Heywood and Radcliffe (UK Parliament constituency)

Heywood and Radcliffe
Former County constituency for the House of Commons
1918–1950
Number of members	one
Replaced by	Heywood and Royton & Bury and Radcliffe
Created from	Heywood & Radcliffe-cum-Farnworth

Heywood and Radcliffe was a county constituency centred on the towns of Heywood and Radcliffe in South Lancashire. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post system.

History

Under the Representation of the People Act 1918, the constituency was created by merging the Heywood constituency and part of the Radcliffe-cum-Farnworth constituency for the 1918 general election. It was abolished for the 1950 general election.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1918	Albert Illingworth	Coalition Liberal
	1921 by-election	Walter Halls	Labour
	1922	Abraham England	Liberal
	1931	Joseph Jackson	Conservative
	1935	Richard Porritt	Conservative
	1940 by-election	James Wootton-Davies	Conservative
	1945	John Whittaker	Labour
	1946 by-election	Anthony Greenwood	Labour
1950		constituency abolished: see Heywood and Royton & Bury and Radcliffe

Election results

Elections in the 1910s

Albert Illingworth

General Election 1918

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Rt Hon. Albert Holden Illingworth	14,250	67.6	n/a
	Labour	Horace Nobbs	6,827	32.4	n/a
Majority			7,423	35.2	n/a
Turnout				52.2	n/a
	Liberal win (new seat)

• endorsed by the Coalition Government

Elections in the 1920s

Heywood and Radcliffe by-election, 1921

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Walter Halls	13,430	41.7
	National Liberal	Abraham England	13,125	40.7	n/a
	Liberal	C Pickstone	5,671	17.6	n/a
Majority			305	1.0
Turnout				80.9
	Labour gain from Liberal		Swing

General Election 1922

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National Liberal	Abraham England	19,016	55.4
	Labour	Walter Halls	15,334	44.6
Majority			3,682	10.8
Turnout				83.8
	National Liberal gain from Labour		Swing

General Election 1923: Heywood and Radcliffe

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Abraham England	17,163	52.9	-2.5
	Labour	Walter Halls	15,273	47.1	+2.5
Majority			1,890	5.8	-5.0
Turnout				78.3	-5.5
	Liberal hold		Swing	-2.5

General Election 1924

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Constitutionalist	Abraham England	19,131	55.6	+2.7
	Labour	Alexander George Walkden	15,307	44.4	-2.7
Majority			3,824	11.2
Turnout				81.0	+2.7
	Constitutionalist hold		Swing	+2.7

General Election 1929: Heywood and Radcliffe

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Abraham England	22,692	52.2	-3.4
	Labour	Arthur Creech Jones	20,745	47.8	+3.4
Majority			1,947	4.4	-6.8
Turnout				79.3	-1.7
	Liberal hold		Swing	-3.4

Elections in the 1930s

General Election 1931

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Joseph Cooksey Jackson	32,429	71.5
	Labour	James Stott	12,915	28.5
Majority			19,514	43.0
Turnout				80.7
	Conservative gain from Liberal		Swing

General Election 1935

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Richard Whitaker Porritt	27,226	60.5
	Labour	T McLean	17,799	39.5
Majority			9,427	21.0
Turnout				78.2
	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:
• Labour: A Gaskell

Heywood and Radcliffe by-election, 1940

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	James Henry Wootton-Davies	unopposed	n/a	n/a
	Conservative hold		Swing	n/a

General Election 1945

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	John Edmondson Whittaker	22,601	51.0	n/a
	Conservative	James Henry Wootton-Davies	21,709	49.0	n/a
Majority			892	2.0	n/a
Turnout				76.4	n/a
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing	n/a

Heywood and Radcliffe by-election, 1946

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Arthur William James Anthony Greenwood	22,238	50.5	-0.5
	Conservative	A. Jones	21,786	49.5	+0.5
Majority			452	1.0	-1.0
Turnout				75.6	-0.8
	Labour hold		Swing	-0.5

References

• Craig, F. W. S. (1983). British parliamentary election results 1918-1949 (3 ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN 0-900178-06-X.
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "H" (part 3)