Crawley
2005 Results:
Labour: 16411 (39.1%)
Conservative: 16374 (39%)
Liberal Democrat: 6503 (15.5%)
Other: 2685 (6.4%)
Majority: 37 (0.1%)
2001 Result
Conservative: 12718 (32.2%)
Labour: 19488 (49.3%)
Liberal Democrat: 5009 (12.7%)
UKIP: 1137 (2.9%)
Other: 1170 (3%)
Majority: 6770 (17.1%)
1997 Result
Conservative: 16043 (31.8%)
Labour: 27750 (55%)
Liberal Democrat: 4141 (8.2%)
Referendum: 1931 (3.8%)
Other: 552 (1.1%)
Majority: 11707 (23.2%)
No Boundary Changes:
Profile:
Current MP: Laura Moffatt(Labour) (more information at They work for you)
Candidates: Henry Smith (Conservative)
2001 Census Demographics
Total 2001 Population: 99744
Male: 49%
Female: 51%
Under 18: 23.8%
Over 60: 18.4%
Born outside UK: 11.6%
White: 88.5%
Black: 1.1%
Asian: 8.3%
Mixed: 1.4%
Other: 0.6%
Christian: 67.3%
Hindu: 3.4%
Muslim: 4.4%
Sikh: 0.7%
Full time students: 2.3%
Graduates 16-74: 14.6%
No Qualifications 16-74: 25.4%
Owner-Occupied: 68.3%
Social Housing: 23.4% (Council: 20.3%, Housing Ass.: 3.1%)
Privately Rented: 5.5%
Homes without central heating and/or private bathroom: 3.6%
Was Crawley in Horsham and Worthing 1918-45 and Horsham 1945-74? Which seats was it in prior to 1918?
Crawley I think was in with Horsham pre 1974 yes. Not sure how far back.
The Cure, the group, are from Crawley.
1970 result
Horsham
[E] Conservative hold
PM Hordern Conservative 41,994 53.65%
AJ Edwards Labour 27,706 35.40%
H Gill Liberal 8,574 10.95%
Electorate: 105,794; Turnout 73.99%;
Majority: 14,288 (18.25%)
There were new boundaries in February 1974, but the size of this Labour vote in 1970 must surely have come from Crawley.
Probably the seat had remained the same since 1950 or earlier?
When was that seat re-name ‘Horsham & Crawley’? It was called that from 1974 – 1983.
Not sure what your question is Peter, with respect, as you appear to have answered it yourself.
It became Horsham & Crawley in name from February 1974.
The previous seat clearly included Crawley but hadn’t yet had a mention.
They did make boundary changes, presumably removing some rural areas, but as so often the case, the seat remained over-sized, on 1961 base year.
I can’t imagine Crawley was very large in the late 1940s hence it wasn’t mentioned in the constituency name then.
Also, here is the 1966 result in Horsham.
I wanted to see whether Crawley was yet large enough to make the seat marginal in a year when Labour won the General Election.
It is marginal, but still a fairly clear Conservative hold.
I’m not actually totally sure whether Crawley is a particularly early or late New Town, or fairly in with the pack. I think it is somewhat smaller than those in Hertfordshire and Essex.
Horsham
[E] Conservative hold
PM Hordern Conservative 32,139 45.80%
JM Bowyer Labour 26,098 37.19%
OGN Burne Liberal 11,930 17.00%
Electorate: 88,872; Turnout: 78.95%;
Majority: 6,041 (8.61%)
Crawley was in the first wave of new towns, having been designated in 1947. Hemel, Hatfield, Welwyn, Stevenage, Harlow and Basildon were designated in the same wave.
The population in 1951 of the area later included in Crawley urban district was 10,481. In 1961 it was 53,768, the increase being more than half that of all West Sussex, and in 1971 it was 67,608. The population of the designated area was 54,047 in 1961, 67,843 in 1971, and 72,684 in 1981. The borough in 1981 had 73,376 people; a further 7,874 were normally resident in the new neighbourhoods then outside the borough but included in it in 1983.
From: ‘Crawley New Town’, A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 6 Part 3: Bramber Rape (North-Eastern Part) including Crawley New Town (1987), pp. 74-75. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=18414 Date accessed: 20 September 2009.
The only other case I can think of in 1974 when a town that was already in a constituency was added to the title was ‘Stirling, Falkirk & Grangemouth’ – the seat being previously ‘Stirling & Falkirk’ – which sound better.
When ‘Greenock’ became ‘Greenock & Port Glasgow’ in 1974, this was not the same situation, as Port Glasgow had been part of West Renfrewshire (and oddly became again between 1997 and 2005, and remains part of the Holyrood seat).
Thanks Peter, Evergreenadam, Richard, for details.
Yes, designated in 1946/47, but built fairly piecemeal by the look of it.
Bewbush was built in 1975 (population 9,000).