1983–2010: The Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale wards of Illingworth, Mixenden, Northowram and Shelf, Ovenden, St John's, Skircoat, Sowerby Bridge, Town, and Warley.
2010–2024: The Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale wards of Illingworth and Mixenden, Northowram and Shelf, Ovenden, Park, Skircoat, Sowerby Bridge, Town, and Warley.
2024–present: The Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale wards of Illingworth and Mixenden, Northowram and Shelf; Ovenden, part of the Ryburn (polling districts MB, MC, and MD), Skircoat, Sowerby Bridge, Town, and Warley.
This constituency covers the large town of Halifax in West Yorkshire and includes the smaller town of Sowerby Bridge which adjoins Halifax but until 1974 was a separate Urban District.
History
The parliamentary borough was granted in the Great Reform Act 1832 and returned from that year until 1918 two members. A county borough recognized the density of the developed area in 1888 which provided most functions for inhabitants, retaining the West Yorkshire ceremonial county. The municipal or county borough was under a mayor, five aldermen and 45 councillors and had an area of 13,967 acres (56.52 km2).[2]
At the time of the Norman Conquest, Halifax formed part of the extensive manor of Wakefield, which belonged to the king, but in the 13th century was in the hands of John Earl de Warrenne aka. Earl of Surrey (1231–1304).[n 3] The prosperity of the town began with the first woollen products workshop established here in 1414, when there are said to have been only thirteen houses, which before the end of the 16th century had increased to 520.[2] Camden, about the end of the 17th century, wrote that "the people are very industrious, so that though the soil about it be barren and improfitable, not fit to live on, they have so flourished ... by the clothing trade that they are very rich and have gained a reputation for it above their neighbours."[3] The manufacturing standards and trade were improved by the arrival of certain merchants and clothworkers driven from the Spanish Netherlands by the persecution by the Duke of Alva.[3]
Halifax was a borough by prescription[n 4] rather than a medieval parliamentary borough, its privileges[n 5] growing up with the increased prosperity brought by the cloth trade, but it was not incorporated until 1848. From 1832 until 1918 the town's property-qualifying residents paying scot and lot returned two members to parliament.[n 6][3]
Constituency profile
As of 2001, the town in the Pennines was relatively affluent, not afflicted by the high levels of unemployment, underemployment and crime seen in a few wards of the Yorkshire and Humber region but most constituents had modest incomes and there was some social housing in certain wards.[4] Since 1987 the MP has represented the Labour Party; before that date for four years it was held by a Conservative MP, but generally since the Second World War it has been a Labour seat.
Prior to the 2017 general election, the Conservative Party launched its election manifesto at Dean Clough Mill in Halifax, and targeted the seat fairly heavily, for two years earlier the Labour majority in the constituency had fallen to just 428 votes, or 1% of the total vote. However, Lynch increased her majority by almost 5,000 votes, giving Labour its biggest majority in Halifax since 2001.
Blackburn was a vice-president of the Bradford Conservative Association. He was nominated after the Conservative and Liberal associations in the division had failed to reach agreement on the proposal for a joint anti-Labour candidate.[36]
^A borough constituency (for the purposes of election expenses and type of returning officer)
^As with all constituencies, the constituency elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election at least every five years.
^Legally, the doctrine of prescription (law), as opposed to "by grant", means obtained by long use
^Among the curious customs of Halifax was the Gibbet Law, which was probably established by a prescriptive right to protect the wool trade, and gave the inhabitants the power of executing anyone taken within their liberty, who, when tried by a jury of sixteen of the frith-burgesses, was found guilty of the theft of any goods of the value of more than 13d. The executions took place on market days on a hill outside the town, the gibbet somewhat resembling a guillotine. The first execution recorded under this law took place in 1541, and the right was exercised in Halifax longer than in any other town, the last execution taking place in 1650.[3] In 1635, the king granted the inhabitants of Halifax licence to found a workhouse in a large house given to them for that purpose by Nathaniel Waterhouse, and incorporated them under the name of the master and governors. Nathaniel Waterhouse was appointed the first master, his successors being elected every year by the twelve governors from among themselves.
^In 1607 David Waterhouse, lord of the manor of Halifax, obtained a grant of two markets there every week on Friday and Saturday and two fairs every year, each lasting three days, one beginning on 24 June, the other on 11 November. Later these fairs and markets were confirmed with the addition of an extra market on Thursday to Sir William Ayloffe, baronet, who had succeeded David Waterhouse as lord of the manor. The market rights were sold to the Markets Company in 1810 and purchased from them by the corporation in 1853.
^ abCompared to half of Conservative vote at Jan 1910 election
References
^"Constituency data: electorates – House of Commons Library". Parliament UK. 15 June 2020. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
^ abLewis, Samuel (1848). "Halifax". A Topographical Dictionary of England. Institute of Historical Research. Retrieved 4 January 2013.
^ abcdOne or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Halifax (England)". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 843–844.
^"Local statistics - Office for National Statistics". www.ons.gov.uk.
^ abcLeigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "H" (part 1)
^ abcdefgStooks Smith, Henry (1845). The Parliaments of England, from 1st George I., to the Present Time. Vol II: Oxfordshire to Wales Inclusive. London: Simpkin, Marshall, & Co. pp. 145–146. Retrieved 5 November 2018 – via Google Books.
^Steele, David (21 May 2009). "Wood, Charles, first Viscount Halifax (1800–1885)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/29865. Retrieved 13 May 2018. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
^Casey, Martin; Salmon, Philip (2009). "WOOD, Charles (1800–1885), of Hemsworth, nr. Pontefract, Yorks.; Hickleton, nr. Doncaster and 22 Charles Street, Mdx". The History of Parliament. Retrieved 13 May 2018.
^"Correspondence of Sir Charles Wood, 1st Viscount Halifax". Archives Hub. Jisc.
^Hiscocks, Richard. "Charles Wood". morethannelson. Retrieved 13 May 2018.
^Hawkins, Angus (2013). "Government Appointment By-elections: 1832–86". In Otte, T.G.; Readman, Paul (eds.). By-elections in British Politics: 1832–1914. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press. p. 69. ISBN 978-1-84383-780-0. Retrieved 13 May 2018.
^ abChurton, Edward (1838). The Assembled Commons or Parliamentary Biographer: 1838. p. 240. Retrieved 5 November 2018 – via Google Books.
^"Halifax Election 1835". From Weaver to Web. Calderdale Council. Retrieved 5 November 2018.
^Iwama, Thoshihiko (June 2003). The Middle Class in Halifax, 1780–1850(PDF) (PhD). University of Leeds. pp. 153, 155. Retrieved 5 November 2018.
^Bull, Malcolm. "MPs for Halifax". Malcolm Bull's Calderdale Companion. Retrieved 13 May 2018.
^Kirk, Neville (1998). "Politics". Change, continuity and class: Labour in British society, 1850–1920. Manchester: Manchester University Press. p. 91. ISBN 0-7190-4237-2. Retrieved 13 May 2018.
^Iwama, Toshihiko (June 2003). "The Middle Class in Halifax, 1780–1850" (PDF). White Rose eTheses Online. University of Southampton. p. 168. Retrieved 13 May 2018.
^"The Elections". Huddersfield and Holmfirth Examiner. 10 July 1852. p. 4. Retrieved 13 May 2018 – via British Newspaper Archive.
^"Parliamentary General Election - 04/07/2024 Halifax Constituency". Calderdale Council. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
^"Halifax results". BBC News. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
^"Notional results for a UK general election on 12 December 2019". Rallings & Thrasher, Professor David Denver (Scotland), Nicholas Whyte (NI) for Sky News, PA, BBC News and ITV News. UK Parliament. Retrieved 11 July 2024.
^"Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 November 2019. Retrieved 17 November 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^"Halifax Parliamentary constituency". BBC News. BBC. Retrieved 16 December 2019.
^At the 1931 general election, the local Liberal Association chose not to field a candidate against the National Government; Sykes stood as an "Independent Liberal" candidate
^ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuCraig, F. W. S., ed. (1977). British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885 (1st ed.). London: Macmillan Press. ISBN 978-1-349-02349-3.
^"Lecture by Mr. Ernest Jones". Huddersfield Chronicle. 3 July 1852. p. 7. Retrieved 13 May 2018 – via British Newspaper Archive.
Sources
Victoria County History, Yorkshire
T. Wright, The Antiquities of the Town of Halifax (Leeds, 1738)
John Watson, The History and Antiquities of the Parish of Halifax (London, 1775)
John Crabtree, A Concise History of the Parish and Vicarage of Halifax (Halifax and London, 1836).
Craig, F. W. S. (1983) [1969]. British parliamentary election results 1918-1949 (3rd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN 0-900178-06-X.
External links
Halifax UK Parliament constituency (boundaries April 2010 – May 2024) at MapIt UK
Halifax UK Parliament constituency (boundaries from June 2024) at MapIt UK