South Durham, formally the Southern Division of Durham and often referred to as Durham Southern, was a

county constituency In the United Kingdom (UK), each of the electoral areas or divisions called constituencies elects one member to the House of Commons. Within the United Kingdom there are five bodies with members elected by electoral districts called " constitue ...

of the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

. It elected two

Members of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MPs) by the bloc vote system of election.

History

The constituency was created by the

Great Reform Act The Representation of the People Act 1832 (also known as the 1832 Reform Act, Great Reform Act or First Reform Act) was an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom (indexed as 2 & 3 Will. IV c. 45) that introduced major changes to the electo ...

for the 1832 general election, when the former Durham constituency was split into the northern and southern divisions, each electing two members using the bloc vote system. The seat was abolished by the

Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 The Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 (48 & 49 Vict., c. 23) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was a piece of electoral reform legislation that redistributed the seats in the House of Commons, introducing the concept of equal ...

when the two divisions were replaced by eight single-member divisions. These were

Barnard Castle Barnard Castle (, ) is a market town on the north bank of the River Tees, in County Durham, Northern England. The town is named after and built around a medieval castle ruin. The town's Bowes Museum's has an 18th-century Silver Swan automato ...

, Bishop Auckland,

Chester-le-Street Chester-le-Street (), also known as Chester, is a market town and civil parish in County Durham, England, around north of Durham and also close to Sunderland and Newcastle upon Tyne. It is located on the River Wear, which runs out to sea at ...

, Houghton-le-Spring, Jarrow, Mid Durham,

North West Durham North West Durham is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 12 December 2019 by Richard Holden of the Conservative Party. Constituency profile The constituency is in the north west of County Durham ...

and South East Durham. In addition there were seven County Durham borough constituencies.

Boundaries

1832–1885 * The Wards of Darlington and Stockton, with a place of election at Darlington. ''See map on Vision of Britain website.'' From 1868, included non-resident 40 shilling freeholders in the parliamentary boroughs of Darlington, Stockton-on-Tees and

The Hartlepools The Hartlepools was a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. The constituency became Hartlepool in 1974. The seat's name reflected the representation of both old Hartlepool and West Hartlepool. Hist ...

, which were created by the

Reform Act 1867 The Representation of the People Act 1867, 30 & 31 Vict. c. 102 (known as the Reform Act 1867 or the Second Reform Act) was a piece of British legislation that enfranchised part of the urban male working class in England and Wales for the first ...

Members of Parliament

Election results

Elections in the 1830s

Elections in the 1840s

Elections in the 1850s

Elections in the 1860s

Elections in the 1870s

Elections in the 1880s

References

* * ''Boundaries of Parliamentary Constituencies 1885-1972'', compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Parliamentary Reference Publications 1972) * ''British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885'', compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Macmillan Press 1977) * ''The Parliaments of England'' by Henry Stooks Smith (1st edition published in three volumes 1844–50), second edition edited (in one volume) by F.W.S. Craig (Political Reference Publications 1973) * ''Who's Who of British Members of Parliament: Volume I 1832-1885'', edited by M. Stenton (The Harvester Press 1976) * ''Who's Who of British Members of Parliament, Volume II 1886-1918'', edited by M. Stenton and S. Lees (Harvester Press 1978) {{DEFAULTSORT:Durham South Parliamentary constituencies in County Durham (historic) Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1832 Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom disestablished in 1885