Counties, 1979 general election and earlier

[Deleted]

Someone may have already done this, but here is some data for the way the counties voted in the 1979 general election. Those of you who are in possession of the 1983 Times Guide to the House of Commons will notice that the full results for the notional 1979 general election calculated by the BBC and ITN is sadly lacking (I've pencilled them in my copy), and that in their county analysis they went for a best fit based on the actual 1979 results instead of using the notional results as they ought to have done.

In some happy cases, the 1979 constituency boundaries fit perfectly with the 1974-96 county boundaries. Thus, it would be possible to work out equivalent data for the 1974 elections for these, and for the 1970 notional election results I managed to uncover a few months ago. It may even be possible to go back further still (obviously aside from the island counties), I'm not sure.
In the case of Scotland and Wales, I'm not aware if the 1974-83 boundaries matched any of their counties, as the 1983 Times Guide neglected to include the 1979 figures for those.

docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1cNEvPKKqMj7-A3dErDLGmfZAcKwBotkYzgMaxd71gUs/edit?usp=sharing

[Deleted]

Does anyone know if there are were any pre-1974 constituency boundaries which fit the post-1974 county boundaries, other than the Isle of Wight and the Western Isles?

[iain]

I'd imagine Cornwall

[Davıd Boothroyd]

There were several unchanged counties. Norfolk was another.

[finsobruce]

Dec 20, 2015 11:13:41 GMT iain said:

I'd imagine Cornwall

"It isn't hard to do..."

[piperdave]

Fife would be the only unchanged county on the Scottish mainland. Ayrshire and Renfrewshire counties would match the constituent District Councils with only the addition of the Cumbraes and Arran. Dumfries-shire, Kirkcudbrightshire and Wigtownshire united into the new Dumfries & Galloway region.

[Davıd Boothroyd]

None of the counties were changed in Scotland.

New regions were created, one of which was identical to a county.

[Pete Whitehead]

I'm pretty sure Nottinghamshire, Shropshire, Wiltshire, Devon, Bedfordshire, Suffolk ( I thought tehre had been some change to the Norfolk/Suffolk border around Bradwell but if Dabid says Norfolk was unchanged then Suffolk would be too)

[Pete Whitehead]

Actually checking here www.visionofbritain.org.uk/maps/sheet/bc_reports_1900s/Great_Britain_Sheet2 it does look like that Bradwell area was still included in Suffolk (these are the 1955-74 boundaries) and also I was forgetting that Bedfordshire then included Eaton Socon while Linslade was still in Bucks

[Deleted]

Thanks for the replies so far. 

This is present day Merseyside from the 1970 notionals I managed to unearth. 

Con	302992	46.75
Lab	294985	45.52
Lib	45336	7.00
Oth	4746	0.73

Direct comparison with all subsequent elections is possible here, because it's one of those counties in which the constituencies have always fitted perfectly within its boundaries since 1974.  What I'd really like to be able to do is work back even further if possible with such counties. To do this it would be handy to know if there are any post-1974 counties that notionally did not contain any pre-1974 constituencies which crossed over into other post-1974 counties (except Isle of Wight and Western Isles).  I hope that makes sense..

[Pete Whitehead]

I don't know if I've misunderstood you somewhere but there were numerous 1974-83 constituencies which crossed the Merseyside 'county' boundary (Ormskirk, Widnes, Newton, Ellesemere Port & Bebington, Wirral)

[Deleted]

Dec 22, 2015 23:29:33 GMT Pete Whitehead said:

I don't know if I've misunderstood you somewhere but there were numerous 1974-83 constituencies which crossed the Merseyside 'county' boundary (Ormskirk, Widnes, Newton, Ellesemere Port & Bebington, Wirral)

You haven't misunderstood me. I appear to have been misled into thinking all 1974-83 constituency boundaries in metropolitan counties fitted perfectly. Damn. Were there any other metropolitan counties where this applied other than Merseyside? The 1983 Times Guide at least gives information on which seats crossed over in non-metropolitan counties.

[Pete Whitehead]

Every Metropolitan county. In the case of the West Midlands I think Meriden was the only cross county seat but there were several for GM, SY and WY. Not sure with Tyne & Wear of the top of my heaed but Washington was I think in Chester le Street

[Davıd Boothroyd]

I've dug out the Maps volume of the Third Periodical Report of the Boundary Commission for England to check the cross-boundary constituencies. So here are all the 1974-83 constituencies which had part, but not all, in a particular Metropolitan County:

GREATER MANCHESTER

Cheadle
Colne Valley
Darwen
Heywood and Royton
Ince
Knutsford
Newton
Rossendale
Stalybridge and Hyde
Westhoughton

MERSEYSIDE

Bebington and Ellesmere Port
Crosby
Ince
Newton
Ormskirk
Widnes
Wirral

SOUTH YORKSHIRE

Bassetlaw
Goole
Hemsworth
Wakefield

TYNE AND WEAR

Blyth
Chester-le-Street
Hexham
Houghton-le-Spring
Tynemouth

WEST MIDLANDS

Meriden
Stratford-on-Avon

WEST YORKSHIRE

Barkston Ash
Colne Valley
Goole
Hemsworth
Keighley
Ripon
Skipton
Wakefield

[Deleted]

I've updated my spreadsheet. It now includes all the BBC/ITN notional results in 1979 by county.

docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1cNEvPKKqMj7-A3dErDLGmfZAcKwBotkYzgMaxd71gUs/edit#gid=0

[Deleted]

As mentioned upthread, there were some post-1974 counties in which the 1974-1983 constituency boundaries fit perfectly, including Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Devon, Essex, Greater London, Hereford & Worcester, Hertfordshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Northamptonshire, Western Isles and Wiltshire. There might have been others, especially in Wales and Scotland; perhaps someone could enlighten me which ones, if any.

In the case of Wiltshire, it would appear one could go back even further than the 1970s due to there being no constituency boundary changes within its constituencies in 1974. Obviously this applies to the island counties as well.

Anyway, this spreadsheet gives voting data for those counties mentioned for the 1970 notionals, Feb 74, Oct 74 and 1979.

docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14EI5-ngnj6kwwV3LX52QgkkMqEoDsxl47WuxO8I9kco/edit#gid=0

[Deleted]

Jan 29, 2016 16:13:33 GMT swanarcadian said:

In the case of Wiltshire, it would appear one could go back even further than the 1970s due to there being no constituency boundary changes within its constituencies in 1974.

Wiltshire 1950-1966.  Swindon was the only reliable seat for Labour, but it's amazing how close they were able to run up in Devizes, Salisbury and Westbury and in the county as a whole.

1950
Con  83689  41.0
Lab   80025  39.21
L       40097  19.65
Oth      295     0.14

1951

Con 102444 50.03

Lab    94454 46.17

L          7666    3.75

1955

Con  99106 49.59

Lab   83247 41.65

L       17500   8.76

1959

Con 103593  49.32

Lab    81344  38.73

L        22391   10.66

Oth     2707     1.29

1964

Con  95879 43.24

Lab   83070 37.47

L       41835  18.87

Oth      944    0.43

1966

Con  98817  43.79

Lab   91709  40.64

L        34273  15.19

Oth       838    0.37

[froome]

Labour have always had a decent vote in Salisbury, and historically were quite strong in many of the smaller market towns dotted around the south-west, though I tend to associate that more with Somerset and Gloucestershire towns than those in Wilts.

[Pete Whitehead]

Devizes always included (up until 1997) quite a bit of Swindon which had spilled outside it's boundaries, though probably this didn't amount to much at the beginning of the period

[Deleted]

I gather there were constituency boundary changes within Wiltshire in 1950, but I'm not aware if any of the older seats crossed the county boundaries. If not it would be possible to go back to 1918 with the aggregate votes, possibly earlier still. It could be Wiltshire's way of apologising for being home to the infamous Old Sarum rotten borough.