Ceredigion (UK Parliament constituency)
Ceredigion, formerly Cardiganshire, is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Created in 1536, the boundaries have remained remarkably unchanged for nearly five centuries. From 1536 until 1885 there were two single-member constituencies, one being a county constituency (Cardiganshire) comprising the rural areas, and the other being a borough constituency (Cardigan District of Boroughs) comprising a number of separate towns; in 1885 the borough constituency was abolished, and its towns and electors incorporated into the county constituency. The towns which comprised Cardigan Boroughs varied slightly over this long period, but primarily consisted of Cardigan, Aberystwyth, Lampeter and Adpar, the latter now a suburb of Newcastle Emlyn across the River Teifi, in Carmarthenshire.
The county constituency was enlarged in 1983 with the addition of part of Pembrokeshire, being renamed Ceredigion and Pembroke North. In 1997 it reverted to its former boundaries, being renamed Ceredigion.
The Ceredigion Welsh Assembly constituency was created with the same boundaries in 1999.
Boundaries
The boundaries of this constituency mirror almost exactly those of the county of Ceredigion.
History
Ceredigion, formerly known by the anglicised version of its name as Cardiganshire, was first enfranchised in 1536 when King Henry VIII incorporated Wales within England. The county was given one member, who was to be elected by each person who owned property of a sufficient value. In addition the inhabitants of Cardigan, Aberystwyth, Adpar and Lampeter were given the right to elect one MP between them, with the vote restricted to the Freemen. The general election of 1715 saw the return of Lewis Pryse, who was expelled from the House of Commons in the following year for refusing to attend the House to take oaths of loyalty to King George I after the Jacobite rising, with which he sympathised.[1]
Reformed elections
From 1832 the Reform Act changed the electoral system so that householders of homes worth over £10 were enfranchised in the boroughs. The Borough constituency was still dominated by the Loveden-Pryse family based in Gogerddan who were supporters of the Liberals; Pryse Pryse held the seat from 1818 until his death in 1849, except for the 1841 election (see below). The county saw more influence of the Powell family of Nanteos who were Conservatives; William Edward Powell held the seat from 1816 until he resigned in 1854. By agreement between the two, neither challenged the others' domination and so elections were almost always unopposed.
In the 1841 election there was a great deal of confusion in the borough constituency, which was being opposed. The poll books for Aberystwyth were either lost or stolen and never reached the returning officer, who decided that he should return both candidates due to the uncertainty (the Conservative was slightly ahead in the polls from the other three parts). Neither of the two candidates could actually speak in the House of Commons until a committee determined the election, and it accepted the evidence that the Liberal candidate (Pryse) had outpolled the Conservative (Harford) by 305 to 285, enough to make his election secure, so he was given the seat. Other than an 1855 byelection victory by 12 votes, the Conservatives never won the borough.
The county saw its first contest in the 1859 general election when two Conservatives fought for the seat. In 1865 the sitting MP stood down and there was a contest between two Liberals, won by Sir Thomas Lloyd, Bt. who defeated a Gladstonian opponent. Lloyd transferred to the borough in the 1868 election and there were close contests for the county thereafter, on a slightly widened franchise.
Single constituency
In a redistribution of seats for the 1885 general election, the borough constituency was abolished and absorbed into the county, with a further widening of the franchise. This combined to make the county a reasonably safe bet for the Liberal Party and supporters of Gladstone were returned at every election. Initially this was David Davies elected to represent the constituency with a majority of 2,323 (24.2%) on a turnout of 78%, but Davies broke with Gladstone over home rule for Ireland in 1886. He sought re-election as a Liberal Unionist but lost by 9 votes to William Bowen Rowlands, who was the Gladstonian candidate. Rowlands served until appointed (June 1893) as Recorder of Swansea, a part-time Judgeship which was incompatible with membership of the House of Commons.
Matthew Lewis Vaughan Davies of Plas Tanybwlch, who had been the Conservative candidate in the seat in 1885 but then went over to Gladstone, was elected unopposed in the byelection on 4 July 1893. He went on to become the longest serving MP for the constituency, holding it until 1921. His closest electoral call came in the 'Khaki election' of 1900 when he had a majority of 781 (9.4%). Like most Welsh Liberals, he supported David Lloyd George in the split in the Liberal Party, and not Herbert Asquith, and was therefore returned unopposed as a Coalition Liberal in 1918.
Liberal infighting
With Vaughan Davies known to be a supporter of Lloyd George, it was natural that Lloyd George looked to him to boost his support in the House of Lords and awarded him a peerage in the New Years' Honours list in 1921. Although he would have preferred to be called 'Lord Ceredigion', the Garter King of Arms refused this as an inappropriate title for a Baron, and so Vaughan Davies took his title from the River Ystwyth which ran past his home. The peerage created a vacancy in a historically Liberal seat and the Asquithites decided to take the Lloyd Georgeites on in their 'backyard'.
Ernest Evans, who asserted on his election posters that he was 'THE Liberal candidate', was a Barrister from Aberystwyth and had been Private Secretary to Lloyd George himself, and therefore had the blessing of the Coalition and official support from the Conservatives. Against him, W. Llewelyn Williams was sponsored by the Asquithite 'Welsh Liberal Federation'. No other candidate stood and in the straight fight, Evans won with a majority of 3,590 (14.6%). He held on as a 'National Liberal' (as Lloyd George's supporters called themselves) in the 1922 general election but with a slim majority of 515 votes (2.0%) over Rhys Hopkin Morris.
The sudden shotgun merger of the two factions in the Liberal Party led to Evans getting the official approval of the unified party for the 1923 election. However, the Conservatives decided to fight and this deprived him of their votes. Hopkin Morris decided to fight again as an unofficial Liberal and won with a 5,078 vote majority. He was lucky to survive the 1924 election, a disaster for the Liberals, by being returned unopposed. The first Labour Party candidate stood against him at the 1931 general election and polled 24% of the vote in a straight fight against Morris, who had a 13,752 (52.0%) majority.
In 1932, Morris left Parliament temporarily (he was later to return as MP for Carmarthen) when he was appointed as a Metropolitan Police magistrate. The byelection on 22 September 1932 saw the first three-way fight between the parties, but was won by Owen Evans for the Liberals. Like many of the Liberal MPs he had been a Barrister. Evans died shortly before the 1945 general election, but the seat was easily held by his successor Roderic Bowen; unusually the Labour vote actually fell in percentage terms compared with the previous election despite the Labour landslide in the country at large.
Labour challenge
Labour established itself as the main challenger to the Liberals at the 1950 general election in a three-way contest, and the Conservatives opted out of the contest thereafter until 1964. This was partly a move to keep the seat from going Labour. Plaid Cymru first fought the seat in 1959 and kept their deposit (just, with 12.8% of the vote).
With a four-way contest involving the Conservatives and Plaid Cymru at the 1964 general election, and a national swing to Labour, Roderic Bowen suffered a precpitate decline in his share of the vote to only 38.4%; he was re-elected with a majority of 2,219 (7.4%) over Labour. After the death of the Speaker in 1965, Bowen accepted the offer to become a Deputy Speaker, which prevented him from speaking on behalf of his constituency. For the 1966 election, Labour selected Elystan Morgan who had been a member of Plaid Cymru until 1964; with a further national swing and Morgan making a credible bid for the Welsh-speaking vote, Labour won the seat by 523 votes.
Liberal resurgence
Morgan managed to hold on to the seat with an increased majority in the 1970 election. The Liberal vote had collapsed nationwide, with Plaid Cymru taking third place. However, the Liberal resurgence in the early 1970s led to the party regaining the seat in the February 1974 general election with Geraint Howells; the October 1974 general election saw almost the same result. In 1979, Howells increased his majority with Labour falling to third place and the Conservatives increasing their vote by more than 20%; this was one of the highest swings in the whole country.
In boundary changes in 1983, the constituency gained a small part of Pembrokeshire and also took a Welsh version of its name, becoming known as Ceredigion and Pembroke North. Geraint Howells was re-elected with the Conservatives second, Labour third and Plaid Cymru fourth in both the 1983 and 1987 general elections.
Surprise gain
The result of the 1992 general election in Ceredigion and Pembroke North was one of the least expected in the country.[2] Cynog Dafis, a teacher at Ysgol Dyffryn Teifi, Llandysul, standing as a Plaid Cymru candidate with support from the local branch of the Green Party, gained the seat with a majority of 3,193. Dafis more than doubled his majority in 1997 with Labour coming in second and the Liberal Democrat vote dropping by 10% to 16.5%. The constituency name was shortened to Ceredigion at this election as it reverted to its former borders, having lost the part of North Pembrokeshire in boundary changes.
Cynog Dafis was elected to the National Assembly for Wales in 1999 and unlike the other 'dual mandate' MPs chose to resign his seat at Westminster, causing a byelection which saw Simon Thomas retain the seat for Plaid Cymru. The by-election saw Labour fall from second to fourth place and the Liberal Democrats vote rise. At the 2001 general election, Thomas retained the seat, although the Liberal Democrat vote again rose to 26.9%.
2005 and 2010 Liberal resurgence
At the 2005 general election, the Liberal Democrats regained the seat. Mark Williams, who had fought the seat in the 2000 by-election and in 2001, had a majority of 219 (0.6%) following a swing of 6% over Simon Thomas. Mark Williams was the first non-Welsh speaking Member of Parliament elected to represent the constituency since the extension of the franchise in the 19th century. At the 2010 general election, he received a massive increase in his vote, polling over 50% of the votes cast and raising his majority from 219 to 8,324.
Members of Parliament
MPs 1541–1640
| Parliament |
Member |
| 1541–1543 |
Rice ap Philip |
| 1543–1544 |
Thomas Gynns |
| 1545–1547 |
David ap Llewellin Lloid of Llan Dissill |
| 1547 |
Walter Devereux |
| 1553 (Mar) |
James Williams |
| 1553 (Oct) |
John Pryse II |
| 1554 (Apr) |
John Pryse II |
| 1554 (Nov) |
James Williams |
| 1555 |
Sir Henry Johnes of Abermarlais |
| 1558 |
Sir Henry Johnes of Abermarlais |
| 1563 |
John Pryse |
| 1571 |
John Pryse |
| 1572 |
John Pryse |
| 1584–1585 |
Richard Pryse |
| 1586–1587 |
Griffith Lloyd |
| 1588–1593 |
Richard Pryse |
| 1597–1598 |
Thomas Pryse |
| 1601 |
Richard Pryse |
| 1604–1611 |
Sir John Lewis |
| 1614–1622 |
Sir Richard Pryse |
| 1625–1629 |
James Lewis |
| 1629–1640 |
No Parliaments summoned |
MPs after 1640
Short Parliament
Long Parliament
Cardiganshire was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament
First Protectorate Parliament
Second Protectorate Parliament
Third Protectorate Parliament
Election results
Elections in the 2010s
Elections in the 2000s
Elections in the 1990s
Elections in the 1980s
Elections in the 1970s
Elections in the 1960s
Elections in the 1950s
Elections in the 1940s
Elections in the 1930s
- Resulted from the resignation of Rhys Hopkin Morris, in August 1932, upon his appointment as a Metropolitan Police Magistrate
See also
References
Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "C" (part 2)