Post by nyx on Aug 16, 2022 13:00:49 GMT
Redcar is a parliamentary constituency in the North East of England. Historically part of Yorkshire, the town of Redcar was moved into the County Borough of Teesside in 1968, the county of Cleveland in 1974, and finally the Redcar and Cleveland unitary authority in 1996. It's still linked to the rest of the Teesside area in terms of economy, the shared Tees Valley Mayor, and accent similarity (the accent only really changes to the more typical "Yorkshire" one if you go out into the countryside towards Loftus), but still retains some of the Yorkshire self-identity- for example, Redcar itself has a pub called the Yorkshire Coble. It remains in the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire.
Despite the name, the Redcar constituency consists of several surrounding settlements too. To the immediate east of the town of Redcar is the town of Marske-by-the-Sea (commonly known as Marske, pronounced "mask"), which has existed as a fishing village since the time of the Domesday Book. Wikipedia still labels it as a village but it feels like a town to me. Just south of that is New Marske, which was originally just one old terrace of mining cottages but had a new town built around it in the 1960s-70s.
And to the west of Redcar, once you've gone past several miles of industry, is an area sometimes collectively known as Greater Eston, which consists of the six settlements of Eston, Grangetown, Teesville, South Bank, Normanby, and Ormesby. One would have thought that the whole area would have become considered part of Middlesbrough by now, given that it's part of the continuous urban area with Middlesbrough and only a couple of miles from the centre of Middlesbrough- but in fact it's still part of the Redcar and Cleveland council and the Redcar parliamentary constituency, and places in those six settlements are generally referred to by their names rather than "Greater Eston" or "Middlesbrough".
Other than that you've got a couple of very small villages, and that pretty much makes up all of the Redcar constituency. Population-wise, Redcar itself has around 28000 electors, the Greater Eston area as a whole has around 28000 electors too, and the two Marskes combined have around 9000 electors. It's not surprising that the 2023 boundary review is proposing that the constituency be renamed "Redcar and Eston" (it is also recommending removing the two Marskes, and adding some suburbs of Middlesbrough to bring up the population).
In terms of economy, the Greater Eston area sprang up in the mid 19th century with iron and steel works, with ironstone being mined from the Eston Hills and the finished products being shipped off from the nearby ports in the River Tees. The only bit of it which really existed prior to then was Ormesby, which is also a village mentioned in the Domesday Book; interestingly, that divide still seems visible today as Ormesby tends to reliably vote Lib Dem in local elections whereas all of Normanby, Eston, Teesville, South Bank, and Grangetown are safely Labour voting. One may notice that the "-by" suffix of Normanby's name is a suffix generally of Viking and therefore much older origin, but even if it has older origins the settlement very much primarily originated from the steelworks- its population had increased from 195 people in 1851 to 2204 people in 1861. In addition to the steelworks (which now largely no longer exist), the ICI chemical plant, which is now Wilson International, situated between Redcar and Greater Eston, is also a significant employer to this day.
Many of the people who came to work in the steelworks in the 19th century were immigrants- a large number of Irish people came over, as well as Welsh people and from elsewhere. There's still a large number of people in the area descended from those Irish immigrants.
In local elections, the voting habits of Redcar itself also clearly vary depending on history- the suburb of Dormanstown was built in 1917-20 to house workers of the Dorman Long steelworks, and even now is still more Labour-voting in local elections. The rest of Redcar as well as Marske and New Marske are all very much swingy in local elections, with all of Labour, the Lib Dems, the Conservatives, and independent candidates having success, as well as the odd UKIP candidate for a few years.
So overall, the constituency pretty much consists of a more strongly Labour historically-industrial west (Greater Eston) and a more swingy fishing village/seaside resort east (Marske), with the town of Redcar itself having both the seaside resort and the industry. It voted by a margin of 67.5%-32.5% to leave the EU, so as one can imagine, it counts as a "red wall" seat.
Prior to 1974, the area now in the Redcar constituency was part of a larger Cleveland constituency which had been something of a swing seat ever since its creation in 1885. But since 1974, as most of the rural areas were cut out and the constituency was left with a more solidly left-wing core, it was a safe Labour seat for all the time from 1974 til 2010. From 1987 to 2001 it was the constituency of Labour MP Mo Mowlam, who was instrumental in the creation of the Good Friday agreement in Northern Ireland, and who has a park in Redcar named after her. In 2010, the Lib Dems' Ian Swales gained the seat on a massive swing (they had been 31 percentage points behind Labour in 2005, but leapfrogged them to gain a 12-point lead) thanks to their support for reopening the steelworks which had been mothballed in 2009, and Labour being perceived as responsible for its closure. The steelworks did indeed reopen in 2011, but closed again four years later, with only a fraction of the former jobs remaining.
Labour's Anna Turley regained the seat in 2015 with a convincing majority and kept it in 2017, but in 2019 the seat was won by the young Conservative candidate Jacob Young with a 9-point majority. This was almost certainly thanks to Brexit (I've spoken to many lifelong Labour voters in the constituency who voted Conservative in 2019 solely thanks to Brexit), and I would expect Labour to be favoured here at the next election- especially if the boundary changes go through which would probably favour Labour a bit.
This being said, the region voted for the Conservative Ben Houchen for Tees Valley Mayor in 2021 in a landslide, including the usually-Labour areas, so between that and the election of Ian Swales to parliament in 2010, it is clear that voters in this constituency are, while overall Labour-leaning, willing to vote for other parties when there's a reason to do so.
Despite the name, the Redcar constituency consists of several surrounding settlements too. To the immediate east of the town of Redcar is the town of Marske-by-the-Sea (commonly known as Marske, pronounced "mask"), which has existed as a fishing village since the time of the Domesday Book. Wikipedia still labels it as a village but it feels like a town to me. Just south of that is New Marske, which was originally just one old terrace of mining cottages but had a new town built around it in the 1960s-70s.
And to the west of Redcar, once you've gone past several miles of industry, is an area sometimes collectively known as Greater Eston, which consists of the six settlements of Eston, Grangetown, Teesville, South Bank, Normanby, and Ormesby. One would have thought that the whole area would have become considered part of Middlesbrough by now, given that it's part of the continuous urban area with Middlesbrough and only a couple of miles from the centre of Middlesbrough- but in fact it's still part of the Redcar and Cleveland council and the Redcar parliamentary constituency, and places in those six settlements are generally referred to by their names rather than "Greater Eston" or "Middlesbrough".
Other than that you've got a couple of very small villages, and that pretty much makes up all of the Redcar constituency. Population-wise, Redcar itself has around 28000 electors, the Greater Eston area as a whole has around 28000 electors too, and the two Marskes combined have around 9000 electors. It's not surprising that the 2023 boundary review is proposing that the constituency be renamed "Redcar and Eston" (it is also recommending removing the two Marskes, and adding some suburbs of Middlesbrough to bring up the population).
In terms of economy, the Greater Eston area sprang up in the mid 19th century with iron and steel works, with ironstone being mined from the Eston Hills and the finished products being shipped off from the nearby ports in the River Tees. The only bit of it which really existed prior to then was Ormesby, which is also a village mentioned in the Domesday Book; interestingly, that divide still seems visible today as Ormesby tends to reliably vote Lib Dem in local elections whereas all of Normanby, Eston, Teesville, South Bank, and Grangetown are safely Labour voting. One may notice that the "-by" suffix of Normanby's name is a suffix generally of Viking and therefore much older origin, but even if it has older origins the settlement very much primarily originated from the steelworks- its population had increased from 195 people in 1851 to 2204 people in 1861. In addition to the steelworks (which now largely no longer exist), the ICI chemical plant, which is now Wilson International, situated between Redcar and Greater Eston, is also a significant employer to this day.
Many of the people who came to work in the steelworks in the 19th century were immigrants- a large number of Irish people came over, as well as Welsh people and from elsewhere. There's still a large number of people in the area descended from those Irish immigrants.
In local elections, the voting habits of Redcar itself also clearly vary depending on history- the suburb of Dormanstown was built in 1917-20 to house workers of the Dorman Long steelworks, and even now is still more Labour-voting in local elections. The rest of Redcar as well as Marske and New Marske are all very much swingy in local elections, with all of Labour, the Lib Dems, the Conservatives, and independent candidates having success, as well as the odd UKIP candidate for a few years.
So overall, the constituency pretty much consists of a more strongly Labour historically-industrial west (Greater Eston) and a more swingy fishing village/seaside resort east (Marske), with the town of Redcar itself having both the seaside resort and the industry. It voted by a margin of 67.5%-32.5% to leave the EU, so as one can imagine, it counts as a "red wall" seat.
Prior to 1974, the area now in the Redcar constituency was part of a larger Cleveland constituency which had been something of a swing seat ever since its creation in 1885. But since 1974, as most of the rural areas were cut out and the constituency was left with a more solidly left-wing core, it was a safe Labour seat for all the time from 1974 til 2010. From 1987 to 2001 it was the constituency of Labour MP Mo Mowlam, who was instrumental in the creation of the Good Friday agreement in Northern Ireland, and who has a park in Redcar named after her. In 2010, the Lib Dems' Ian Swales gained the seat on a massive swing (they had been 31 percentage points behind Labour in 2005, but leapfrogged them to gain a 12-point lead) thanks to their support for reopening the steelworks which had been mothballed in 2009, and Labour being perceived as responsible for its closure. The steelworks did indeed reopen in 2011, but closed again four years later, with only a fraction of the former jobs remaining.
Labour's Anna Turley regained the seat in 2015 with a convincing majority and kept it in 2017, but in 2019 the seat was won by the young Conservative candidate Jacob Young with a 9-point majority. This was almost certainly thanks to Brexit (I've spoken to many lifelong Labour voters in the constituency who voted Conservative in 2019 solely thanks to Brexit), and I would expect Labour to be favoured here at the next election- especially if the boundary changes go through which would probably favour Labour a bit.
This being said, the region voted for the Conservative Ben Houchen for Tees Valley Mayor in 2021 in a landslide, including the usually-Labour areas, so between that and the election of Ian Swales to parliament in 2010, it is clear that voters in this constituency are, while overall Labour-leaning, willing to vote for other parties when there's a reason to do so.
