British Elections 1885-1918

[stepney]

I don't think there's a topic for this on here, and probably no-one will be interested, but I thought I'd add a pre-WWI election threads to the other two on post-WWI elections. At the moment I've nothing to add but this map of the English and Welsh constituencies, which may well be worse than nothing at all.

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There are so many pointless detached parts I won't even start.

EDIT: Removed - full amended UK map about to be uploaded.

[stepney]

Now you have to explain exactly who did and didn't have the vote during this period!

Done for me by Lewis, so that's OK.

Nice work, obviously.

Ta, but as you know from the other place, twas done many months ago. I have the maps of Ireland from which I should have added Ireland a long time ago, but I was busy gerrymandering helping the Tory Party in its attempts at a fairer Parliamentary redistribution, which would have happened if Labour weren't so keen on retaining malapportionment in its favour (but that's another story).

I hope to use this map first to illustrate the impact of the First Home Rule Bill on the Liberal Party, then the electorate, in 1886, but if anyone has any better suggestions, I can always adopt them earlier. And if anyone has any good maps of Scottish seats from 1885-1918, please point me in their direction.

[stepney]

Regarding Scotland, the maps are up on Vision of Britain.

Eh, it'll take me six months to sort Scotland out without degrees of latitude/longitude. By which time you'll have banned me for knocking Ed and malapportionment.

[stepney]

Warwickshire 1885-1910. Bigger map in the gallery. Dots indicate unopposed returns. Descriptions of the seats are in Pelling.

[stepney]

The Illustrated London News maps of the 1885 and 1886 elections, now looking nice framed on my living room wall. Bigger ones in the gallery.

[stepney]

Because Protestant Liverpool did not like Catholic Liverpool and voted accordingly.

This, basically, leading to a neat twist: Pelling had a theory that in Lancashire seats there was a correlation between Catholicism and Toryism, i.e. that the more Catholic/Irish a seat was, the higher the average Tory/Unionist vote.

A bit counter-intuitive until one thinks of the greater incentive in more Irish seats to play the Orange card and whip up the majority Protestant population on that. Hence elections in Liverpool, even in 1906, involving the religious question and resulting in heavy Tory victories, while elections in Manchester (eventually...) turn on Free Trade.

[stepney]

As for Durham City, the incumbent for the old City constituency actually held on by about two hundred votes in 1918, but was easily beaten in 1922 and that was the end of that. Btw, if you ever stumble across it, Beynon and Austrin's Masters and Servants: Class and Patronage in the Making of a Labour Organisation is excellent on that general period in County Durham's political history.

The seat pre-1918 only included the city itself (one of the little rotten boroughs with a population just over 15,000 that were allowed to keep their seats in 1885). The sitting Liberal Unionist member, having become a Free Fooder, lost to a Protectionist in 1906, which should show how Unionist it was. After 1918 most of the surrounding "countryside", up to Hetton-le-Hole, were put into it - and as Al says that was the end of that.

[stepney]

Floreat Salopia!

I'm just putting the finishing touches to the map of constituencies for the entire UK, and have accordingly deleted the England/Wales-only map at the top of the thread.

[stepney]

Only took nine and a half years (on and off) - voila:



The number of detached parts are too many to count, so here they are in map form ("detached parts" here meaning the seat can't be coloured in in one click in Paint):



Bigger maps in the gallery. If anyone spots any errors I'd be grateful to know.

[stepney]

Nobody at all for my magnificent octopus, then?

As a Bank Holiday weekend post-count bit of relief, I've knocked up 1906:



Bigger image the usual way.

[stepney]

For comparison, 1900, when one could drive from Dover to the Mersey not just through Unionist seats but exclusively through unopposed Unionist seats:



And to gild the lily, 1900 and 1906 in a colour scheme that might be easier to analyse:





I'm going to try to do hexagon maps of these next.