Post by greenhert on Aug 18, 2023 16:34:14 GMT
Gainsborough was first created as a parliamentary constituency in 1885. It was abolished in 1983 and most of it became part of Gainsborough & Horncastle, with the Isle of Axholme going into Boothferry since the Isle of Axholme had been moved to Humberside by the Local Government Act 1972. Gainsborough was restored as a constituency in 1997 (with Horncastle being merged with most of East Lindsey to form Louth & Horncastle) and consists of the West Lindsey district plus the East Lindsey village of Wragby; the Isle of Axholme was not returned to it because it is now part of the unitary authority of North Lincolnshire. For the next election it will only lose the ward of Wragby that is currently in East Lindsey, meaning this seat will become coterminous with the district of West Lindsey.
The eponymous town of Gainsborough lies 18 miles north of Lincoln and played an important role in Anglo-Saxon history: it was an important town in Mercia and unsurprisingly the Vikings were drawn to it. Sweyn Forkbeard and his son Cnut defeated King Ethelred II (aka Ethelred the Unready) at a battle there leaving England effectively a fief of the Danes until Harthacnut died in 1042. Even then, the Domesday book recorded that most of the inhabitants of Gainsborough were of Danish ancestry. In 1848, Marshall, Sons & Co founded an important steam factory in Gainsborough which concentrated on boilers and tractors, both important to Lincolnshire in particular; it merged with Fowler in 1947 before finally closing in the 1980s; Marshall's Yard shopping centre now occupies the site. Gainsborough was also home to the last remaining UK wigmaker, Smiffy's, until they outsourced production to Asia, although Gainsborough still has some manufacturing facilities in its own right, such as stainless steel exhaust maker Eminox. As a direct result of its former manufacturing prominence Gainsborough has two functioning railway stations despite having a population of less than 25,000. The only other towns in the constituency are Market Rasen, which was the site of an unusually strong earthquake by UK standards in 2008,measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale at one point, and Caistor, where Simon the Zealot, a disciple of Jesus, was supposedly martyred. As a whole the constituency is known for being the home of Lincolnshire Sausages. Gainsborough's qualification levels are average, in contrast with eastern Lincolnshire, although like the rest of Lincolnshire owner-occupation levels are high (73.2%) and it is almost entirely white (98.2%). Within Gainsborough, the proportion of graduates is skewed towards villages just outside Lincoln such as Nettleham; Gainsborough town itself has a very low proportion of degree-holders (below 15%) and a higher than average proportion of apprentices/holders of vocational qualifications.
Gainsborough has been Conservative since 1924 (counting also Gainsborough & Horncastle from 1983-97) and this will continue to be the case for the foreseeable future, but historically this has not always been true. The Liberals missed out on unseating Harry Crookshank by just 67 votes in 1929, and from 1935 to 1955 the Conservative majority was less than 10% at each of those elections. Mr Crookshank later became 1st Viscount Crookshank even though war wounds he had suffered had left him sterile; upon receiving said peerage in 1956 Marcus Kimball held the seat in the resulting by-election but only by 1,006 votes. Mr Kimball (later Baron Kimball) notoriously refused to hold constituency surgeries and only bothered to attend during the hunting season, which helped the Liberals' Roger Blackmore keep the seat reasonably marginal in the 1970s. Mr Kimball retired in 1983 and this seat's current Conservative MP, Sir Edward Leigh, held the successor seat of Gainsborough & Horncastle against a strong Liberal challenge that year. The Liberals/Liberal Democrats never came closer, however, and in 1997 when Gainsborough was recreated they were pushed into third place by Labour despite notionally increasing their vote share. Nevertheless the Liberal Democrats have consistently performed better than anywhere else in Lincolnshire, even in 2015, and UKIP did not do particularly well in Gainsborough despite their very strong performance in most of Lincolnshire. Sir Edward is now the joint-second longest-serving Conservative MP in Parliament behind only the Father of the House, Peter Bottomley, and for all practical purposes he will continue to be this seat's MP until he retires or dies. Locally, Gainsborough contains the only Liberal Democrat county council seat in Lincolnshire and the Liberal Democrats are the key opposition to the Conservatives locally, with their main base of support in Gainsborough town itself. Gainsborough East is the only significant reliable source of Labour votes in West Lindsey, and Independents frequently win in the small communities in the east of West Lindsey.
The eponymous town of Gainsborough lies 18 miles north of Lincoln and played an important role in Anglo-Saxon history: it was an important town in Mercia and unsurprisingly the Vikings were drawn to it. Sweyn Forkbeard and his son Cnut defeated King Ethelred II (aka Ethelred the Unready) at a battle there leaving England effectively a fief of the Danes until Harthacnut died in 1042. Even then, the Domesday book recorded that most of the inhabitants of Gainsborough were of Danish ancestry. In 1848, Marshall, Sons & Co founded an important steam factory in Gainsborough which concentrated on boilers and tractors, both important to Lincolnshire in particular; it merged with Fowler in 1947 before finally closing in the 1980s; Marshall's Yard shopping centre now occupies the site. Gainsborough was also home to the last remaining UK wigmaker, Smiffy's, until they outsourced production to Asia, although Gainsborough still has some manufacturing facilities in its own right, such as stainless steel exhaust maker Eminox. As a direct result of its former manufacturing prominence Gainsborough has two functioning railway stations despite having a population of less than 25,000. The only other towns in the constituency are Market Rasen, which was the site of an unusually strong earthquake by UK standards in 2008,measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale at one point, and Caistor, where Simon the Zealot, a disciple of Jesus, was supposedly martyred. As a whole the constituency is known for being the home of Lincolnshire Sausages. Gainsborough's qualification levels are average, in contrast with eastern Lincolnshire, although like the rest of Lincolnshire owner-occupation levels are high (73.2%) and it is almost entirely white (98.2%). Within Gainsborough, the proportion of graduates is skewed towards villages just outside Lincoln such as Nettleham; Gainsborough town itself has a very low proportion of degree-holders (below 15%) and a higher than average proportion of apprentices/holders of vocational qualifications.
Gainsborough has been Conservative since 1924 (counting also Gainsborough & Horncastle from 1983-97) and this will continue to be the case for the foreseeable future, but historically this has not always been true. The Liberals missed out on unseating Harry Crookshank by just 67 votes in 1929, and from 1935 to 1955 the Conservative majority was less than 10% at each of those elections. Mr Crookshank later became 1st Viscount Crookshank even though war wounds he had suffered had left him sterile; upon receiving said peerage in 1956 Marcus Kimball held the seat in the resulting by-election but only by 1,006 votes. Mr Kimball (later Baron Kimball) notoriously refused to hold constituency surgeries and only bothered to attend during the hunting season, which helped the Liberals' Roger Blackmore keep the seat reasonably marginal in the 1970s. Mr Kimball retired in 1983 and this seat's current Conservative MP, Sir Edward Leigh, held the successor seat of Gainsborough & Horncastle against a strong Liberal challenge that year. The Liberals/Liberal Democrats never came closer, however, and in 1997 when Gainsborough was recreated they were pushed into third place by Labour despite notionally increasing their vote share. Nevertheless the Liberal Democrats have consistently performed better than anywhere else in Lincolnshire, even in 2015, and UKIP did not do particularly well in Gainsborough despite their very strong performance in most of Lincolnshire. Sir Edward is now the joint-second longest-serving Conservative MP in Parliament behind only the Father of the House, Peter Bottomley, and for all practical purposes he will continue to be this seat's MP until he retires or dies. Locally, Gainsborough contains the only Liberal Democrat county council seat in Lincolnshire and the Liberal Democrats are the key opposition to the Conservatives locally, with their main base of support in Gainsborough town itself. Gainsborough East is the only significant reliable source of Labour votes in West Lindsey, and Independents frequently win in the small communities in the east of West Lindsey.
