Hallamshire (UK Parliament constituency)

Hallamshire was a Parliamentary constituency covering the Hallamshire district of England. The constituency was created in 1885 and abolished in 1918. It should not be confused with Sheffield Hallam. The seat was a large geographical area which in the west included the moors of the Pennines (Howden Moors, Midhope Moors, Broom Read Moor, Bradfield Moor and Hallam Moor), but came down from the hills in the centre to include better farmland north of Sheffield around Ecclesfield. In the north-east it included part of the South Yorkshire coalfield and some mining villages. In the south, the residents of Sheffield who owned their freeholds could vote in this division.

Hallamshire
Former County constituency
for the House of Commons
CountyWest Riding of Yorkshire
1885–1918
Number of membersOne
Replaced byPenistone, Rotherham and Wentworth
Created fromSouthern West Riding of Yorkshire

For twenty years the Member of Parliament was the Sheffield cutler and steel manufacturer, Sir Frederick Mappin, who was able to unite the middle-class voters from Sheffield with the hill-farmers and the miners to vote for him as a Liberal. When he retired the local Liberal association selected a miner, John Wadsworth, who was President of the Yorkshire Miners Association in 1903 and sponsored by the Miners' Federation of Great Britain. With the other MFGB sponsored MPs, Wadsworth transferred to the Labour Party in 1909.

Boundaries

The constituency covered an area north and west of inner Sheffield. On its creation in 1885 it was defined as containing the Municipal Borough of Sheffield, and the Parishes of Bradfield, Ecclesfield, Wath-upon-Dearne, Brampton Bierlow, Wentworth, Handsworth, Tankersley, Nether Hoyland, and Wortley.

The Municipal Borough of Sheffield was also a Parliamentary Borough and so the only electors from that area entitled to vote in Hallamshire were those who were freeholders. They could, of course, also exercise their vote in the appropriate division of the Parliamentary Borough of Sheffield. However, there were always considerable numbers of Sheffield freeholders who voted at elections for Hallamshire according to Henry Pelling in his Social Geography of British Elections 1885-1910.

This anomaly of the electoral system was ended in 1918. The remainder of the constituency formed the cores of both the Penistone and Wentworth constituencies in boundary changes made that year.

Members of Parliament

Election results

Elections in the 1880s
General election 1885: Hallamshire[1]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Frederick Mappin 6,454 59.2
Conservative Charles Wentworth-Fitzwilliam 4,451 40.8
Majority 2,003 18.4
Turnout 10,905 82.8
Registered electors 13,176
Liberal win (new seat)
General election 1886: Hallamshire[1]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Frederick Mappin Unopposed
Liberal hold

Elections in the 1890s
General election 1892: Hallamshire[1]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Frederick Mappin Unopposed
Liberal hold
Mappin
General election 1895: Hallamshire[1]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Frederick Mappin 5,949 54.1 N/A
Conservative Frank Hatchard 5,054 45.9 New
Majority 895 8.2 N/A
Turnout 11,003 76.0 N/A
Registered electors 14,483
Liberal hold Swing N/A

Elections in the 1900s
General election 1900: Hallamshire[1]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Frederick Mappin 6,688 57.5 +3.4
Conservative Frank Hatchard 4,938 42.5 −3.4
Majority 1,750 15.0 +6.8
Turnout 11,626 74.5 −1.5
Registered electors 15,610
Liberal hold Swing +3.4
John Wadsworth
General election 1906: Hallamshire[1]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Lib-Lab John Wadsworth 8,375 55.2 −2.3
Conservative Frederic Kelley 6,807 44.8 +2.3
Majority 1,568 10.4 −4.6
Turnout 15,182 83.9 +9.4
Registered electors 18,085
Lib-Lab hold Swing −2.3

Elections in the 1910s
General election January 1910: Hallamshire
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour John Wadsworth 10,193 62.2 +7.0
Conservative Thomas Sutton Timmis 6,185 37.8 −7.0
Majority 4,008 24.4 +14.0
Turnout 16,378 82.2 −1.7
Registered electors 19,935
Labour gain from Lib-Lab Swing +7.0
General election December 1910: Hallamshire
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour John Wadsworth 8,708 59.9 −2.3
Conservative David Thurston Smith 5,837 40.1 +2.3
Majority 2,871 19.8 −4.6
Turnout 14,545 73.0 −9.2
Registered electors 19,935
Labour hold Swing −2.3

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;

References
  1. Craig, FWS, ed. (1974). British Parliamentary Election Results: 1885-1918. London: Macmillan Press. ISBN 9781349022984.
  2. "The Hallamshire Division", Manchester Guardian, 24 June 1914

Sources
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