This is the first time a non-Conservative has won the constituency since 1904.
This is only the second time a non-Conservative has topped the poll since 1832.
1904 is weirdly parallel to the current election in that both were by-elections where the Liberals won a traditionally Tory seat.
The result was "a great surprise for both Conservatives and Liberals alike". Bright believed that the electorate had rejected the government, and that "the whole of Shropshire politics had been simply a policy of Tory bluff and the people seemed to have got tired of it".[6][7]
