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United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
Truro was the name of a constituency in Cornwall represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1295 until 1918 and from 1950 to 1997. Until 1885 it was a parliamentary borough electing two Members of Parliament (MPs) by the bloc vote system of election; the name was then transferred to the surrounding county constituency, which elected one MP by the first past the post system. In 1997, in spite of the fact that there had been no changes to its boundaries, it was renamed Truro and St Austell, reflecting the fact that St Austell has a larger population than Truro.
[edit] Boundaries
1295-1885: The parliamentary borough before 1832 consisted of only part of the town (later city) of Truro, and was extended by the Great Reform Act to contain the whole town (St Mary parish and part of the parishes of St Kenwyn and St Clement) but nothing beyond that.
The Truro constituency as it existed 1983-1997, shown within Cornwall
1885-1918: The county division took in a considerable area of South-West Cornwall, including (as well as Truro itself) the town of Helston. Also, in the towns of Falmouth and Penryn, which together constituted a borough constituency adjoining Truro, the freeholders could vote in the Truro division. This constituency was abolished in 1918, being divided between the new or revised Penryn and Falmouth, St Ives and Camborne county constituencies.
1950-1997: The new county constituency, different from the previous one, consisted of the borough of Truro, St Austell Urban District and part of Truro and St Austell rural districts. There were minor changes in 1974, and more substantrial ones in 1983 when the area round Fowey was transferred to South East Cornwall. After the local government re-organisation of the 1970s this area was within the new district of Carrick (which contains the city of Truro) and borough of Restormel (which contains St Austell).
[edit] History
The constituency has existed in a number of different forms. The constituency of Truro, up until 1885 elected two members to parliament; this was reduced to one. In 1918 the constituency was abolished but it was recreated again in 1950.
The seat became a safe Lib Dem bet thanks to the popularity and eloquence of its former MP, David Penhaligon. His death in a car crash, aged only 42, robbed the House of Commons of one of its most independent-minded and pragmatic members. His successor, Matthew Taylor, held the seat comfortably from a by-election in 1987, and remained its MP after the name change in 1997.
[edit] Members of Parliament
[edit] 1295-1629
-
- Constituency created (1295)
[edit] 1640-1885
[edit] 1885-1997
[edit] Election results
The Liberal Party and the SDP merged between these elections and became the Liberal Democrats. C Tankard represented the newly formed Liberal Party.
[edit] Truro by-election, 1987
- ^ Browne Willis gives this MP as Barnaby Gooch, LL D
- ^ "John Trefuses" according to Cobbett: Browne Willis has "Samuel Trefusis"
- ^ Brydges was also elected for Hereford, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Truro
- ^ Lieutenant-Colonel from 1748, Colonel 1758, Major General 1761
- ^ Styled Earl of Wiltshire from December 1794
[edit] References
- Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs
- Robert Beatson, A Chronological Register of Both Houses of Parliament (London: Longman, Hurst, Res & Orme, 1807) [1]
- D Brunton & D H Pennington, Members of the Long Parliament (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954)
- Cobbett's Parliamentary history of England, from the Norman Conquest in 1066 to the year 1803 (London: Thomas Hansard, 1808) [2]
- F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885 (2nd edition, Aldershot: Parliamentary Research Services, 1989)
- Maija Jansson (ed.), Proceedings in Parliament, 1614 (House of Commons) (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1988)
- Lewis Namier & John Brooke, The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1754-1790 (London: HMSO, 1964)
- J E Neale, The Elizabethan House of Commons (London: Jonathan Cape, 1949)
- Henry Stooks Smith, The Parliaments of England from 1715 to 1847 (2nd edition, edited by FWS Craig - Chichester: Parliamentary Reference Publications, 1973)
- Browne Willis, Notitia Parliamentaria (London, 1750) [3]
- Frederic A Youngs, jr, Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Vol II (London: Royal Historical Society, 1991)
