Post by greenhert on May 7, 2020 16:46:40 GMT
Louth & Horncastle was created in 1997 mainly from East Lindsey, with Horncastle taken from Gainsborough & Horncastle. It is entirely within the area of East Lindsey district council in Lincolnshire and covers most of it.
Louth & Horncastle consists of the eponymous towns and also the coastal town of Mablethorpe, the old spa town of Woodhall Spa, and many villages in a wide swathe of countryside in the Lincolnshire Wolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Louth & Horncastle is one of the largest constituencies in England geographically and one of a minority with a population density of less than 100 people per square kilometre. The market town of Louth (not to be confused with the town or county in the Republic of Ireland) is the site of the last remaining cattle market in Lincolnshire (important because Lincolnshire is a large and mainly agricultural county traditionally) and has one of the highest proportions of independent retailers for a UK market town-70%. In fact many of its longstanding local grocers have won awards in their field recently. The smaller market town of Horncastle to the south was once an epicentre of cockfighting and bullfighting until both were finally banned in 1835; like Louth it had a notable cattle market but in Horncastle's case that closed in 2000. Mablethorpe has been a seaside town since Victorian times and was frequented by Poet Laureate Alfred (Lord) Tennyson. It currently hosts the only beach hut festival in Britain, Bathing Beauties. Alford is known for its Grade I listed windmill, which dates back to the start of Queen Victoria's reign, and its large manor house. Woodhall Spa is known for its springs and playing host to the only remaining rear screen projector cinema in the United Kingdom, The Kinema In The Woods, which was also one of the first cinemas in the UK. Louth & Horncastle is for the most part a key example of underdocumented rural poverty: it is the largest constituency in the UK without a single railway station in its boundaries; it contains 6 of the top 20 wards in Britain for people with no qualifications, and also one of the highest proportions of retirees in the UK (24.5%). Other divisive factors include an outright owner-occupier rate as high as 44% with social renters comprising just 10% of the population, mostly through Housing Associations. It is also one of the least ethnically diverse constituencies in the UK, with the white population as high as 98.7% on 2011 census statistics. Unsurprisingly given its nature agriculture, forestry and fishing industries employ more than four times as many people as the UK average.
Louth & Horncastle has been solidly Conservative since its creation in 1997. Louth and Horncastle had their own parliamentary constituencies until 1983 (notably Louth included Cleethorpes and Horncastle included Skegness); Louth was marginal between the Conservatives and Liberals up until 1935; that year there was no Liberal candidate but there was a Labour candidate. Following the retirement of Jeffrey Archer in October 1974 when he was facing bankruptcy (he subsequently became Lord Archer of Weston-super-Mare, was infamously convicted of perjury in 2000 and jailed for four years, but at the time there was no provision allowing for expulsion from the House of Lords), the Liberal challenge revived significantly under John Sellick, who reduced the Conservative majority of the new MP, Michael Brotherton, to just 2,880. Through tactical voting Mr Sellick kept the seat semi-marginal in 1979; Louth was abolished as a constituency in 1983 and Mr Brotherton, dogged by driving bans and an incident where he asked police to rescue him at the taxpayers' expense, was defeated in the selection for East Lindsey having already lost the selection for Brigg & Cleethorpes to Michael Brown. Horncastle by comparison was much more safely Conservative, with the sole Liberal interruption being from 1922-24 courtesy of Samuel Pattinson. Like in Louth the Liberals managed a strong second place throughout the 1970s but could not make a serious challenge to Conservative MP (Sir) Peter Tapsell, who had previously served as Conservative MP for Nottingham West from 1959-64. Mr Tapsell, as he was then, defeated the aforementioned Michael Brotherton for the new East Lindsey seat in 1983. Mr Sellick continued to make a decent Liberal challenge in 1983 and 1987 but the Liberals failed to consolidate this challenge in 1992 as they had done in rural constituencies in the West of England. Sir Peter easily held Louth & Horncastle in 1997 and the Liberal Democrats fell to third place even though Labour were not in any position to gain the seat. After a total of 54 years as a Conservative MP, making him Father of the House from 2010-15 he retired in 2015 and Victoria Atkins, daughter of former Conservative MP Robert Atkins (Preston North 1979-83; South Ribble 1983-97) became this seat's MP. In 2019 it became one of only 10 Conservative seats where the Conservative vote exceeded 70%, although given its nature this was hardly surprising. Locally it is strongly Conservative but contains the only two Labour divisions on Lincolnshire County Council outside the city of Lincoln. The town of Louth itself is the most marginal part of the constituency and divided between Labour, the Conservatives, and Independent/No Description councillors. Mablethorpe is also marginal despite its high proportion of elderly people (normally a key marker of a safe Conservative ward) having been won by Conservatives, UKIP and Labour at both a district and county level in the last decade. In 1995, East Lindsey acquired a group of 3 Green councillors, but it did not last long and in 2011, the Green Party presence disappeared from East Lindsey District Council when Brian Burnett (who for 12 years had been the sole Green Party councillor on any district in Lincolnshire) held Binbrook as an Independent, to serve just one more term.
Louth & Horncastle consists of the eponymous towns and also the coastal town of Mablethorpe, the old spa town of Woodhall Spa, and many villages in a wide swathe of countryside in the Lincolnshire Wolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Louth & Horncastle is one of the largest constituencies in England geographically and one of a minority with a population density of less than 100 people per square kilometre. The market town of Louth (not to be confused with the town or county in the Republic of Ireland) is the site of the last remaining cattle market in Lincolnshire (important because Lincolnshire is a large and mainly agricultural county traditionally) and has one of the highest proportions of independent retailers for a UK market town-70%. In fact many of its longstanding local grocers have won awards in their field recently. The smaller market town of Horncastle to the south was once an epicentre of cockfighting and bullfighting until both were finally banned in 1835; like Louth it had a notable cattle market but in Horncastle's case that closed in 2000. Mablethorpe has been a seaside town since Victorian times and was frequented by Poet Laureate Alfred (Lord) Tennyson. It currently hosts the only beach hut festival in Britain, Bathing Beauties. Alford is known for its Grade I listed windmill, which dates back to the start of Queen Victoria's reign, and its large manor house. Woodhall Spa is known for its springs and playing host to the only remaining rear screen projector cinema in the United Kingdom, The Kinema In The Woods, which was also one of the first cinemas in the UK. Louth & Horncastle is for the most part a key example of underdocumented rural poverty: it is the largest constituency in the UK without a single railway station in its boundaries; it contains 6 of the top 20 wards in Britain for people with no qualifications, and also one of the highest proportions of retirees in the UK (24.5%). Other divisive factors include an outright owner-occupier rate as high as 44% with social renters comprising just 10% of the population, mostly through Housing Associations. It is also one of the least ethnically diverse constituencies in the UK, with the white population as high as 98.7% on 2011 census statistics. Unsurprisingly given its nature agriculture, forestry and fishing industries employ more than four times as many people as the UK average.
Louth & Horncastle has been solidly Conservative since its creation in 1997. Louth and Horncastle had their own parliamentary constituencies until 1983 (notably Louth included Cleethorpes and Horncastle included Skegness); Louth was marginal between the Conservatives and Liberals up until 1935; that year there was no Liberal candidate but there was a Labour candidate. Following the retirement of Jeffrey Archer in October 1974 when he was facing bankruptcy (he subsequently became Lord Archer of Weston-super-Mare, was infamously convicted of perjury in 2000 and jailed for four years, but at the time there was no provision allowing for expulsion from the House of Lords), the Liberal challenge revived significantly under John Sellick, who reduced the Conservative majority of the new MP, Michael Brotherton, to just 2,880. Through tactical voting Mr Sellick kept the seat semi-marginal in 1979; Louth was abolished as a constituency in 1983 and Mr Brotherton, dogged by driving bans and an incident where he asked police to rescue him at the taxpayers' expense, was defeated in the selection for East Lindsey having already lost the selection for Brigg & Cleethorpes to Michael Brown. Horncastle by comparison was much more safely Conservative, with the sole Liberal interruption being from 1922-24 courtesy of Samuel Pattinson. Like in Louth the Liberals managed a strong second place throughout the 1970s but could not make a serious challenge to Conservative MP (Sir) Peter Tapsell, who had previously served as Conservative MP for Nottingham West from 1959-64. Mr Tapsell, as he was then, defeated the aforementioned Michael Brotherton for the new East Lindsey seat in 1983. Mr Sellick continued to make a decent Liberal challenge in 1983 and 1987 but the Liberals failed to consolidate this challenge in 1992 as they had done in rural constituencies in the West of England. Sir Peter easily held Louth & Horncastle in 1997 and the Liberal Democrats fell to third place even though Labour were not in any position to gain the seat. After a total of 54 years as a Conservative MP, making him Father of the House from 2010-15 he retired in 2015 and Victoria Atkins, daughter of former Conservative MP Robert Atkins (Preston North 1979-83; South Ribble 1983-97) became this seat's MP. In 2019 it became one of only 10 Conservative seats where the Conservative vote exceeded 70%, although given its nature this was hardly surprising. Locally it is strongly Conservative but contains the only two Labour divisions on Lincolnshire County Council outside the city of Lincoln. The town of Louth itself is the most marginal part of the constituency and divided between Labour, the Conservatives, and Independent/No Description councillors. Mablethorpe is also marginal despite its high proportion of elderly people (normally a key marker of a safe Conservative ward) having been won by Conservatives, UKIP and Labour at both a district and county level in the last decade. In 1995, East Lindsey acquired a group of 3 Green councillors, but it did not last long and in 2011, the Green Party presence disappeared from East Lindsey District Council when Brian Burnett (who for 12 years had been the sole Green Party councillor on any district in Lincolnshire) held Binbrook as an Independent, to serve just one more term.
