Newmarket (UK Parliament constituency)

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Newmarket
County constituency
Created: 1885
Abolished: 1918
Type: House of Commons
Members: one

Newmarket is a former United Kingdom Parliamentary constituency. It was created upon the splitting up of the three member Cambridgeshire constituency into three single member divisions in 1885. The seat was abolished in 1918.

Contents

[edit] Boundaries

The Newmarket (or East Cambridgeshire) division, was the south-eastern part of the historic county of Cambridgeshire in East England. It was named after the town of Newmarket, which is famous as a centre of horse racing, although only part of the town (All Saints Parish) is in the historic county of Cambridgeshire and formed part of this seat. The small city of Ely was the only other urban area of a mostly rural seat.

The Local Government Act 1888 made the entirety of Newmarket urban sanitary district part of the administrative county of West Suffolk.[1] However this did not affect the parliamentary boundaries until 1918.

[edit] History

Ely is the seat of a Bishop and the church interest, as well as the middle-class character of the area, contributed to Conservative political strength. The pro-Conservative alliance of the Church of England and the horse racing fraternity of the town of Newmarket was commented upon by Liberals at the time.

The seat as a whole was marginal between the Conservative and Liberal interests, as the Liberals had support in the villages. A suitable rich, horse race loving Liberal candidate could win the seat.

In 1918 most of the constituency was combined with the Chesterton (or West Cambridgeshire) division; to create a new single member Cambridgeshire seat. Ely was combined with the Wisbech (or North Cambridgeshire) division, to create a new Isle of Ely constituency. The two new seats corresponded to the administrative counties of Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely, which had been created in 1889.

[edit] Members of Parliament

  • Constituency created (1885)
Year Member Party
1885 Sir George Newnes, Bt Liberal
1895 Harry Leslie Blundell McCalmont Conservative
1903 Sir Charles Day Rose, Bt Liberal
January 1910 George Henry Verrall Conservative
December 1910 Sir Charles Day Rose, Bt Liberal
1913 John Denison-Pender Conservative
  • Constituency abolished (1918)

[edit] Elections

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Youngs, Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, volume 1
  • Boundaries of Parliamentary Constituencies 1885-1972, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Parliamentary Reference Publications 1972)
  • Social Geography of British Elections 1885-1910, by Henry Pelling (Macmillan 1967)
  • Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page
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