Post by doktorb🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️ on Jul 25, 2023 4:02:08 GMT
This entry is based on my original attempt, which I've mostly gutted to remove clumsy phrasing and mixed metaphors. I don't know the area very well and invite others to submit their own versions.
.
--
The River Hyndburn is not one of Lancashire's better known, and yet here we are, with the local authority named after it, and the constituency named in its honour. To either side of Hyndburn are local authorities are named after the main town - Blackburn, Burnley. Elsewhere compromise names had been chosen - Pendle, after the hill, Rossendale from the river valleys of the Irwell. Accrington, the main town in this authority, is similarly obscured by naming conventions.
The current seat is a collection of East Lancashire's ex-textile manufacturing towns and communities, and all with distinctive names. Oswaldtwistle, Rishton, Clayton-le-Moors: the picture of quaint Lancastrian villages is perhaps all in the spelling because they are not quite in reality. Accrington is the main town here and was the constituency name until 1983. Approaching Accrington by train showcases the traditional stone terraces on steep roads, leading down to a typically contemporary landscape of oversized cinemas and car parks amongst cosy corner-terrace takeaways and postage stamp yards. The East Lancashire line is high up on grand viaducts throughout its journey from the Pennines and Yorkshire's Calder Valley across to Blackburn where it settles to ground level towards central Lancashire. Having been practically mothballed by the 1980s, the line has perhaps never been healthier, with regular trains between Blackpool and Preston to Burnley and Yorkshire, and from Blackburn to Clitheroe and Manchester. Accrington has a distinctive curved railway station high above the town itself, and has regular connections to Manchester through the recently re-opened Todmorden Curve. In Great Harwood, the Grade II listed Martholme Viaduct is a testament to engineering endeavour and cold hard economics: the grand curves remain while the railway to Padiham is long gone.
If there has been little consistency in naming things around here, the political history of Accrington/Hyndburn has been moderately stable. The parliamentary seat has flirted with bellwether status since 1983, and is only on its 4th MP since then. Ken Hargreaves had a rice-paper thin majority over Labour in 1983; he would later co-found the Movement for Christian Democracy as a cross-party venture against the rising threat of secularism. The MCD would, through one way and another, morph into the Christian Peoples Alliance that would stand a candidate here in 2010 and barely scrape 2% of the vote. Labour held the pre-1983 "Accrington" with various degrees of magnitude; Hargreaves needed six re-counts in 1983.
While other seats around East Lancashire moved to and from Labour strength (Rossendale and Darwen, and Pendle, being typical examples) Hyndburn resisted Conservative approaches until the collapse of the "red wall" in December 2019. Sara Birtcliffe, the seat's first female MP, turned a 5,800 Labour majority into a 3,000 Conservative lead, helped by the deposit-saving 5.1% vote of the Brexit Party candidate. Accrington supported Leave alongside all its neighbours.
Owner-occupied, working class, with a majority White British population, although around a third of Accrington itself is Pakistani/Asian British which fits into the characteristics of other towns along the "cotton thread" of East Lancashire. The town is infamous for the "Pals brigades" which marched into the First World War as friends and returned as shell-shocked veterans. The history of "Pals brigades" is a rich thread of local pride and patriotic necessity, and the tributes to all of them stand starkly across northern counties. Connected to the wider region by the trains, yes, but nonetheless the collection of towns and villages here remain somewhat insular and self-contained. Conservative Party strength at local level can be guaranteed in many parts of the borough - Baxenden is one example of consistent Conservative support here. Positioned in the valleys and hills of the West Pennine Moors, Baxenden is either best known as the home of Holland's Pies, a mainstay of chippys and non-league football, or the former site of the "Alpine" conditions for train drivers making it to the notoriously elevated station.
Labour has its greater strengths in the town of Accrington itself, while only the Conservatives make much sway as opposition. Unlike Burnley, the threat from BNP and UKIP never materialised with quite the same strength and resilience, and unlike Blackburn, Labour was unable to dig in its heels quite so deeply. Accrington Brick might be a symbol of strength and dependability, the political fortunes of this area are not quite so reliable.
.
--
The River Hyndburn is not one of Lancashire's better known, and yet here we are, with the local authority named after it, and the constituency named in its honour. To either side of Hyndburn are local authorities are named after the main town - Blackburn, Burnley. Elsewhere compromise names had been chosen - Pendle, after the hill, Rossendale from the river valleys of the Irwell. Accrington, the main town in this authority, is similarly obscured by naming conventions.
The current seat is a collection of East Lancashire's ex-textile manufacturing towns and communities, and all with distinctive names. Oswaldtwistle, Rishton, Clayton-le-Moors: the picture of quaint Lancastrian villages is perhaps all in the spelling because they are not quite in reality. Accrington is the main town here and was the constituency name until 1983. Approaching Accrington by train showcases the traditional stone terraces on steep roads, leading down to a typically contemporary landscape of oversized cinemas and car parks amongst cosy corner-terrace takeaways and postage stamp yards. The East Lancashire line is high up on grand viaducts throughout its journey from the Pennines and Yorkshire's Calder Valley across to Blackburn where it settles to ground level towards central Lancashire. Having been practically mothballed by the 1980s, the line has perhaps never been healthier, with regular trains between Blackpool and Preston to Burnley and Yorkshire, and from Blackburn to Clitheroe and Manchester. Accrington has a distinctive curved railway station high above the town itself, and has regular connections to Manchester through the recently re-opened Todmorden Curve. In Great Harwood, the Grade II listed Martholme Viaduct is a testament to engineering endeavour and cold hard economics: the grand curves remain while the railway to Padiham is long gone.
If there has been little consistency in naming things around here, the political history of Accrington/Hyndburn has been moderately stable. The parliamentary seat has flirted with bellwether status since 1983, and is only on its 4th MP since then. Ken Hargreaves had a rice-paper thin majority over Labour in 1983; he would later co-found the Movement for Christian Democracy as a cross-party venture against the rising threat of secularism. The MCD would, through one way and another, morph into the Christian Peoples Alliance that would stand a candidate here in 2010 and barely scrape 2% of the vote. Labour held the pre-1983 "Accrington" with various degrees of magnitude; Hargreaves needed six re-counts in 1983.
While other seats around East Lancashire moved to and from Labour strength (Rossendale and Darwen, and Pendle, being typical examples) Hyndburn resisted Conservative approaches until the collapse of the "red wall" in December 2019. Sara Birtcliffe, the seat's first female MP, turned a 5,800 Labour majority into a 3,000 Conservative lead, helped by the deposit-saving 5.1% vote of the Brexit Party candidate. Accrington supported Leave alongside all its neighbours.
Owner-occupied, working class, with a majority White British population, although around a third of Accrington itself is Pakistani/Asian British which fits into the characteristics of other towns along the "cotton thread" of East Lancashire. The town is infamous for the "Pals brigades" which marched into the First World War as friends and returned as shell-shocked veterans. The history of "Pals brigades" is a rich thread of local pride and patriotic necessity, and the tributes to all of them stand starkly across northern counties. Connected to the wider region by the trains, yes, but nonetheless the collection of towns and villages here remain somewhat insular and self-contained. Conservative Party strength at local level can be guaranteed in many parts of the borough - Baxenden is one example of consistent Conservative support here. Positioned in the valleys and hills of the West Pennine Moors, Baxenden is either best known as the home of Holland's Pies, a mainstay of chippys and non-league football, or the former site of the "Alpine" conditions for train drivers making it to the notoriously elevated station.
Labour has its greater strengths in the town of Accrington itself, while only the Conservatives make much sway as opposition. Unlike Burnley, the threat from BNP and UKIP never materialised with quite the same strength and resilience, and unlike Blackburn, Labour was unable to dig in its heels quite so deeply. Accrington Brick might be a symbol of strength and dependability, the political fortunes of this area are not quite so reliable.
