Post by iainbhx on Feb 6, 2024 19:18:28 GMT
This profile is mainly the profile written by Richard Allen for the old Ludlow seat with some additional detailing and information on the boundary changes and incorporating some of the very helpful comments from readers of that thread
There has been a constituency named Ludlow since 1473 and it has had broadly similar boundaries since 1885. Unfortunately, the vandals at the Boundary Commission have decided that it should be renamed South Shropshire following a small boundary change and so ends hundreds of years of the Ludlow seat for some false inclusivity. The boundary change adds in the Severn Valley and Burnell wards from the former Shrewsbury and Atcham which will strengthen the seat slightly for the Conservatives.
Geographically it is one of the largest constituencies in England, covering all of southern Shropshire from the Welsh border to just a few miles from the edge of the urban West Midlands. It is made up of numerous market towns, pleasant villages and lots of countryside, much of it rather hilly. Agriculture and tourism are the main economic drivers with very little industry (other than that related to agriculture) in most of the seat. Politically it is dominated by the Conservative Party but with considerable Lib Dem strength, especially at local level.
The town of Ludlow itself (population just over 11,000) lies at the southern edge of the seat. It is a fine market town noted for its numerous high quality independent shops, high quality market and restaurants and an architectural heritage that it has protected with vigour. The town frequently features high up in lists of desirable places to live. The east of the town is however much more working class and poor than the general image that the town is famed for. Politically it has a clear Lib Dem lean and they dominate locally here although the Conservatives can and do win seats in good years. To the east of the town the seat is dominated by the Clee Hills which separate Ludlow from Worcestershire. On the western edge of the hills the villages look towards Ludlow and vote in a similar fashion but to the east they look to Kidderminster. This has bizarrely led to frequent election of council candidates standing for the Independent Kidderminster Hospital and Health Concern party but in a general election the area should have a clear Conservative lean. The largest settlement here is the town of Cleobury Mortimer (population 3,300) which was once an important centre in the iron industry but is now a more typical market town and has become a desirable commuter town for even as far away as Birmingham. There was some mining and quarrying in this area once, including two extra ordinary railway the very steep freight only Clee Hill Branch which remained open until 1962 and the Cleobury & Ditton Priors Light Railway which was a flop until a large Royal Naval Armaments depot was built in Ditton Priors which remained open until 1968 and kept the line open until 1965. However, the Cleobury area is mostly agricultural and agriculture related now, but part of the old armaments depot is used by a large firework manufacturer.
The other area of considerable Lib Dem strength is in the west of the seat, a sparsely populated rugged area on the Welsh border. The largest settlement here is Bishop's Castle (population just under 2 000) , a market town that has developed an alternative lifestyle culture. To its north lie numerous small villages and to the south a string of settlements around the small town of Clun, Clun with barely 700 people is the smallest town in Shropshire. The later is more favourable for the Conservatives than the rest of the border area but still leans Lib Dem. This area could best be described as being gene pool Liberal with Liberal strength never having gone away here.
Moving into the central part of the seat we come to the genteel town of Church Stretton (population just under 5,000) and and the smaller and slightly down at heel Craven Arms (population 2,500) both of which sit on the A49 between Shrewsbury and Ludlow. This is marginal territory albeit with a slight Tory lean. Labour have some strength in Craven Arms. East of the A49 we find numerous small villages and much agriculture. This is where Lib Dem strength starts to erode in the face of a more typical pro-Tory rural voting pattern.
At the east of the seat is the town of Bridgnorth which with a population of over 12,000 is the largest settlement in the constituency. It sits on the river Severn and its position at the centre of numerous villages led its growth as a market town. Its geographic location now allows it to serve as agreeable if slightly distant commuter territory for both Wolverhampton and Telford. A funicular railway is one of its more notable features unfortunately the fate of this railway is in the balance. The Severn Valley Railway has its northern base in Bridgnorth which brings additional tourism to the town. The town is surrounded by numerous villages with those to the west more traditionally rural and those to the east tending to be more mixed and have some Wolverhampton commuters. Slightly further to the south east is the old pit village of Highley. Both Bridgnorth and the villages around it, with a couple of exceptions, are strongly Conservative although Bridgnorth has moved somewhat towards Labour recently and there have been some shockingly bad local government by-elections for the Conservatives in this area but this is normally an area which where the large Conservative Party are built.
North West of Bridgnorth are two towns that are somewhat different in nature. Much Wenlock is a famous town of around 3,000 people that once dominated the local area but is now is now commuter belt territory for Telford albeit with an alternative lifestyle tendency to it. It has its own Olympics and some claim to being one of the sparks which restarted the modern Olympic movement. Its voting pattern could charitably be described as unpredictable although recently it has been constant for the Conservatives at the local level, well, constant for Much Wenlock.
Finally there is Broseley, a town of nearly 5,000 people that for over 200 years was a thriving industrial settlement. The famed Iron Bridge was built to link this town to other important industrial towns on the other side of the River Severn. It has now declined significantly and most of the industry is gone but that tradition makes it the only significant part of this seat where Labour are the strongest party. Unlike most other parts of the seat, it looks more towards Telford than anywhere else.
Throughout the 20th century the seat was won by the either the Conservative Party or their allies (Liberal Unionist / Unionist) at every single election. From the 1987 to 2001 it was represented by Christopher Gill a somewhat abrasive hard line right winger and staunch Eurosceptic. While he was perhaps not the ideal fit for the constituency he cultivated a particularly strong following among farmers and even at the nadir of 1997 held the seat with a comfortable majority of nearly 6,000. His retirement in 2001 was the start of a perfect storm that led to a shock Lib Dem gain. The Conservatives picked a terrible candidate who was not only from outside the area but failed to connect with it at all. The Lib Dems on the other hand picked a solid local candidate from a well known Conservative family - this counts for a lot in the rural parts of this seat. A modest but decisive drop in the Conservative vote combined with the Labour vote share halving saw Matthew Green claim a majority of 1,630 for the Lib Dems. Four years later the Conservatives chose far more wisely and selected Philip Dunne, a prominent local councillor and farmer. While Green squeezed the Labour vote further still Dunne achieved a 4% swing to take the seat with a majority of just over 2,000. With the advantage of incumbency Dunne swiftly consolidated his position boosting his majority to near 10,000 in 2010 and by 2019 had increased it to over 23,000. While their participation in the coalition did not significantly hurt the Lib Dems at local level it hurt them badly at general elections, presumably costing them a lot of tactical votes from Labour supporters. In 2015 their vote share cratered to 13.5% with UKIP finishing clear second and in 2017 it dropped further to 10.7% with Labour doubling their vote and coming second. 2019 saw a modest Lib Dem recovery as they reclaimed second place with 17% of the vote but barring a political earthquake this seat is now safe for the Conservative Party although with Dunne standing down, local Tories will be carefully inspecting the pedigree of their new candidate - Stuart Anderson the sitting MP for Wolverhampton South West.
