Hanley
Former Borough constituency
for the House of Commons
CountyStaffordshire
1885–1950
SeatsOne
Created fromStoke-upon-Trent
Replaced byStoke-on-Trent Central

Hanley was a borough constituency in Staffordshire which returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom between 1885 and 1950. Elections were held using the first past the post voting system.

History

The constituency was created for the 1885 general election. Before this, since 1832 a parliamentary borough of Stoke-upon-Trent had existed, covering almost the whole of what is now the Stoke-on-Trent conurbation and electing two MPs. In 1885, this was split into two constituencies electing a single member each, Stoke-upon-Trent in the south and Hanley in the north. Hanley became a parliamentary borough in its own right, and shortly afterwards also became a county borough.

The Hanley constituency in the 1885 to 1918 period included Burslem, as well as Hanley itself, and was one of the most populous urban constituencies in the country, with more than 100,000 inhabitants by the time of the First World War. Its main economic base was pottery, though both towns included substantial numbers of coal miners as well as pottery workers. Predominantly working class, it could be normally be considered a safe Liberal seat; however, the Conservatives managed a narrow victory as part of their national landslide in 1900, perhaps helped by lack of enthusiasm among the potters for the Liberal candidate, Enoch Edwards, who was one of the leaders of the miners' union. Edwards convincingly recaptured the seat in 1906, and with the rest of his union joined the Labour Party in 1909. At the by-election after his death, however, the Liberals regained the seat, with the Labour candidate a poor third.

By the time of the general election of 1918, the county borough of Hanley had been absorbed into an enlarged county borough of Stoke-on-Trent, and in the boundary changes implemented in that year the same process took place at parliamentary level. The new parliamentary borough of Stoke-on-Trent was accorded three seats in place of the two which the area had had since 1885, and was divided into three single-member constituencies, of which Stoke-on-Trent, Hanley was one. The new division was smaller than the old constituency, Burslem now having a seat of its own, and quickly became a safe Labour seat, though the Conservatives won it in their landslide year of 1931.

Hanley was abolished for the 1950 general election, being largely replaced by the new Stoke-on-Trent Central constituency.

Boundaries

1885–1918: The municipal boroughs of Hanley and Burslem, and so much of the parliamentary borough of Stoke-upon-Trent as lay to the north of Hanley, and was not included in the local government district of Tunstall.[1]

1918-1950: The County Borough of Stoke-on-Trent wards numbers nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen.[2]

Members of Parliament

ElectionMemberParty
1885 William Woodall Liberal
1900 Arthur Heath Conservative
1906 Enoch Edwards Lib-Lab
1909 Labour
1912 by-election R. L. Outhwaite Liberal
1918 James Andrew Seddon Coalition NDP
1922 Myles Harper Parker Labour
1924 Samuel Clowes Labour
1928 by-election Arthur Hollins Labour
1931 Harold Hales Conservative
1935 Arthur Hollins Labour
1945 Barnett Stross Labour
1950 constituency abolished

Elections

Elections in the 1880s

General election 1885: Hanley[3]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal William Woodall 6,136 69.1
Conservative Francis Vers Wright[4] 2,739 30.9
Majority 3,397 38.2
Turnout 8,875 80.9
Registered electors 10,970
Liberal win (new seat)
General election 1886: Hanley[3]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal William Woodall Unopposed
Liberal hold

Elections in the 1890s

General election 1892: Hanley[3]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal William Woodall 5,825 59.3 N/A
Conservative Arthur Heath 3,993 40.7 New
Majority 1,832 18.6 N/A
Turnout 9,818 77.1 N/A
Registered electors 12,742
Liberal hold Swing N/A
General election 1895: Hanley[3]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal William Woodall 5,653 51.3 −8.0
Conservative Arthur Heath 5,367 48.7 +8.0
Majority 286 2.6 −16.0
Turnout 11,020 85.4 +8.3
Registered electors 12,897
Liberal hold Swing −8.0

Elections in the 1900s

General election 1900: Hanley[3]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Arthur Heath 6,586 52.6 +3.9
Lib-Lab Enoch Edwards 5,944 47.4 −3.9
Majority 642 5.2 N/A
Turnout 12,530 78.4 −7.0
Registered electors 15,983
Conservative gain from Liberal Swing +3.9
General election 1906: Hanley[3]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Lib-Lab Enoch Edwards 9,183 68.2 +20.8
Conservative Arthur Heath 4,287 31.8 −20.8
Majority 4,896 36.4 N/A
Turnout 13,470 83.4 +5.0
Registered electors 16,156
Lib-Lab gain from Conservative Swing +20.8

Elections in the 1910s

Enoch Edwards
General election January 1910: Hanley[3]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Enoch Edwards 9,199 63.9 -4.3
Conservative George Herman Rittner 5,202 36.1 +4.3
Majority 3,997 27.8 -8.6
Turnout 14,401 87.1 +3.7
Labour gain from Lib-Lab Swing -4.3
General election December 1910: Hanley[3]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Enoch Edwards 8,343 64.2 +0.3
Conservative George Herman Rittner 4,658 35.8 -0.3
Majority 3,685 28.4 +0.6
Turnout 13,001 78.6 -8.5
Labour hold Swing +0.3
RL Outhwaite
1912 Hanley by-election[3]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal R. L. Outhwaite 6,647 46.4 New
Conservative George Herman Rittner 5,993 41.8 +6.0
Labour Samuel Finney 1,694 11.8 -52.4
Majority 654 4.6 N/A
Turnout 14,334 85.1 +6.5
Liberal gain from Labour Swing N/A

A General Election was due to take place by the end of 1915. By the autumn of 1914, the following candidates had been adopted to contest that election. Due to the outbreak of war, the election never took place.

General election 14 December 1918: Hanley[5]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
C National Democratic James Seddon 8,032 40.4 New
Labour Myles Parker 7,697 38.7 -35.5
Independent Liberal R. L. Outhwaite 2,703 13.6 New
Liberal Leonard Lumsden Grimwade 1,459 7.3 N/A
Majority 335 1.7 N/A
Turnout 19,891 58.9 -19.7
National Democratic gain from Liberal Swing
C indicates candidate endorsed by the coalition government.

Elections in the 1920s

General election 1922: Hanley[6]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Myles Parker 10,742 48.8 +10.1
National Liberal James Seddon 6,312 28.7 -11.7
Liberal John Howard Whitehouse 4,942 22.5 +15.2
Majority 4,430 20.1 N/A
Turnout 21,996 67.4 +8.5
Labour gain from National Democratic Swing +10.9
General election 1923: Hanley [6]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Myles Parker 11,508 53.3 +4.5
Unionist James Seddon 5,817 26.9 -1.8
Liberal Ada Rowley Moody 4,268 19.8 -2.7
Majority 5,691 26.4 +6.3
Turnout 21,593 63.7 -3.7
Labour hold Swing +3.1
General election 1924: Hanley[6]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Samuel Clowes 13,527 53.0 -0.3
Unionist Frank Collis 11,976 47.0 +20.1
Majority 1,554 6.0 -20.4
Turnout 25,503 73.5 +9.8
Labour hold Swing -10.2
1928 Hanley by-election[6]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Arthur Hollins 15,136 60.2 +7.2
Unionist Alfred Denville 6,604 26.3 -20.7
Liberal Walter Meakin 3,390 13.5 New
Majority 8,532 33.9 +27.9
Turnout 25,130 69.9 -3.6
Labour hold Swing +14.0
General election 1929: Hanley[6]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Arthur Hollins 20,785 62.1 +1.9
Unionist Eric Errington 9,022 26.9 +0.6
Liberal Charles White 3,696 11.0 -2.5
Majority 11,763 35.2 +1.3
Turnout 33,503 72.5 +2.6
Labour hold Swing +0.6

Elections in the 1930s

General election 1931: Hanley[6]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Harold Hales 18,262 53.01
Labour Arthur Hollins 15,245 44.25
Commonwealth Land Party J. W. Graham Peace 946 2.75 New
Majority 3,017 8.76 N/A
Turnout 34,453 72.64
Conservative gain from Labour Swing
General election 1935: Hanley[6]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Arthur Hollins 17,211 52.01
Conservative Harold Hales 15,880 47.99
Majority 1,331 4.02
Turnout 33,091 69.79
Labour gain from Conservative Swing

General Election 1939–40

Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1940. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place and by the Autumn of 1939, the following candidates had been selected;

Elections in the 1940s

General election 1945: Hanley[6]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Barnett Stross 21,915 68.00
Conservative JPAL Doran 10,313 32.00
Majority 11,602 36.00
Turnout 32,228 73.64
Labour hold Swing

References

  1. ↑ "Chap. 23. Redistribution of Seats Act, 1885". The Public General Acts of the United Kingdom passed in the forty-eighth and forty-ninth years of the reign of Queen Victoria. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode. 1885. pp. 111–198.
  2. ↑ Fraser, Hugh (1918). The Representation of the People Act, 1918: with explanatory notes. London: Sweet and Maxwell.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Craig, FWS, ed. (1974). British Parliamentary Election Results: 1885-1918. London: Macmillan Press. ISBN 9781349022984.
  4. ↑ "The General Election". The Morning Post. 24 November 1885. p. 2. Retrieved 28 November 2017 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  5. ↑ British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, F W S Craig (Glasgow: Political Reference Publications, 1969)
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
  7. ↑ Report of the Annual Conference of the Labour Party, 1939
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