Newmarket is a former
United KingdomParliamentaryconstituency. It was created upon the splitting up of the three member
Cambridgeshire constituency into three single member divisions in 1885. The seat was abolished in 1918.
History
The
Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 split the former three-member
Cambridgeshire parliamentary county into three single-member divisions. One of these was the Eastern or Newmarket Division. The seat was named after the town of
Newmarket, which is famous as a centre of horse racing. The seat also included the city of
Ely which is the seat of a Bishop and the church interest, as well as the middle-class character of the area, contributed to Conservative political strength. The pro-Conservative alliance of the Church of England and the horse racing fraternity of the town of Newmarket was commented upon by Liberals at the time.
The seat as a whole was marginal between the Conservative and Liberal interests, as the Liberals had support in the villages. A suitable rich, horse race loving Liberal candidate could win the seat.
Upon its abolition under the
Representation of the People Act 1918, the constituency was combined with the
Chesterton (or West Cambridgeshire) division to create a new single member
Cambridgeshire seat. Ely was combined with the
Wisbech (or North Cambridgeshire) division to create a new
Isle of Ely constituency. The two new seats corresponded to the administrative counties of Cambridgeshire and
Isle of Ely, which had been created in 1889.
Boundaries
The contents of the division were defined as:
The Sessional Divisions of Bottisham, Linton and Newmarket; and
The Parishes of Ely College, Ely Holy Trinity and Ely St. Mary.[1]
Newmarket lay at the centre of the constituency, although only part of the town (All Saints Parish) was within the parliamentary county of Cambridgeshire and formed part of this seat. The
Local Government Act 1888 made the entirety of Newmarket
urban sanitary district part of the administrative county of
West Suffolk.[2] However this did not affect the parliamentary boundaries until 1918. The small city of Ely was the only other urban area.
^Great Britain, Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for England and Wales.
The public general acts. unknown library. Proprietors of the Law Journal Reports, 1884.
^
abYoungs, Frederic A Jr. (1979). Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Vol.I: Southern England. London:
Royal Historical Society. p. 716.
ISBN0-901050-67-9.
^
abcdefghijF. W. S. Craig (1989), British Parliamentary Election Results, 1885-1918. Aldershot: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 228
Sources
Boundaries of Parliamentary Constituencies 1885-1972, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Parliamentary Reference Publications 1972)
Social Geography of British Elections 1885-1910, by
Henry Pelling (Macmillan 1967)