Sowerby () 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 " constituen ...

centred on the village of Sowerby in

Calderdale Calderdale () is a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, England, which had a population of 211,439. It takes its name from the River Calder, and dale, a word for valley. The name Calderdale usually refers to the borough through which the ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a Metropolitan counties of England, metropolitan and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and east, South Yorkshire and De ...

. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, 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 ...

of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace ...

History

The constituency was created for the 1885 general election, and abolished for the 1983 general election, when it was largely replaced by the new Calder Valley constituency.

Boundaries

1885–1918: 1918–1950: The Municipal Borough of Todmorden, the Urban Districts of Barkisland, Hebden Bridge, Luddendenfoot, Midgley, Mytholmroyd, Rishworth, Sowerby, Sowerby Bridge, and Soyland, the Rural District of Todmorden, and the civil parish of Norland in the Rural District of Halifax. 1950–1983: The Municipal Borough of Todmorden, the Urban Districts of Elland, Hebden Royd, Ripponden, and Sowerby Bridge, and the Rural District of Hepton.

Members of Parliament

Elections

Elections in the 1880s

Elections in the 1890s

*Some sources describe Bailey as a Liberal Unionist.

Elections in the 1900s

*some sources describe as Liberal Unionist John_Higham

Elections in the 1910s

: An official Unionist candidate was selected ahead of the election, but when the writ for the election was issued, the Coalition Whips ordered the local Unionists to withdraw the candidate in favour of Higham – who was given the

Coalition Coupon The Coalition Coupon was a letter sent to parliamentary candidates at the 1918 United Kingdom general election, endorsing them as official representatives of the Coalition Government. The 1918 election took place soon after British victory in the ...

but then repudiated it. :Some local Unionists were angered by this state of affairs, and persuaded the local branch of the

NADSS The National Association of Discharged Sailors and Soldiers (NADSS) was a British veterans' organisation. The group was founded in early 1917 at a conference in Blackburn, drawing together various local groups representing working men who had ser ...

to sponsor Barker, who was known to be a Conservative. Barker then received considerable support from local Unionists during the campaign. There is no information on whether he took a whip in the House of Commons, but he voted fairly consistently with the coalition.

Elections in the 1920s

Elections in the 1930s

General Election 1939–40: Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1940. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place from 1939 and by the end of this year, the following candidates had been selected; *Conservative:

Malcolm McCorquodale Malcolm Stewart McCorquodale, 1st Baron McCorquodale of Newton, (29 March 1901 – 25 September 1971) was a British businessman and Conservative politician. Background and education McCorquodale was the son of Norman McCorquodale, of Winslow ...

*Labour: Cyril Hackett Wilkinson

Elections in the 1940s

Elections in the 1950s

Elections in the 1960s

Elections in the 1970s

References

* * Craig, F. W. S. (1983). British parliamentary election results 1918–1949 (3 ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. {{ISBN, 0-900178-06-X. Parliamentary constituencies in West Yorkshire (historic) Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1885 Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom disestablished in 1983 Politics of Calderdale