Post by doktorb🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️ on Aug 16, 2023 7:43:00 GMT
The place names of southern Lancashire show Celtic roots, what we likely call "Welsh" for convenience. The area of Bryn in this constituency is likely from the same root as the exact same modern Welsh word for hill; and Ince just over the border could be derived from the Welsh "ynys" for island. "Wigan" itself is less clear, with various guesses involving Old English and Brittonic ancestry, but with so many potential Celtic starting points in the names of the area, there must be some connection. Makerfield is likely an OE half coupled with a Welsh word, thought to be "magwyr". What you may find here is signs of those who walked this flat, fertile, workable land centuries ago; you will not find Makerfield High Street.
Boundary changes here are rare, and limited. Population changes are not as sweeping as happens in, say, nearby Bolton. For 2024, Makerfield adds a small curve in the south east incorporating Pickley Green (real name) and Dangerous Corner (again, real name).
This is the "middle" of the Wigan Metropoltian Borough and from wherever its name may derive, there is no township you can visit to check out the psephology. Ashton-in-Makerfield is the major population centre here, sprawling from the south of the constituency both north and north-east, and forming something of a continuous residential line through to Platt Bridge. The standalone town of Orrell is in this seat, creating a 'curve' up against the St Helens border. This is a very small c conservative part of Wigan as a whole, where the "wrong code" of rugby is played, the predominately southern Union as opposed to the proudly northern League. The Conservative Party would once count on Orrell for local council wins although this has become less of a certainty in recent years.
In keeping with the broader picture of the Borough, Makerfield is somewhat out of step when compared to other northern towns in the sphere of influence of (Greater) Manchester. It recorded around 99% white residents in the both 2001 and 2011 censuses and while there is a healthy mix of professional and manual jobs, this is marginally a traditional working class collection of towns. Hindley in this constituency was a mining village, with 20 collieries in the area alone. Coal turned to cotton which in time turned to commuting, with Wigan and Bolton the most common destinations. The coal mining tradition may have passed, but the Makerfield constituency has other areas of curiosity and interest: the sunken lakes of Scotsman's Flash and the fens and swamps of Bryn Marsh seem somewhat at odds with the built up residential streets all around.
Boundary changes here are rare, and limited. Population changes are not as sweeping as happens in, say, nearby Bolton. For 2024, Makerfield adds a small curve in the south east incorporating Pickley Green (real name) and Dangerous Corner (again, real name).
At parliamentary level, Makerfield has been a loyal Labour constituency for decades. Its antecedent Ince returned Labour MPs uninterrupted from 1906 and Makerfield has continued this tradition. The Parliamentary results would be unremarkable where it not for what happens on the fringes; in 2005, the Community Action Party saved its deposit, and handsomely so, with 8% of the vote. "CAP" candidates broke the cosy consensus of local politics by winning 18 seats, predominately within Makerfield, and on the back of campaigning for a mix of hyper-local and broadly pro-civil liberties policies. As they grew, not just taking seats across Wigan but also into St Helens, Salford and Warrington, gaps within CAP started to show, perhaps underlying how the foundations of 'anti everything' parties are rarely dug deep. Nonetheless, another independent candidate stood here in 2010 and again secured 8% of the vote. This is Leave territory, the Brexit Party getting 13% in December 2019, and whilst this seat retains its Labour-leaning support, the obvious split loyalties for protest and alternatives shows how consensus can be broken. You may struggle to point to Makerfield on a map, but the electoral picture is far clearer to see.
