Post by iainbhx on Mar 5, 2024 19:34:52 GMT
Shrewsbury has a long history both as a town and as a Parliamentary constituency. the town dates back to the time of Offa of Mercia and may date back before that but he evidence is less certain on that matter. It first came to prominence after the Norman Conquest and was the main town of an important Marcher Lordship, It is sufficiently old and sufficiently close to the Welsh border to have its own Welsh exonym - Amwythig. As a Borough, it had its first charter under Henry I and was represented in Parliament by two MPs as a borough from 1290 onwards, after the Great Reform Act it, it was reduced to one MP and became a normal Borough constituency in 1918. It has had several famous MPs such as Robert Clive, Benjamin Disraeli and Sir Philip Sidney.
Shrewsbury’s geographical position at a relatively easy crossing of the Severn and that can command the areas around in including as a gateway to mid-wales meant that it became significant early on. Shrewsbury Castle which still stands albeit much changed and Shrewsbury Abbey were both Norman creations and the Castle remained significant until the end of the Welsh Wars whilst the Abbey remained significant until the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Around it, powered by local agriculture and the wool trade, Shrewsbury became a significant town and the county seat. Later on, it developed as a centre of transport links, first with coaching and several former coaching inns remain in the town centre, then with canals and then finally with railways. It also had a higher political significance as the capital of the Marches and local legends says that it was offered a bishopric and therefore city status at the Reformation and turned it down. There has been some heavy industry in the town, but nothing major, Sentinel Steam Engines were produced here for many years and through a complex changes of ownership parts of it producing diesel engines for Rolls-Royce and later Perkins survived until 2002. But Shrewsbury has always ben about trade and providing services, not only to the town, not just to Shropshire but to a wider area than that. It also has an international reputation for its famous public school (alumni include Michael Heseltine and Julian Critchley), sufficiently so that the seats third least white MSOA is the area containing the school.
As such, the centre of Shrewsbury is perhaps a little larger than you’d expect and due to a lack of attention by the twin blights of the Luftwaffe and the town planners of the 60’s and 70’s contains a lot of older buildings and a lot more established independent businesses than normal. It doesn’t have the draw of Ludlow but I can find my way blindfold from the station to Tanner’s wine merchants whom I have been a customer of for over 30 years. Outside of the centre there are suburbs of various ages and various different qualities, the north and east of the town are generally more impoverished and tend to vote Labour - Harlescott, Sundorne and Monkmoor in particular have high levels of social housing and strong Labour votes. The riverside wards, which can be strongly effected by flooding and have had considerable flood defences against the mighty Severn are more fickle in their allegiances and also contain many private renters. Underdale is traditionally the LibDem stronghold along with Abbey, the rest can be generally held to be Tory-inclined except in a bad year.
Since 1918. the seat has consisted of the Borough of Shrewsbury with the addition of some outside rural territory, at first the Rural Districts of Chirbury and Atcham, then from 1950 just the Rural District of Atcham and from 1974 it was refitted to new boundaries, Between 1983 and the current review the seat was rebadged to be Shrewsbury and Atcham despite there being no change to its boundaries but in one of the better name changes of the current review, it has just become Shrewsbury again and in the process has lost the Severn Valley ward to “South Shropshire”CC.
Since the 1918 change, Shrewsbury has usually returned members in the Conservatve interest until 1945 with the Liberals in second place and after 1945 with Labour usually in second place but not always. From 1945 to 1983, the seat was represented by an archetypical Knight of the Shires, Sir John Langford-Holt, Sir John who’s grandfather had been Mayor of Shrewsbury and he was educated that the town’s public school - Shrewsbury School. Langford-Holt who was elected at the age of 28 after a good war, never troubled the ministerial benches, nearly always had a majority between 5,000 and 8,000, was an assiduous attender of events in his constituency and claimed that his most important job as an MP was looking after an ailing Winston Churchill during Winston’s last couple of years in the House. His final majority was over 10,000 and he was succeeded to the renamed constituency by Derek Conway. He was, I was assured by my Great Aunt Florence, a very good MP and she was a staunch Labour woman.
Conway, was a rather different kettle of fish, a Tynesider from Gateshead who had been a Labour activist in his youth and who kept his primary residence in Northumbria. Conway also had ambition and served in various minor Ministerial offices and as a Whip. He kept his majority close to 5 figures in 1983, 1987 and 1992 and Labour and the Liberal/LibDem competed for second place. However, he was swept away in 1997 like so many others, bitterly blaming James Goldsmith for his defeat despite the number of Referendum Party votes being less than Paul Marsden’s majority. He later resurfaced the successor to Sir Edward Heath in Old Bexley and Sidcup where he lost the whip over his fake employment of his son and was last seen presenting a book review programme on Iranian Government media mouthpiece Press TV.
Paul Marsden was the first non-conservative MP for Shrewsbury since Liberal Joseph Sunlight between 1923 and 1924 and the first Labour MP to represent the seat. A quality manager with no long standing links to Shrewsbury he did some good work with two Private members bills, he was re-elected in 2001 having doubled his majority before defecting to the LibDems in 2001 over Afghanistan, he announced he would not be standing again in 2004 and “re-ratted” back to Labour just before the 2005 general election. The fairly large amount of effort put in by the LibDems to keep his seat is considered by some to have also caused the loss of Ludlow, although personally I have doubts.
With Labour generally retreating in 2005 and the LibDems advancing, Shrewsbury went back to its natural state of being a Conservative seat - electing the UK’s tallest MP, Daniel Kawczynski who is 6ft 9in tall. Kawczynski, who was born in Poland, has been a bit of a difficult figure for the normally very supportive of Tories Shropshire Star, who like his work with farmers, generally like his Euroscepticism and that he has a decent reputation as a constituency MP. They aren’t too keen on the levels of inaccuracy, that he appears to be the MP for Riyadh Central and his large number of outside interests. However he has increased his majority at every election since 2005, with the exception of 2017 and it now stands at a healthy 11,217 (19%) which is the largest it has ever been in numerical terms and the highest in percentage terms since 1979. Kawczynski may have benefitted slightly from the fairly substantial settlement of Poles in Shrewsbury post-1945.
The town of Shrewsbury has always made up the majority of the seat since 1918, the seat has slowly contracted back on the town because it has grown, but it has not grown much faster than then national average so the seat has not shrunk back on the urban core as fast as some others. This rural surround has, at least since Chirbury RD was removed in 1950, has mainly been a significant bolster to Conservative fortunes. The town has long term strength for the Conservatives, Labour and the Liberals/Liberal Democrats each of which have some core wards and there are a number of wards that float between the parties, The Greens have recently made some inroads in Shrewsbury town and Labour have been strong in the large village of Bayston Hill for some time now. Bayston Hill is much less wealthy commuter than the other villages outside of the old borough of Shrewsbury, it is also much larger than them. Most of the rest of the rural wards remain strong for the Conservatives although recent local by-election results have been calamitous for them, but this may well be a reflection on the council rather than the parliamentary seat. The exception to this in the rural wards is Longden where at least at the local level Roger Evans has built up a Pantone fiefdom where he reguarly gets over 60% of the vote, this of course may not carry over to national politics.
The seat is likely to continue to favour the Conservatives, partly due to the rural wards, partly due to parts of Shrewsbury town being naturally Conservative inclined. They are assisted by this by both Labour and the Liberal Democrats being fairly strong in the seat and competing for second place over the years. However, at least for this election, Labour are likely to get a fairly clear run at the seat and therefore should be regarded as the competitors this time, their problem may not be the LibDem vote which has always been squeezable for him, but the growing Green vote, which appears to be more resilient to their blandishments. However, after Telford, it is their second best opportunity in Shropshire and they selected their candidate early.
Shrewsbury’s geographical position at a relatively easy crossing of the Severn and that can command the areas around in including as a gateway to mid-wales meant that it became significant early on. Shrewsbury Castle which still stands albeit much changed and Shrewsbury Abbey were both Norman creations and the Castle remained significant until the end of the Welsh Wars whilst the Abbey remained significant until the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Around it, powered by local agriculture and the wool trade, Shrewsbury became a significant town and the county seat. Later on, it developed as a centre of transport links, first with coaching and several former coaching inns remain in the town centre, then with canals and then finally with railways. It also had a higher political significance as the capital of the Marches and local legends says that it was offered a bishopric and therefore city status at the Reformation and turned it down. There has been some heavy industry in the town, but nothing major, Sentinel Steam Engines were produced here for many years and through a complex changes of ownership parts of it producing diesel engines for Rolls-Royce and later Perkins survived until 2002. But Shrewsbury has always ben about trade and providing services, not only to the town, not just to Shropshire but to a wider area than that. It also has an international reputation for its famous public school (alumni include Michael Heseltine and Julian Critchley), sufficiently so that the seats third least white MSOA is the area containing the school.
As such, the centre of Shrewsbury is perhaps a little larger than you’d expect and due to a lack of attention by the twin blights of the Luftwaffe and the town planners of the 60’s and 70’s contains a lot of older buildings and a lot more established independent businesses than normal. It doesn’t have the draw of Ludlow but I can find my way blindfold from the station to Tanner’s wine merchants whom I have been a customer of for over 30 years. Outside of the centre there are suburbs of various ages and various different qualities, the north and east of the town are generally more impoverished and tend to vote Labour - Harlescott, Sundorne and Monkmoor in particular have high levels of social housing and strong Labour votes. The riverside wards, which can be strongly effected by flooding and have had considerable flood defences against the mighty Severn are more fickle in their allegiances and also contain many private renters. Underdale is traditionally the LibDem stronghold along with Abbey, the rest can be generally held to be Tory-inclined except in a bad year.
Since 1918. the seat has consisted of the Borough of Shrewsbury with the addition of some outside rural territory, at first the Rural Districts of Chirbury and Atcham, then from 1950 just the Rural District of Atcham and from 1974 it was refitted to new boundaries, Between 1983 and the current review the seat was rebadged to be Shrewsbury and Atcham despite there being no change to its boundaries but in one of the better name changes of the current review, it has just become Shrewsbury again and in the process has lost the Severn Valley ward to “South Shropshire”CC.
Since the 1918 change, Shrewsbury has usually returned members in the Conservatve interest until 1945 with the Liberals in second place and after 1945 with Labour usually in second place but not always. From 1945 to 1983, the seat was represented by an archetypical Knight of the Shires, Sir John Langford-Holt, Sir John who’s grandfather had been Mayor of Shrewsbury and he was educated that the town’s public school - Shrewsbury School. Langford-Holt who was elected at the age of 28 after a good war, never troubled the ministerial benches, nearly always had a majority between 5,000 and 8,000, was an assiduous attender of events in his constituency and claimed that his most important job as an MP was looking after an ailing Winston Churchill during Winston’s last couple of years in the House. His final majority was over 10,000 and he was succeeded to the renamed constituency by Derek Conway. He was, I was assured by my Great Aunt Florence, a very good MP and she was a staunch Labour woman.
Conway, was a rather different kettle of fish, a Tynesider from Gateshead who had been a Labour activist in his youth and who kept his primary residence in Northumbria. Conway also had ambition and served in various minor Ministerial offices and as a Whip. He kept his majority close to 5 figures in 1983, 1987 and 1992 and Labour and the Liberal/LibDem competed for second place. However, he was swept away in 1997 like so many others, bitterly blaming James Goldsmith for his defeat despite the number of Referendum Party votes being less than Paul Marsden’s majority. He later resurfaced the successor to Sir Edward Heath in Old Bexley and Sidcup where he lost the whip over his fake employment of his son and was last seen presenting a book review programme on Iranian Government media mouthpiece Press TV.
Paul Marsden was the first non-conservative MP for Shrewsbury since Liberal Joseph Sunlight between 1923 and 1924 and the first Labour MP to represent the seat. A quality manager with no long standing links to Shrewsbury he did some good work with two Private members bills, he was re-elected in 2001 having doubled his majority before defecting to the LibDems in 2001 over Afghanistan, he announced he would not be standing again in 2004 and “re-ratted” back to Labour just before the 2005 general election. The fairly large amount of effort put in by the LibDems to keep his seat is considered by some to have also caused the loss of Ludlow, although personally I have doubts.
With Labour generally retreating in 2005 and the LibDems advancing, Shrewsbury went back to its natural state of being a Conservative seat - electing the UK’s tallest MP, Daniel Kawczynski who is 6ft 9in tall. Kawczynski, who was born in Poland, has been a bit of a difficult figure for the normally very supportive of Tories Shropshire Star, who like his work with farmers, generally like his Euroscepticism and that he has a decent reputation as a constituency MP. They aren’t too keen on the levels of inaccuracy, that he appears to be the MP for Riyadh Central and his large number of outside interests. However he has increased his majority at every election since 2005, with the exception of 2017 and it now stands at a healthy 11,217 (19%) which is the largest it has ever been in numerical terms and the highest in percentage terms since 1979. Kawczynski may have benefitted slightly from the fairly substantial settlement of Poles in Shrewsbury post-1945.
The town of Shrewsbury has always made up the majority of the seat since 1918, the seat has slowly contracted back on the town because it has grown, but it has not grown much faster than then national average so the seat has not shrunk back on the urban core as fast as some others. This rural surround has, at least since Chirbury RD was removed in 1950, has mainly been a significant bolster to Conservative fortunes. The town has long term strength for the Conservatives, Labour and the Liberals/Liberal Democrats each of which have some core wards and there are a number of wards that float between the parties, The Greens have recently made some inroads in Shrewsbury town and Labour have been strong in the large village of Bayston Hill for some time now. Bayston Hill is much less wealthy commuter than the other villages outside of the old borough of Shrewsbury, it is also much larger than them. Most of the rest of the rural wards remain strong for the Conservatives although recent local by-election results have been calamitous for them, but this may well be a reflection on the council rather than the parliamentary seat. The exception to this in the rural wards is Longden where at least at the local level Roger Evans has built up a Pantone fiefdom where he reguarly gets over 60% of the vote, this of course may not carry over to national politics.
The seat is likely to continue to favour the Conservatives, partly due to the rural wards, partly due to parts of Shrewsbury town being naturally Conservative inclined. They are assisted by this by both Labour and the Liberal Democrats being fairly strong in the seat and competing for second place over the years. However, at least for this election, Labour are likely to get a fairly clear run at the seat and therefore should be regarded as the competitors this time, their problem may not be the LibDem vote which has always been squeezable for him, but the growing Green vote, which appears to be more resilient to their blandishments. However, after Telford, it is their second best opportunity in Shropshire and they selected their candidate early.
