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Stretford
Former borough constituency for the House of Commons
Stretford in Greater Manchester, showing boundaries used from 1983-1997
County	Greater Manchester
1950–1997
Seats	One
Replaced by	Stretford and Urmston, Manchester Central
1885–1950
Seats	One
Type of constituency	County constituency
Created from	South West Lancashire

Stretford was a parliamentary constituency in North West England, which returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

The constituency was created for the 1885 general election, and abolished for the 1997 general election. The constituency was centred on the town of Stretford and originally included an area to the south west of the city of Manchester. The boundaries changed considerably over its existence, at times extending east to include parts of the city itself and at other times including the towns of Irlam and Urmston to the west.

Boundaries

1885–1918

The Stretford Division of the County of Lancashire was formed by the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885. The constituency consisted of a number of civil parishes and townships to the south and south-east of the city of Manchester and north-east of the borough of Stockport:

• Burnage
• Chorlton-cum-Hardy
• Didsbury
• The portion of Heaton Norris outside the Borough of Stockport
• Levenshulme
• Reddish
• Rusholme
• Stretford
• Withington

An extension of the boundaries of Manchester meant that Rusholme became part of the city later in 1885. A further enlargement saw Burnage, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Didsbury and Withington included in Manchester in 1904. Similarly, the County Borough of Stockport was enlarged to include Reddish in 1901 and Heaton Norris in 1913. These local government boundary changes did not affect the constituency until the next parliamentary redistribution in 1918.

1918–1950

The Representation of the People Act 1918 reorganised constituencies throughout the United Kingdom. A new Stretford Division of Lancashire was formed. The areas in Manchester and Stockport passed to the Manchester Rusholme, Manchester Withington and Stockport constituencies. The new Stretford constituency included areas further to the west and was defined as consisting of the following local government units of the administrative county of Lancashire:

• The urban districts of Irlam, Stretford and Urmston
• The civil parish of Astley in Leigh Rural District
• The civil parish of Clifton in Barton upon Irwell Rural District

1950–1983

For the 1950 general election, a new Stretford borough constituency was created. The constituency comprised the Municipal Borough of Stretford (successor to the urban district) and the urban district of Urmston. The Astley area passed to the Leigh borough constituency and Clifton to the Farnworth county constituency.

1983–1997

Constituencies were redrawn for the 1983 general election to reflect the changes in local government in 1974. A new Stretford borough constituency, part of the Greater Manchester parliamentary county, was formed. The new constituency consisted of two wards of the City of Manchester, and five wards from the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford. The Manchester wards were Moss Side and Whalley Range, and the Trafford wards were Clifford, Longford, Park, Stretford and Talbot. Urmston became part of the new constituency of Davyhulme.

Abolition

The Parliamentary Constituencies (England) Order 1995, which came into effect for the 1997 general election, abolished the Stretford constituency. The area was redistributed, with Moss Side and Whalley Range added to an enlarged Manchester Central seat. The remainder became part of the new Stretford and Urmston constituency. The last MP for Stretford, Tony Lloyd, was subsequently elected as the Member of Parliament for Manchester Central.

Members of Parliament

Elections

Elections in the 1880s

Elections in the 1890s

Elections in the 1900s

Maclure died 28 January 1901.

Elections in the 1910s

* Robinson stood as an 'Independent Free Trade and Anti-Socialist' candidate, but he was claimed as a Liberal candidate and has thus been denoted as such.

Elections in the 1920s

Elections in the 1930s

Crossley died in an aeroplane crash off the coast of Denmark on 15 August 1939.

Elections in the 1940s

Elections in the 1950s

Elections in the 1960s

Elections in the 1970s

Elections in the 1980s

Boundary changes meant that the seat would notionally have been won by Labour in 1979 with a majority of 3,607. The sitting MP, Winston Churchill, moved to the newly created Davyhulme constituency which included part of the pre-1983 Stretford seat

Elections in the 1990s

Notes and references

1. Seventh Schedule: Counties at Large, Number of Members and Names and Contents of Divisions Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 (48 & 49 Vict. C.23)
2. ^ F A Youngs Jr., Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Vol.II: Northern England, London, 1991
3. Ninth Schedule: Part II, Parliamentary counties: England, excluding Monmouthshire, Representation of the People Act 1918 (7 & 8 Geo. 5 C. 64)
4. First Schedule, Representation of the People Act 1948, (11 & 12 Geo. 6, C 65.)
5. The Parliamentary Constituencies (England) Order 1983 (S.I. 1983 No. 417)
6. The Parliamentary Constituencies (England) Order 1995, (S.I. 1995 No. 1626)
7. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "S" (part 5)
8. ^ The General Election, The Times, 6 October 1900; p. 12
9. ^ Craig, FWS, ed. (1974). British Parliamentary Election Results: 1885-1918. London: Macmillan Press. ISBN 9781349022984.
10. C. W. Sutton (2004). "Maclure, Sir John William, first baronet (1835–1901)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/34793. Retrieved 22 August 2008. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
11. Election Intelligence: Lancashire (Stretford Division) The Times, 27 February 1901, p. 10
12. The General Election, The Times, 19 January 1906, p. 10
13. Progress of the General Election, The Times, 20 January 1910, p. 6
14. Progress of the General Election, The Times, 10 December 1910, p. 7
15. ^ The General Election, The Times, 16 November 1922, p. 6
16. The General Election, The Times, 7 December 1923, p. 6
17. The General Election, The Times, 30 October 1924, p. 6
18. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-49, FWS Craig
19. The General Election, The Times, 15 November 1935 p. 10
20. British Airways Liner Lost: M.P. Drowned With Four Others, Crash Off Danish Coast, 16 August 1939, p. 10
21. Unionist Victory at Stretford The Times, 11 December 1939, p. 5
22. "UK General Election results July 1945". Area Studies, UK: politics, elections and government in Britain. University of Keele. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
23. "UK General Election results February 1950". Area Studies, UK: politics, elections and government in Britain. University of Keele. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
24. "UK General Election results October 1951". Area Studies, UK: politics, elections and government in Britain. University of Keele. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
25. "UK General Election results May 1955". Area Studies, UK: politics, elections and government in Britain. University of Keele. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
26. "UK General Election results October 1959". Area Studies, UK: politics, elections and government in Britain. University of Keele. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
27. "UK General Election results October 1964". Area Studies, UK: politics, elections and government in Britain. University of Keele. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
28. "UK General Election results March 1966". Area Studies, UK: politics, elections and government in Britain. University of Keele. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
29. "UK General Election results 1970". Area Studies, UK: politics, elections and government in Britain. University of Keele. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
30. "UK General Election results, February 1974". Area Studies, UK: politics, elections and government in Britain. University of Keele. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
31. "UK General Election results, October 1974". Area Studies, UK: politics, elections and government in Britain. University of Keele. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
32. "UK General Election results, May 1979". Area Studies, UK: politics, elections and government in Britain. University of Keele. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
33. "UK General Election results, June 1983". Area Studies, UK: politics, elections and government in Britain. University of Keele. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
34. The Times Guide to the House of Commons June 1983. London: Times Books Ltd. 1983. pp. 91 & 280. ISBN 0-7230-0255-X.
35. "UK General Election results, June 1987". Area Studies, UK: politics, elections and government in Britain. University of Keele. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
36. "UK General Election results April 1992". Richard Kimber's Political Science Resources. Politics Resources. 9 April 1992. Retrieved 6 December 2010.

• Parliamentary constituencies in Greater Manchester (historic)
• Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1885
• Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom disestablished in 1997
• Stretford
• Politics of Trafford