West Surrey (UK Parliament constituency)

West Surrey (formally the Western division of Surrey) was a parliamentary constituency in the county of Surrey, which returned two Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the bloc vote system.

It was created under the Great Reform Act for the 1832 general election, and abolished for the 1885 general election.

Boundaries

The constituency consisted of the hundreds of Blackheath, Copthorne, Effingham, Elmbridge, Farnham, Godalming, Godley, Woking and Wotton. It was therefore the more extensive and more rural of the two divisions of Surrey established in 1832; Its main existing towns were urbanising with railway stations: Woking became a town towards the end of its existence. Elections were conducted at Guildford; other most populous towns comprised Leatherhead, Dorking, Epsom, Ewell, Farnham, Godalming, Haslemere, Chertsey, Egham, Walton-on-Thames, Weybridge and Woking. (Guildford was a borough returning Members of Parliament in its own right, but freeholders within the borough boundaries could, nevertheless, vote for the county division if they did not qualify for a vote in the borough.)

Subdivision in 1885

On its abolition in 1885, what remained of West Surrey, land and populations having been taken away to contribute over half of Mid Surrey in 1868, was divided into two new single-member constituencies:

• The North-Western division of Surrey or Chertsey
• The South-Western division of Surrey or Guildford

Members of Parliament

References

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "S" (part 6)
• F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885 (2nd edition, Aldershot: Parliamentary Research Services, 1989)
• Frederic A Youngs, jr, Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Vol II (London: Royal Historical Society, 1991)