Bilston (UK Parliament constituency)

Bilston was a parliamentary constituency centred on the town of Bilston in what is now the southeast of the city of Wolverhampton in the West Midlands. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

As well as the town of Bilston, which had been heavily industrialised town since the 19th century, it also incorporated the nearby communities of Sedgley and Coseley, both of which were still predominantly rural villages when the parliamentary seat was created in 1918, but by the time the constituency changed from Wolverhampton Bilston to Bilston 32 years later they were rapidly expanding into towns, and had expanded further still when the constituency was finally abolished in 1974.

History

The area was created, as a Staffordshire borough constituency, for the 1918 general election. It was named as a division of Wolverhampton. From the 1950 general election the Wolverhampton prefix was dropped from the official constituency name. The seat was abolished for the February 1974 general election, when it was largely replaced by the new Wolverhampton South East constituency.

Boundaries

1918-1950: The constituency consisted of the then Urban Districts of Bilston, Coseley and Sedgley.

1950-1974: By 1950 Bilston was a Municipal Borough. Coseley and Sedgley were still Urban Districts in the constituency. In 1966 most of Sedgley was incorporated into an expanded borough of Dudley, which also took in the south of Coseley, while the remainder of Sedgley was transferred to Wolverhampton and Seisdon and sections of Coseley were transferred to Wolverhampton and West Bromwich.

Members of Parliament

Year		Member	Party
	1918	Thomas Edgecumbe Hickman	Coalition Conservative
	1922	Charles Kenneth Howard-Bury	Conservative
	1924	John Baker	Labour
	1931	Geoffrey Kelsall Peto	Conservative
	1935	Ian Campbell Hannah	Conservative
	1944 by-election	William Ernest Gibbons	Conservative
	1945	Will Nally	Labour
	1955	Robert Edwards	Labour
Feb 1974		constituency abolished: see Wolverhampton South East

Election results

1920s

General Election 1929: Bilston

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	John Baker	18,679	50.8
	Unionist	Maj. S.J. Thompson	13,635	37.0
	Liberal	Gilbert Salter	4,475	12.2	n/a
Majority			5,044	13.8
Turnout
	Labour hold		Swing

1930s

General Election 1931 : Bilston

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Geoffrey Kelsall Peto	20,620	55.04
	Labour	John Baker	16,847	44.96
Majority			3,773	10.07
Turnout				81.37
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing

General Election 1935 : Bilston

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Ian Campbell Hannah	18,689	51.2
	Labour	David Mort	17,820	48.8
Majority			869	2.4
Turnout				70.9
	Conservative hold		Swing

1940s

Bilston by-election, 1944

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	William Ernest Gibbons	9,693	50.63
	Ind. Labour Party	A. Eaton	9,344	49.08
Majority			349	1.55
Turnout			19,037
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1945: Bilston

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Will Nally	31,493	66.96
	Conservative	William Ernest Gibbons	14,691	31.24
	Ind. Labour Party	A. Eaton	849	1.81
Majority			16,802	35.72
Turnout				73.08
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing

1950s

General Election 1950: Bilston

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Will Nally	29,919	62.62
	Conservative	J Godrich	17,858	37.38
Majority			12,061	25.24
Turnout				83.50
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1951: Bilston

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Will Nally	31,381	61.86
	Conservative	CG Spencer	19,352	38.14
Majority			12,029	23.71
Turnout				82.76
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1955: Bilston

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Robert Edwards	26,490	57.62
	Conservative	EA Marsh	19,482	42.38
Majority			7,008	15.24
Turnout				74.36
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1959: Bilston

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Robert Edwards	27,068	53.50
	Conservative	FJ Oxford	23,523	46.50
Majority			3,545	7.01
Turnout				76.81
	Labour hold		Swing

1960s

General Election 1964: Bilston

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Robert Edwards	27,986	53.13
	Conservative	FJ Oxford	24,686	46.87
Majority			3,300	6.27
Turnout				74.18
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1966: Bilston

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Robert Edwards	29,794	56.93
	Conservative	FJ Oxford	22,541	43.07
Majority			7,253	13.86
Turnout				73.21
	Labour hold		Swing

1970s

General Election 1970: Bilston

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Robert Edwards	27,240	50.93
	Conservative	Charles Graham Irving	26,240	49.07
Majority			1,000	1.87
Turnout				69.40
	Labour hold		Swing

See also

• List of Members of Parliament for Wolverhampton
• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Wolverhampton

References

• Boundaries of Parliamentary Constituencies 1885-1972, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Parliamentary Reference Publications 1972)
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "B" (part 3)

• British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig