Shrewsbury was a

parliamentary constituency An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other poli ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, centred on the town of

Shrewsbury Shrewsbury ( , also ) is a market town, civil parish, and the county town of Shropshire, England, on the River Severn, north-west of London; at the 2021 census, it had a population of 76,782. The town's name can be pronounced as either 'Sh ...

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...

. It was founded in 1290 as parliamentary borough, returning two members to the

House of Commons of England The House of Commons of England was the lower house of the Parliament of England (which incorporated Wales) from its development in the 14th century to the union of England and Scotland in 1707, when it was replaced by the House of Commons of ...

until 1707, then of the

House of Commons of Great Britain The House of Commons of Great Britain was the lower house of the Parliament of Great Britain between 1707 and 1801. In 1707, as a result of the Acts of Union of that year, it replaced the House of Commons of England and the third estate of th ...

from 1707 to 1800, and of the

House of Commons of the United Kingdom The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 me ...

from 1801 to 1885. Under the

Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 The Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 (48 & 49 Vict., c. 23) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was a piece of electoral reform legislation that redistributed the seats in the House of Commons, introducing the concept of equal ...

, its representation was reduced to one

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP). The parliamentary borough was abolished at with effect from the 1918 general election, and the name transferred to a new

county constituency In the United Kingdom (UK), each of the electoral areas or divisions called constituencies elects one member to the House of Commons. Within the United Kingdom there are five bodies with members elected by electoral districts called "constituenc ...

. The constituency was renamed

Shrewsbury and Atcham Shrewsbury and Atcham was a local government district with borough status in Shropshire, England, between 1974 and 2009. Shrewsbury was the only town in the borough; Atcham, although itself only a village, was included in the name as a reflect ...

, but continued with the exact same boundaries as had been in effect from 1974-1983. Famous MPs have included

Sir Philip Sidney ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as p ...

in 1581,

Robert Clive Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive, (29 September 1725 – 22 November 1774), also known as Clive of India, was the first British Governor of the Bengal Presidency. Clive has been widely credited for laying the foundation of the British ...

(known as 'Clive of India') from 1761 to his death in 1774, and

Benjamin Disraeli Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, (21 December 1804 – 19 April 1881) was a British statesman and Conservative politician who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He played a central role in the creation o ...

(later

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

) in 1841–47.

Boundaries

1918–1950: The Borough of Shrewsbury, and the Rural Districts of Atcham and Chirbury. 1950–1974: The Borough of Shrewsbury, and the Rural District of Atcham. 1974–1983: As prior but with redrawn boundaries.

History

By the mid eighteenth century Shrewsbury was known as an independent constituency. The right of election was vested in resident burgesses paying

scot and lot Scot and lot is a phrase common in the records of English, Welsh and Irish medieval boroughs, referring to local rights and obligations. The term ''scot'' comes from the Old English word ''sceat'', an ordinary coin in Anglo-Saxon times, equivalen ...

. By 1722 the number of voters exceeded 1300 but Parliament sharply reduced the number by excluding parts of Shrewsbury from the parliamentary borough.

Members of Parliament

Borough of Shrewsbury

*''Constituency created'' (1290)

MPs 1290–1660

MPs 1660–1885

MPs 1885–1918

Shrewsbury division of Shropshire

MPs 1918–1983

Election results

Elections in the 1830s

Elections in the 1840s

Elections in the 1850s

Elections in the 1860s

Slaney's death caused a by-election.

Elections in the 1870s

Clement's death caused a by-election.

Elections in the 1880s

Cotes was appointed a

Lord Commissioner of the Treasury In the United Kingdom there are at least six Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury, serving as a commission for the ancient office of Treasurer of the Exchequer. The board consists of the First Lord of the Treasury, the Second Lord of the ...

, requiring a by-election. Representation reduced to one Member

Elections in the 1890s

Elections in the 1900s

Elections in the 1910s

General Election 1914–15: Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1915. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place and by July 1914, the following candidates had been selected; *Unionist: George Lloyd *Liberal:

Elections in the 1920s

Elections in the 1930s

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: Arthur Duckworth *Liberal:

John Share Jones Prof. John Share Jones , known as Dr Share Jones (25 August 1873 – 2 December 1950), was a British veterinary surgeon and briefly a Liberal Party politician. Personal life Jones was born John Thomas Jones, in Cefn Mawr, Denbighshire, the son ...

*Labour: S N ChapmanReport of the Annual Conference of the Labour Party, 1939 The outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

in September 1939 caused general elections to be suspended until 1945.

Elections in the 1950s

Elections in the 1960s

Elections in the 1970s

References

Craig, F. W. S. (1983). British parliamentary election results 1918-1949 (3 ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. .

Sources

* * * *{{cite book , last=Craig , first=F. W. S. , author-link= F. W. S. Craig , title=British parliamentary election results 1918–1949 , orig-year=1969 , edition=3rd , year=1983 , publisher= Parliamentary Research Services , location=Chichester , isbn= 0-900178-06-X , page=452