Barnard Castle (UK Parliament constituency)

Barnard Castle
Former County constituency for the House of Commons
1885–1950
Number of members	one
Replaced by	Bishop Auckland and North West Durham
Created from	South Durham

Barnard Castle was a county constituency centred on the town of Barnard Castle in County Durham, which returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was created for the 1885 general election and abolished for the 1950 general election.

Boundaries

The constituency was located in the west of County Durham, in North East England.

1885-1918: To the north of the constituency (moving from west to east) were the Northumberland division of Hexham and then North West Durham. To the east (moving from north to south) were Mid Durham, Bishop Auckland and South East Durham. To the south was Richmond (Yorks). To the west of the constituency (moving from south to north) were the Westmorland divisions of Appleby and Kendal.

1918-1950: The constituency was expanded, absorbing the western part of the former North West Durham seat. The 1918 local government units in the constituency were the Barnard Castle Urban District, the Stanhope Urban District, the Barnard Castle Rural District, the Weardale Rural District and parts of Auckland Rural District and Lanchester Rural District.

In 1950 the Barnard Castle urban and rural districts were included in the Bishop Auckland constituency. Other parts of the former constituency formed part of a new North West Durham seat.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1885	Sir Joseph Pease	Liberal
	1903	Arthur Henderson	Labour
	1918	John Edmund Swan	Labour
	1922	John Edwin Rogerson	Conservative
	1923	Moss Turner-Samuels	Labour
	1924	Cuthbert Headlam	Conservative
	1929	William Lawther	Labour
	1931	Cuthbert Headlam	Conservative
	1935	Thomas Miles Sexton	Labour
	1945	Sydney Charles Robert Lavers	Labour
1950		constituency abolished

Election results

Elections in the 1900s

Barnard Castle by-election, 1903

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Arthur Henderson	3,370	35.4
	Conservative	William Lyonel Vane	3,323	35.0
	Liberal	Hubert Beaumont	2,809	29.6
Majority			47	0.4
Turnout				84.6
	Labour gain from Liberal		Swing

Elections in the 1920s

General Election 1923: Barnard Castle

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Moss Turner-Samuels	9,171	55.1	+5.8
	Unionist	John Edwin Rogerson	7,482	44.9	-5.8
Majority			1,689	10.2	11.6
Turnout				78.8
	Labour gain from Unionist		Swing	+5.8

General Election 1929: Barnard Castle

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	William Lawther	9,281	42.0
	Unionist	Cuthbert Morley Headlam	8,406	38.1
	Liberal	Emanuel Spence	4,402	19.9
Majority			875	3.9
Turnout
	Labour gain from Unionist		Swing

References

• Boundaries of Parliamentary Constituencies 1885-1972, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Parliamentary Reference Publications 1972)

Sources

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "B" (part 1)