Compositions of councils before 1974

[Pete Whitehead]

Whiston RDC included Halewood and Kirkby

[Pete Whitehead]

Aug 19, 2014 12:32:12 GMT @trident said:

Aug 19, 2014 12:28:06 GMT J.G.Harston said:

160 councillors!!! For a place smaller than Sheffield which at the time had 75 councillors.

40 wards with 3 councillors and 1 alderman each. I think Liverpool was probably bigger than Sheffield at the time - this was before the slum clearances of the 60's and the economic decline of the 70's and 80's so the population would have been a lot bigger than it is now.

Also this was before Sheffield's boundariers had expanded to include Stocksbridge etc.
I think Liverpool was a lot bigger then - it had 9 MPs to Sheffield's 6.

[Pete Whitehead]

Aug 19, 2014 13:20:54 GMT @trident said:

Aug 19, 2014 13:10:26 GMT Pete Whitehead said:

Whiston RDC included Halewood and Kirkby

It would be Labour nowadays.

No shit!

[finsobruce]

Aug 19, 2014 11:04:00 GMT Pete Whitehead said:

Interesting to see the councils where the Liberals were the largest party - all in the pennines except for one in Cardiganshire.
Mossley 14 Lib 9 Con 1 Lab
Huddersfield 28 Lib 16 Con 14 Lab
Bacup 10 Lib 8 Lab 6 Con
Rochdale 17 Lib 16 Lab 13 Con
Aberayron 7 Lib 3 Lab 1 Con

Huddersfield is not so surprising as it returned one of the few Liberal MPs at that time - Rochdale is somewhat more so as this is before the byelection which I thought had kick-started the Liberal revival in Rochdale which lasted up to a couple of years ago. Mossley and Bacup are not areas that I associate with Liberal strength these days, though perhaps the continued strnegth of Indepepndents in Mossley is a hangover from the Liberal past (IIRC they tended not to be opposed by LIb Dems)

Mossley may well have been something to do with the influence of Austin Hopkinson who was Coalition liberal and then Independent MP for the constituency from 1918 to 1945 with only a two year break (1929 to 1931). He had Liberal opposition four times once he went independent but only once faced a Tory before World War II. Finished fourth in 1945 when both Liberals and Tories stood but it was quite an achievement to hang on that long.

[J.G.Harston]

Aug 19, 2014 13:17:25 GMT Pete Whitehead said:

Aug 19, 2014 12:32:12 GMT @trident said:

40 wards with 3 councillors and 1 alderman each. I think Liverpool was probably bigger than Sheffield at the time - this was before the slum clearances of the 60's and the economic decline of the 70's and 80's so the population would have been a lot bigger than it is now.

Also this was before Sheffield's boundariers had expanded to include Stocksbridge etc.
I think Liverpool was a lot bigger then - it had 9 MPs to Sheffield's 6.

I'd forgotten how huge Liverpool's population fall had been. However, a quick shufty through some data gives in 1955:

Liverpool County Borough (identical to current LCC):
population 740,000, 40 wards, 160 councillors+aldermen, 4625 people per member, 18,500 ward size.

Sheffield County Borough (current SCC minus Stocksbridge, Ecclesfield, Bradfield, Mosborough):
population 575,000, 25 wards, 100 councillors+aldermen, 5750 people per member, 23,000 ward size.

Still makes it feel that Liverpool was overendowed compared to Sheffield.

[iain]

Aug 19, 2014 11:04:00 GMT Pete Whitehead said:

Interesting to see the councils where the Liberals were the largest party - all in the pennines except for one in Cardiganshire.
Mossley 14 Lib 9 Con 1 Lab
Huddersfield 28 Lib 16 Con 14 Lab
Bacup 10 Lib 8 Lab 6 Con
Rochdale 17 Lib 16 Lab 13 Con
Aberayron 7 Lib 3 Lab 1 Con

Huddersfield is not so surprising as it returned one of the few Liberal MPs at that time - Rochdale is somewhat more so as this is before the byelection which I thought had kick-started the Liberal revival in Rochdale which lasted up to a couple of years ago. Mossley and Bacup are not areas that I associate with Liberal strength these days, though perhaps the continued strnegth of Indepepndents in Mossley is a hangover from the Liberal past (IIRC they tended not to be opposed by LIb Dems)

Clearly this was the place to be for the Liberals (at least at local level). Many of the other better councils were also around this area, with the old textile towns e.g. Halifax, Glossop

[East Anglian Lefty]

Aug 19, 2014 12:13:51 GMT @trident said:

Some council compositions from this part of the world:

Cities and Boroughs
Bebington: C 30, Lab 9, Ind 1
Birkenhead: Lab 42, C 21
Bootle: Lab 35, C 20
Chester: C 30, Lab 21, L 3, Ind Lab 1
Crosby: C 36, Lab 7, Others 5
Ellesmere Port: Lab 15, C 13, Ind 4
Leigh: Lab 23, L 5, C 4 - not a place I would think of having a Liberal tradition!
Liverpool: Lab 74, C 65, Others (presumably Protestant Party) 3, 18 Vacancies (!) - this was the 'Braddock era' when Jack Braddock, husband of Bessie, was Leader of the Council
St Helens: no figures, but can't imagine it was anything other than Labour
Southport: C 49, L 7, Lab 3
Wallasey: C 37, Lab 19, L 6, Ind 2
Warrington: Lab 27, C 9
Widnes: Lab 17, C 12, Ind 3
Wigan: Lab 48, C 8

Obviously ward sizes have something to do with it, but it's interesting that in contrast to the rest of the region, Labour were actually stronger in Southport in 1956 than now.

[Arthur Figgis]

Aug 19, 2014 16:03:31 GMT @trident said:

Aug 19, 2014 15:59:21 GMT East Anglian Lefty said:

Obviously ward sizes have something to do with it, but it's interesting that in contrast to the rest of the region, Labour were actually stronger in Southport in 1956 than now.

Decades of 'two horse race' leaflets have obviously had an effect!

That and Southport not really being of that part of the world.

[Davıd Boothroyd]

We now move on to 1957.

There have been elections for most of the councils, but not the county councils.

[finsobruce]

1 "other" in Edinburgh "according to newspaper report". I wonder who they were...

[myth11]

Ystradgynlais
I was thinking we invaded somewhere until I looked it up

[Khunanup]

Aug 19, 2014 12:33:29 GMT @trident said:

I've just spotted Bebington in the list of boroughs and added it above - I'm surprised it was a borough as it is just little bits of suburbia and was probably quite rural then.

You can see it's extent here: visionofbritain.org.uk/iipmooviewer/iipmooviewer_new.html?map=os_maps_revised_1944/Cheshire_1931_1944

Though obviously there's a lot more housing now there were still quite a lot of Victorian built estates in the borough, especially in Bebington itself but also in parts of Bromborough and Eastham. Plus the villages that are still villages now were pretty numerous and in close proximity to each other. The areas that are really different now compared to that map are the south eastern and north western part of the then borough.

[johnloony]

Aug 19, 2014 23:04:50 GMT myth11 said:

Ystradgynlais
I was thinking we invaded somewhere until I looked it up

The town of Ystradgynlais was mentioned extensively and repeatedly during the Brecon & Radnor by-election campaign in 1985. That was in the days when parliamentary by-election campaigns (including the candidates themselves) were covered properly in the TV news, instead of the half-baked (or non-existent) synthetic nonsense which passes for journalism these days.

[The Bishop]

Aug 19, 2014 11:04:00 GMT Pete Whitehead said:

Interesting to see the councils where the Liberals were the largest party - all in the pennines except for one in Cardiganshire.
Mossley 14 Lib 9 Con 1 Lab
Huddersfield 28 Lib 16 Con 14 Lab
Bacup 10 Lib 8 Lab 6 Con
Rochdale 17 Lib 16 Lab 13 Con
Aberayron 7 Lib 3 Lab 1 Con

Huddersfield is not so surprising as it returned one of the few Liberal MPs at that time - Rochdale is somewhat more so as this is before the byelection which I thought had kick-started the Liberal revival in Rochdale which lasted up to a couple of years ago. Mossley and Bacup are not areas that I associate with Liberal strength these days, though perhaps the continued strnegth of Indepepndents in Mossley is a hangover from the Liberal past (IIRC they tended not to be opposed by LIb Dems)

It seems there is also Flintshire - Lib 31 Con 21 Lab 21 Ind 7. Any idea what that was all about, given they have *never* done much there at GEs?

[Tony Otim]

It was a liberal seat for much of the 20s and 30s and the vote share was pretty decent up until the split into 2 constituencies in 1950

[The Bishop]

Didn't know that, thanks.

Also notable is Brecknockshire - Libs not the biggest party here, but only just behind Labour.

Indicates some historic strength which of course came in useful three decades later

[Pete Whitehead]

Greater London area 1956/7*

*The results in terms of which party had a majority/plurality were the same in either year but some figures were not available in one year or another, for example Hornsey's results were not available in 1956 but were for 1957. The results in Kingston, Wanstead & Woodford and Wood Green were not available either year.

Only two councils had no party in a majority - Chislehurst & Sidcup and Uxbridge, in both of which Labour were the largest party. Independents had a majority in Beddington & Wallington, Chingford, Croydon and Southgate but in Ealing 'Others' did

[Harry Hayfield]

Here's what happened in Ceredigion (and based on some discussions it's what we may well go back to):
Aberystwyth Municipal Borough Council
1956: Non Political
1957: Ind 19, Lab 3, Con 2

Aberystwyth Rural District Council
1956: Non Political
1957: No Election

Aberaeron Urban District Council
1956: No Election
1957: No Election

Aberaeron Rural District Council
1956: Ind 27
1957: No Election

As a point of note in the area covered by Aberaeron Rural District, there are about fifteen community councils with at least ten members on each

New Quay Urban District Council
1956: No Election
1957: Ind 9

Lampeter Municipal Borough Council
Not found in either years

Teifiside Rural District Council
1956: No Election
1957: Non Political

Cardigan Municipal Borough Council
Not found in either years

Tregaron Rural District Council
Not found in either years

[Davıd Boothroyd]

We now move on to 1958.

Unfortunately the source isn't as good quality and has been marked. However a howler with the composition of Lewisham has been detected.

[cibwr]

Aug 19, 2014 9:58:17 GMT The Bishop said:

My first thought was - we had an awful lot of councils then!

Many of those small urban district councils are now community councils in Wales.