Middleton and Prestwich (UK Parliament constituency)

Middleton and Prestwich
Former County constituency for the House of Commons
1918–1983
Number of members	one

Middleton and Prestwich was a parliamentary constituency centred on the Middleton and Prestwich districts of Greater Manchester. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

The constituency was created for the 1918 general election, and abolished for the 1983 general election, when it was partially replaced by the new constituencies of Heywood and Middleton and Bury South.

It was an unusual constituency because Middleton and Prestwich were physically separated by Heaton Park, a large green area bequeathed to Manchester City Council, and had nothing whatsoever in common. Prestwich was a well established middle class suburb with a large Jewish minority and during the inter-war years boasted several millionaires. Middleton on the other hand was greatly expanded by a large Manchester overspill council estate and at one point during the 1950s Prestwich had no Labour councillors while Middleton had no Conservatives. The new constituency of Heywood and Middleton resolved this mismatch by linking together two adjacent towns.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1918	Sir William Ryland Dent Adkins	Coalition Liberal
	1920 by-election		Coalition Liberal
	1922		National Liberal
	1923	Sir Nairne Stewart-Sandeman, Bt	Conservative
	1940 by-election	Ernest Gates	Conservative
	1951	Sir John Barlow, Bt	Conservative
	1966	Denis Coe	Labour
	1970	Alan Haselhurst	Conservative
	Feb 1974	Jim Callaghan	Labour
1983		constituency abolished: see Heywood and Middleton

Elections

Elections in the 1910s

File:Ryland Adkins.jpg

Ryland Adkins

General Election 1918: Middleton and Prestwich

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Sir William Ryland Dent Adkins	14,831		n/a
	Labour	John B Battle	6,501		n/a
Majority			8,330		n/a
Turnout					n/a
	Liberal win

• endorsed by the Coalition Government

Elections in the 1920s

Middleton and Prestwich by-election, 1920

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Coalition Liberal	Sir William Ryland Dent Adkins	Unopposed	n/a	n/a
	Coalition Liberal hold		Swing	n/a

General Election 1922: Middleton and Prestwich

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National Liberal	Sir William Ryland Dent Adkins	14,832	58.5	n/a
	Labour	Matthew Burrow Farr	10,505	41.5	n/a
Majority			4,327	17.0	n/a
Turnout			25,337		n/a
	National Liberal hold		Swing	n/a

General Election 1923: Middleton and Prestwich

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Alexander Nairne Stewart Sandeman	10,029	36.6	n/a
	Liberal	Sir William Ryland Dent Adkins	9,500	34.7	-23.8
	Labour	Matthew Burrow Farr	7,849	28.7	-12.8
Majority			529	1.9	n/a
Turnout			27,378
	Unionist gain from Liberal		Swing	n/a

General Election 1924: Middleton and Prestwich

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Alexander Nairne Stewart Sandeman	16,005	51.3	+14.7
	Labour	Matthew Burrow Farr	8,442	27.0	-1.7
	Liberal	Sir William Ryland Dent Adkins	6,763	21.7	-13.0
Majority			7,563	24.3	+22.4
Turnout			31,210
	Unionist hold		Swing	+8.2

General Election 1929: Middleton and Prestwich

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Sir Alexander Nairne Stewart Sandeman	16,629	40.1	-11.2
	Labour	Matthew Burrow Farr	14,368	34.6	+7.6
	Liberal	David Halliwell	10,526	25.3	+3.6
Majority			2,261	5.5	-18.8
Turnout
	Unionist hold		Swing	-9.4

Elections in the 1930s

General Election 1931: Middleton and Prestwich Electorate 54,538

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Sir Alexander Nairne Stewart Sandeman	31,702	74.6
	Labour	T McCall	10,796	25.4
Majority			20,906	49.2
Turnout			42,498	77.9
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1935: Middleton and Prestwich Electorate 60,053

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Sir Alexander Nairne Stewart Sandeman	27,369	61.1
	Labour	J Nuttall	17,398	38.9
Majority			9,971	22.3
Turnout			44,767	74.5
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in the 1940s

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 from 1939 and by the end of this year, the following candidates had been selected;

• Conservative: Ernest Everard Gates
• Labour: Mabel Tylecote

Middleton and Prestwich by-election, 1940 Electorate

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Ernest Everard Gates	32,036	98.7	+37.6
	British Union of Fascists	F. Haslam	418	1.3	n/a
Majority			31,618	97.4	+75.2
Turnout			32,454	49.0	–25.5
	Conservative hold		Swing	n/a

General Election 1945: Middleton and Prestwich Electorate 69,786

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Ernest Everard Gates	26,669	50.7
	Labour	Mabel Tylecote	25,908	49.3	n/a
Majority			761	1.4
Turnout				75.3
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in the 1950s

General Election 1950: Middleton and Prestwich

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Ernest Everard Gates	24,521	50.25
	Labour	CS Hilditch	16,716	34.25
	Liberal	Ernest Harrison	7,564	15.50
Majority			7,805	15.99
Turnout				86.87
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1951: Middleton and Prestwich

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Sir John Denman Barlow	26,073	54.15
	Labour	Albert Knight	16,323	33.90
	Liberal	Ernest Harrison	5,757	11.96
Majority			9,750	20.25
Turnout				84.99
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1955: Middleton and Prestwich

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Sir John Denman Barlow	27,096	61.46
	Labour	Edmund Emanuel Dell	16,989	38.54
Majority			10,107	22.93
Turnout				75.47
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1959: Middleton and Prestwich

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Sir John Denman Barlow	31,416	59.65
	Labour	Fred G Barton	21,248	40.35
Majority			10,168	19.31
Turnout				79.97
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in the 1960s

General Election 1964: Middleton and Prestwich

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Sir John Denman Barlow	22,192	40.11
	Labour	Ronald Leighton	20,066	36.27
	Liberal	Samuel Crilly	13,064	23.61
Majority			2,126	3.84
Turnout				79.42
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1966: Middleton and Prestwich

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Denis Walter Coe	23,938	44.73
	Conservative	Sir John Denman Barlow	20,121	37.60
	Liberal	Samuel Crilly	9,457	17.67
Majority			3,817	7.13
Turnout				78.01
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing

Elections in the 1970s

General Election 1970: Middleton and Prestwich

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Alan Gordon Barraclough Haselhurst	25,030	43.76
	Labour	Denis Walter Coe	23,988	41.94
	Liberal	Samuel Crilly	8,175	14.29
Majority			1,042	1.82
Turnout				74.72
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing

General Election February 1974: Middleton and Prestwich

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	James Callaghan	24,357	39.84
	Conservative	Alan Gordon Barraclough Haselhurst	23,840	38.99
	Liberal	Philip Harrison	12,946	21.17
Majority			517	0.85
Turnout				80.49
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing

General Election October 1974: Middleton and Prestwich

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	James Callaghan	26,639	45.82
	Conservative	A Fearn	22,925	39.43
	Liberal	J Clarney	8,340	14.35
	More Prosperous Britain	H Smith	234	0.40
Majority			3,714	6.39
Turnout				75.76
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1979: Middleton and Prestwich

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	James Callaghan	27,918	45.79
	Conservative	J Park	26,820	43.98
	Liberal	D Whatmough	5,888	9.66
	National Front	S Andrews	350	0.57
Majority			1,098	1.80
Turnout				78.89
	Labour hold		Swing

References

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "M" (part 2)

• British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, F W S Craig
• British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, F W S Craig
• British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, F W S Craig
• British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, F W S Craig
• British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, F W S Craig
• British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, F W S Craig
• British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, F W S Craig
• British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, F W S Craig
• Report of the Annual Conference of the Labour Party, 1939
• British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, F W S Craig
• British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, F W S Craig