September 2019, a fortnight after he had announced he would be standing down from Parliament at the subsequent general election of December 2019. Chris Loder subsequently became Conservative MP for this constituency, and the very first West Dorset MP without the privilege of having had a private school background. Locally the urban divisions in West Dorset are competitive between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, with Dorchester being the strongest Liberal Democrat town in the constituency; the villages are mainly Conservative with some Independent opposition. Bridport's aforementioned growing arts scene can somewhat account for the Green gain in Bridport in 2019 (the only Green gain/hold outside Weymouth in Dorset in May 2019). Labour are not competitive anywhere in West Dorset except somewhat in Bridport (even then they finished last in May 2019) and the last time any Labour councillors were elected in the former West Dorset district was 1999.
