Post by Robert Waller on Nov 25, 2020 18:47:08 GMT
Once upon a time a famed outlaw did (or more likely did not) live in the mighty Sherwood Forest, steal from the rich and give to the poor. Many hundreds of years later, in and near – and indeed, under - the much reduced forest, coal was discovered and the area was transformed. In the East Midlands of England, the coal seam slants so that the further eastwards one goes the deeper it is. This meant that the reserves in the west closer to the surface were the first to be exploited, but also the first to be exhausted. As a result the mining industry itself moved eastwards, and in the 1920s and 1930s new pits were sunk in the Dukeries, so named because of the preponderance of large landed estates like those of the Duke of Portland (Welbeck Abbey) and the Duke of Newcastle (Clumber House), as well as Rufford Abbey (Lord Savile) and Thoresby Hall (Earl Manvers). To cater for and house the miners migrating to the east Nottinghamshire field planned new colliery villages were constructed at Ollerton, Bilsthorpe, Clipstone, Blidworth and Edwinstowe (the nearest village to the Major Oak, the most famous tree in Sherwood Forest.
These communities were originally in the Newark constituency, which largely explains why that rather conservative historic market town gave its name to a seat held by Labour from 1950 right through to 1979. Then in 1983 Sherwood became an entirely new, extra, 11th constituency in Nottinghamshire. It was not based on a local authority district like the other ten, but it included elements of Ashfield and Gedling as well as Newark. Calverton, a modern mining village, was removed from the Gedling (formerly Carlton) constituency, and Hucknall (from Ashfield) was an old-established mining town in the Leen valley which was opened up in the nineteenth century.
It did, though, have a common economic base to tie it together. Coal was king here, and the new seat rose straight into the top five in the national list of divisions dominated by employment in mining. This made it all the more amazing that Sherwood was won in 1983 and 1987 by a Conservative farmer, Andrew Stewart. The political world had to contend with a startling new phenomenon: the Tory mining seat.
This was one of the most prosperous coalfields in the country, until the threat and practice of pit closures finally came to this part of east Nottinghamshire as well. There were also some agricultural villages and one very affluent residential area south of Mansfield, Ravenshead. But all the same Sherwood seemed to have been drawn to provide an extra safe Labour seat in Nottinghamshire. Yet in the year 1983 no ostensible Labour stronghold was safe, or sacred. Since then the Dukeries coalfield endured a tempestuous time: working through the 1984-85 coal strike, beleaguered by flying Yorkshire pickets, deaths outside Ollerton Colliery, and the UDM breakaway. By the way, the ‘moderation’ of the Nottinghamshre coalfield and indeed its schismatic tendency were not new in the 1980s. The Dukeries coalfield had been largely non-unionised during its beginnings and elements even worked through the 1926 coal and general strikes, and in the 1930s the Nottinghamshire Miners Industrial Union (NMIU or ‘Spencer union’, named after the Labour MP for Broxtowe) split away from the Nottinghamshire Miners Association. Labour were in no position to retake Sherwood in 1987, and Stewart increased his majority to 4,500.
Then the government started to threaten pit closures even in this relatively modern part of the coalfield. Blidworth was the first to go, then there was a fatal accident at Bilsthorpe, which was placed on the list of the doomed along with Clipstone, and a merger was proposed between Ollerton and Thoresby Colliery near Edwinstowe. One began to wonder if any of the pits really had a future, and indeed the last one in Nottinghamshire, the enlarged Thoresby, finally closed in 2015. Labour’s Paddy Tipping had managed to win Sherwood from 1992 through the Blair years to 2010, but since that time the seat, never significantly affected by boundary changes, has been held progressively more safely by Mark Spencer for the Conservatives. By 2019 his majority had reached 16.000, very similar to that in the traditional capital of the Notts coalfield, Mansfield.
Sherwood now looks like yet another example of the massive movement away from Labour in ex-mining areas, as it has now finally become an ex-mining area itself; note the huge swing in 2019 in Bassetlaw to its north, and over the Derbyshire border to the west in Bolsover. It is true that some of the exceptional change in 2019 was specifically to do with Brexit (Sherwood is estimated to have voted 64% Leave in 2016) but Labour would be unwise to load too many hopes of a regain on this; for a start it is a very long road back, requiring a swing of over 15%. More likely, there has been a sea change in the electoral politics here. Mineral extractive industries are by definition cyclical. Resources run out or become uneconomic to remove. The Nottinghamshire coalfield was one of the last to be exploited, and one of the last to expire. Deep coal mining is an important part of the past of Britain and of the Labour party, but it is now in the past; and the electoral map is changing to reflect that fact. As with Robin Hood, the hard grind, the heroism, the conflicts, the splits are all fading into the status of legend. Sherwood has been through transformations before, and is now undergoing another one.
General Election 2019: Sherwood
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Mark Spencer 32,049 60.8 +9.3
Labour Jerry Hague 15,863 30.1 -11.7
Liberal Democrats Tim Ball 2,863 5.5 +3.4
Green Esther Cropper 1,214 2.3 +1.1
Independent Simon Rood 700 1.3 N/A
C Majority 16,186 30.7 + 21.0
Turnout 52,689 67.6 - 2.6
Conservative hold
Swing 10.5% Labour to Conservative
2011 Census
Age 65+ 18.5% 205/650
Owner-occupied 72.8 131/650
Private rented 11.4 496/650
Social rented 13.9 404/650
White 97.5 184/650
Black 0.4 405/650
Asian 1.0 502/650
Managerial & professional 27.6%
Routine & Semi-routine 31.4%
Degree level 20.5 497/650
No qualifications 27.5 157/650
Students 5.6 554/650
2021 Census
Owner occupied 71.9% 121/573
Private rented 15.1% 434/573
Social rented 13.1% 377/573
White 95.1%
Black 1.2%
Asian 1.5%
Managerial & professional 30.5% 329/573
Routine & Semi-routine 27.7% 154/573
Degree level 26.6% 439/573
No qualifications 20.5% 173/573
These communities were originally in the Newark constituency, which largely explains why that rather conservative historic market town gave its name to a seat held by Labour from 1950 right through to 1979. Then in 1983 Sherwood became an entirely new, extra, 11th constituency in Nottinghamshire. It was not based on a local authority district like the other ten, but it included elements of Ashfield and Gedling as well as Newark. Calverton, a modern mining village, was removed from the Gedling (formerly Carlton) constituency, and Hucknall (from Ashfield) was an old-established mining town in the Leen valley which was opened up in the nineteenth century.
It did, though, have a common economic base to tie it together. Coal was king here, and the new seat rose straight into the top five in the national list of divisions dominated by employment in mining. This made it all the more amazing that Sherwood was won in 1983 and 1987 by a Conservative farmer, Andrew Stewart. The political world had to contend with a startling new phenomenon: the Tory mining seat.
This was one of the most prosperous coalfields in the country, until the threat and practice of pit closures finally came to this part of east Nottinghamshire as well. There were also some agricultural villages and one very affluent residential area south of Mansfield, Ravenshead. But all the same Sherwood seemed to have been drawn to provide an extra safe Labour seat in Nottinghamshire. Yet in the year 1983 no ostensible Labour stronghold was safe, or sacred. Since then the Dukeries coalfield endured a tempestuous time: working through the 1984-85 coal strike, beleaguered by flying Yorkshire pickets, deaths outside Ollerton Colliery, and the UDM breakaway. By the way, the ‘moderation’ of the Nottinghamshre coalfield and indeed its schismatic tendency were not new in the 1980s. The Dukeries coalfield had been largely non-unionised during its beginnings and elements even worked through the 1926 coal and general strikes, and in the 1930s the Nottinghamshire Miners Industrial Union (NMIU or ‘Spencer union’, named after the Labour MP for Broxtowe) split away from the Nottinghamshire Miners Association. Labour were in no position to retake Sherwood in 1987, and Stewart increased his majority to 4,500.
Then the government started to threaten pit closures even in this relatively modern part of the coalfield. Blidworth was the first to go, then there was a fatal accident at Bilsthorpe, which was placed on the list of the doomed along with Clipstone, and a merger was proposed between Ollerton and Thoresby Colliery near Edwinstowe. One began to wonder if any of the pits really had a future, and indeed the last one in Nottinghamshire, the enlarged Thoresby, finally closed in 2015. Labour’s Paddy Tipping had managed to win Sherwood from 1992 through the Blair years to 2010, but since that time the seat, never significantly affected by boundary changes, has been held progressively more safely by Mark Spencer for the Conservatives. By 2019 his majority had reached 16.000, very similar to that in the traditional capital of the Notts coalfield, Mansfield.
Sherwood now looks like yet another example of the massive movement away from Labour in ex-mining areas, as it has now finally become an ex-mining area itself; note the huge swing in 2019 in Bassetlaw to its north, and over the Derbyshire border to the west in Bolsover. It is true that some of the exceptional change in 2019 was specifically to do with Brexit (Sherwood is estimated to have voted 64% Leave in 2016) but Labour would be unwise to load too many hopes of a regain on this; for a start it is a very long road back, requiring a swing of over 15%. More likely, there has been a sea change in the electoral politics here. Mineral extractive industries are by definition cyclical. Resources run out or become uneconomic to remove. The Nottinghamshire coalfield was one of the last to be exploited, and one of the last to expire. Deep coal mining is an important part of the past of Britain and of the Labour party, but it is now in the past; and the electoral map is changing to reflect that fact. As with Robin Hood, the hard grind, the heroism, the conflicts, the splits are all fading into the status of legend. Sherwood has been through transformations before, and is now undergoing another one.
General Election 2019: Sherwood
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Mark Spencer 32,049 60.8 +9.3
Labour Jerry Hague 15,863 30.1 -11.7
Liberal Democrats Tim Ball 2,863 5.5 +3.4
Green Esther Cropper 1,214 2.3 +1.1
Independent Simon Rood 700 1.3 N/A
C Majority 16,186 30.7 + 21.0
Turnout 52,689 67.6 - 2.6
Conservative hold
Swing 10.5% Labour to Conservative
2011 Census
Age 65+ 18.5% 205/650
Owner-occupied 72.8 131/650
Private rented 11.4 496/650
Social rented 13.9 404/650
White 97.5 184/650
Black 0.4 405/650
Asian 1.0 502/650
Managerial & professional 27.6%
Routine & Semi-routine 31.4%
Degree level 20.5 497/650
No qualifications 27.5 157/650
Students 5.6 554/650
2021 Census
Owner occupied 71.9% 121/573
Private rented 15.1% 434/573
Social rented 13.1% 377/573
White 95.1%
Black 1.2%
Asian 1.5%
Managerial & professional 30.5% 329/573
Routine & Semi-routine 27.7% 154/573
Degree level 26.6% 439/573
No qualifications 20.5% 173/573
