Northern West Riding of Yorkshire (UK Parliament constituency)

Northern West Riding of Yorkshire
Former County constituency for the House of Commons
County	West Riding of Yorkshire
1865–1885
Number of members	Two
Replaced by	Elland, Keighley, Shipley, Skipton and Sowerby
Created from	West Riding of Yorkshire

Northern West Riding of Yorkshire was a parliamentary constituency covering part of the historic West Riding of Yorkshire. It returned two Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the bloc vote system.

History

The constituency was created when the two-member West Riding of Yorkshire constituency was divided for the 1865 general election into two new constituencies, each returning two members: Northern West Riding of Yorkshire and Southern West Riding of Yorkshire. The extra seats were taken from parliamentary boroughs which had been disenfranchised for corruption.

In the redistribution which took effect for the 1868 general election the two divisions were redistributed into three. Eastern West Riding of Yorkshire was created and the Northern and Southern divisions modified. Each of the three divisions returned two members.

All three were abolished by the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 for the 1885 general election. The Northern division was replaced by five new single-member constituencies: Elland, Keighley, Shipley, Skipton and Sowerby.

Boundaries

The place of election was at Bradford.

From 1865 to 1868 the constituency comprised the north half of the West Riding of Yorkshire. The Reform Act 1867, as amended by the Boundary Act 1868, re-defined the constituency (as it existed between 1868 and 1885) as the wapentake of Staincliffe and Ewcross with part of the wapentake of Morley (the parishes of Bradford and Halifax and the townships of Boston and Idle).

Members of Parliament

Election	1st Member		1st Party	2nd Member		2nd Party
1865		Sir Francis Crossley	Liberal		Lord Frederick Cavendish	Liberal
1872		Francis Sharp Powell	Conservative
1874		Sir Mathew Wilson, Bt	Liberal
1882					Isaac Holden	Liberal
1885	constituency abolished: see Elland, Keighley, Shipley, Skipton and Sowerby

References

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "Y"