When Chorlton was in Moss Side

The year is 1978 and the Labour Party is defending its Moss Side seat in a byelection which was occasioned by the death of Frank Hatton who had won the seat for Labour  in February 1974.

George Morton and "team" in Chorlton, 1978

The Labour candidate was George Morton, who had served on both Manchester City Council and the Greater Manchester Council and lived locally.

There were four other candidates, drawn from the Conservative Party, the Liberal Party, and the National Front and the Workers Revolutionary Party, and the election was fought against a backdrop of growing industrial conflict, which has come to be remembered as the “the winter of discontent”.

Added to which the Labour Government had lost its slim majority of three in 1976 and entered a pact with the Liberal Party the following year, which lasted until September 1978.

Here in Moss Side and indeed in Chorlton, George was well received and the outcome of the election was a Labour victory, with George increasing his majority and share of the vote in the General Election which followed in 1979.

And for those who are pondering on the significance of a Moss Side story, that is because Chorlton was in the Moss Side Constituency.

The seat had been created in 1918 and was abolished in 1983 when changes to the Parliamentary boundaries moved Chorlton into Manchester Withington.

For most of its existence it returned a Tory MP, with the Liberals briefly winning the seat in the 1923 General Election only for the Conservatives to win it back a year later.

Campaigning in Moss Side, 1978

By 1929 the Labour Party had over taken the Liberals as the main contender to the Tories and across the next three General Elections achieved between 32% and 41% of the votes cast.

The seat was finally won by Labour in the landslide victory of 1945, when William Griffiths took the seat for Labour with 49% of the vote.

Sadly in Chorlton, Labour had to wait until 1986 for its first election victory, which was followed  a year later when Keith Bradly won Manchester Withington, giving Labour voters the double.

Location; Moss Side and Chorlton

Picture; George Morton campaigning in the by-election in Chorlton and Moss Side in 1978, with fellow MPs, the local organizer and volunteers, from the Lloyd Collection

“I make no rash promises …. promises never fulfilled and perhaps never meant to be” ……

Yesterday I wrote about the election campaign of Frank Beverley who stood as the candidate for the Chorlton-cum-Hardy Labour Party in the local elections of 1937.

At the time I had yet to uncover his election address containing the outline of what he stood for.

Happily today I have that address in front of me and it makes interesting reading, partly because of its honesty but also because the points he made 85 years ago have a resonance with the problems faced by many during this “Crisis in the cost of living” and the response of some in National Government.

So here it is, along with the endorsement by the Chorlton-cum-Hardy Labour Party.

He lost, and the story of that election can be read by following the link.

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Pictures; Election leaflet, courtesy of Cllr Mathew Benham 

*Mr. Frank Beverley ……. Chorlton-cum-Hardy .... 1937, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2023/01/mr-frank-beverley-chorlton-cum-hardy.html

Mr. Frank Beverley ……. Chorlton-cum-Hardy .... 1937

This is Frank Beverley, and in 1937 he stood as the Labour Party candidate in the Municipal Elections.

Vote for Frank Beverley, 1937

And to date there is little more I can find about him.

I think he was born in the January of 1911, and his parents were George and Ada who were living on Chester Road.  George Beverley was a cabinet maker and Frank was one of six children, and in the March of 1911, he was baptised in St Mathew’s Church.

After that a Frank Beverley is recorded in the 1939 Register as living in lodgings in Southport working as a tool maker.

There will be more but at present that is it.

Election material, 1980

Which brings me back to the 1937 election and his candidacy.  

According to the Manchester Guardian “Sixty-eight candidates – 31 Labour, 26 Conservatives, seven Liberals and four Independents were nominated for the elections, but as eight of them, four Labour, three Conservatives and one Liberal were returned unopposed there were contests in only 28 of the 36 wards into which the city is divided,”*

The results showed little change with the Tories gaining one extra seat, and Labour losing one with losses by the Liberals to both Conservative and Independent candidates.  

At the end of the night the new balance of power favoured the Tories, with 64 Conservative Councillors, 52 Labour, 22 Liberal and 6 Independents. 

I have yet to find Mr. Beverley’s election address, but the Manchester Guardian reported that “no single major issue is at stake and the campaign has largely resolved around the question of rates, and social services generally, although traffic congestion and exorbitant price demanded for land for rehousing on cleared sites near the centre of the city have had a good deal of attention from Liberal and Labour candidates.”**

The agreement between the Conservative and Liberals not to put up candidates against each other which had been a feature of the last all out Council elections in 1931 in an effort to maximize an anti Labour vote had broken down, but this did not impact on Labour’s result.

The result, 1937

As for Frank in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, he lost.  

The Tories polled 5,776 votes and Labour 2,052.

Undeterred he accepted the nomination to stand again in 1939 but withdrew in the October “owing to a change in his employment [and so] would be unable to contest the forthcoming election”***

It is unclear whether he was a member of the Chorlton branch, but the Party conveyed their best “thanks for past services and best wishes for his future success.” 

All of which suggests he was the Frank Beverley working in Southport.

Mr. Beverley, 1937

But that like so much about him remains to be discovered, including just who left the leaflet at the Town Hall for Cllr Mathew Benham who is one of the three elected Labour Councillors for Chorlton who as elected a full 85 years after Mr. Beverley contested the seat. 

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Pictures; Election leaflet, courtesy of Cllr Mathew Benham and election material from 1980, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Independents Gain Most in Manchester, Manchester Guardian, November 2nd, 1937

**Today’s Municipal Elections, Manchester Guardian, November 1st, 1937

***Minutes of the Chorlton-cum-Hardy Labour Party, October 11th, 1939.

Manchester Withington voted

One General Election …. a heap of strategies to pull off an all nighter….. and a new definition in growing old.

 I have voted in 14 General Elections and countless local ones along with some referendums.

Keith Bradley and some of the election team. June, 1987

And tonight, I am pondering on whether to accept the challenge and stay up to see the election end “by the dawn's early light”.

Actually, if my memory serves me right, almost half were seen out in a club booked for the purpose and open till there was no one left to buy a drink.

And in that memorable night when Labour first won the Manchester Withington seat in 1987 we followed the milkman home.

But the nights of euphoric victories were matched with those dismal ones when as the seats were declared you knew you had lost. 

Labour Party Poster, 1945

To these can be added those BBC exit polls which on the stroke of 10 declared a fail, leaving the assembled party to stare at each other leave their drinks and stumble into the night looking for a taxi and the oblivion of sleep.

And so it has been with the last three, when with the confirmation that it ain’t gone well  I haven’t even bothered to watch a moment of election news.

To this can be added that obvious reflection that staying up late at 74 is a challenge.

Polling Station, St Clements Road, Chorlton, 2022

But maybe tonight will be different, for even while I remain a tad hesitant at the plethora of opinion polls predicting a Labour victory there does seem something in the air.

Well we shall see.

But I will read the piece on BBC News “How to pull off an election all-nighter” as my guide if I should take up the challenge.*

After all anyone interested in the past should show a keen interest in watching a possible change which will go down in history.

Location; our setee

Picture; Keith Bradley and some of the election team. June, 1987, from the Manchester Evening News, Labour party Poster, 1945, Polling Station, St Clements Road, Chorlton, 2022

*How to pull off an election all-nighter, BBC News, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c047gr9mgxxo

Pictures with a story …………. Labour gains Manchester Withington, June 11, 1987

Now, I thought I had lost this photograph which was taken on the night Keith Bradley won Manchester Withington for the Labour Party.

And even given the passage of 32 years, I can name all but two of the people in the picture.

The election in Withington was a contest between, Labour, the Conservatives, the Liberals and the Greens.

Labour polled 21, 650, the Conservatives 18,259, the Liberals 9,978 and the Greens 524, giving Mr. Bradley a majority of 3,391.

The election returned the first Labour MP to the constituency and was notable for a campaign video which featured Keith and a selection of supporters.

Location; Manchester

Picture Keith Bradley and some of the election team. June, 1987, from the Manchester Evening News.

Forgotten election campaign posters nu 1 .......... 1979

Now the poster has faded with age.

Once, forty five years ago it sat in our window, moved after the election to a wall in the bathroom and finally got put away, only to be rediscovered today.

The message referred to the industrial conflicts which had led to the three day week during the previous Conservative Government under Mr Heath.

The result of the 1979 election was a victory for the Conservatives.

The history of that election, the subsequent three Tory victories and the final election of a Labour Government will be for another time.

Location; Britain

Picture; Labour election poster, 1979, in the collection of Andrew Simpson

Doing elections the old fashioned way ……………

It is a sobering thought that many things I took for granted and did regularly have become a bit of history as anachronistic as paying someone to wake me up by tapping on the window or turning on a gas lamp.

All the electoral extravaganza, 1986

And at 74 there are heaps of these, but on this day after yesterday’s elections I am drawn to how we managed and ran local election campaigns in the middle decades of the last century.

From 1966 into the early 2000s I was one of those "party workers” who tramped the streets knocking on doors, canvassing electoral preferences and on the day tirelessly working to ensure our candidate won.

And from 1981 to ’87 and again in the mid 1990s I ran the campaign as the Agent, which involved developing the local election strategy, preparing leaflets, overseeing things during the campaign and on the day, and making a financial return.

I suspect some elements are still the same today and cross party lines but back then it was the predigital age.

Calling card, Kirkdale Ward, 1946

All records compiled from canvassing were written up by hand by an army of members onto self-carbonised pads, known as Reading or Mikado pads and arranged by street.

The Election team, 1986

These were then laid out on long tables in the Committee Rooms and on the day were used to indicate who of your promises had voted and who had to be gently and politely reminded to vote.

This involved teams of “number snatchers” who sat for hours on polling stations on the day collecting the polling numbers of voters as they left.

This in itself was a logistic exercise given that we covered all the polling stations Chorlton from when the polls opened till they closed.

This left much of the day as a quiet one of receiving the information and crossing off names on the pads, which was interspersed with a bit of early knocking up of our promises, taking those who had requested assistance to get to the polling stations and a bit of leafleting with Vote Today leaflets.

Old fashioned leaflet, 1986

And depending on the availability of the team there might also be an early round of Vote Today leafletting before breakfast, matched with regular outings with the speaker cars, throughout the day.

All of which led up to the “big push” in the evening where a team linked to a car would take a specific area working it by visiting those who had yet to vote and taking some to the polling station.

At which point the team took charge of the Reading Pads in their area, deciding which to visit and revisit.

In the 1987 General Election this worked so well that by the evening all the promises had been visited on several occasions and there were few names that had not been crossed out, leaving the teams just to crisscross the ward in their cars emblazoned in party posters.

Polling Station, 2024

And during the campaign mindful of that old tradition of meeting the candidates, we still endeavoured to hold public meetings where the candidates introduced themselves, outlined the Party Programme and their own special interests along with answering questions.

Of all the elements of the campaign this one was sadly on the decline.  The growing emphasis on the national message over the local, combined with greater television election coverage and the development of “sound bites”  pushed the public meeting to the fringe.

Afterall on a wet April evening with a chill in the air, the attraction of sitting in a school hall on uncomfortable chairs lost out to the slick performance of a polished politician delivered via the Six o’clock News.

Today Manchester doesn’t count its votes till the following morning in a venue far from the Town Hall, and that has taken some of the drama out of waiting for the result, but must be welcomed by those who do the counting.

Chorlton has its firs Labour MP, Keith Bradley, 1987

Leaving me just to reflect that I always found the day after the election a huge anti-climax.  Win or lose the Agent only had to look forward to clearing the committee rooms, reengaging with family and friends and trying to fill the void.

And if the candidate were successful then the Agent also had to come to terms with being out of the spot light. 

Quite rightly everyone now looked to the newly elected candidate and within a few days the name of the Agent was forgotten.

So, while Dave Black will always be remembered as the first Labour Councillor elected for Chorlton Ward in 1986 his agent, Andrew Simpson has faded into obscurity, recorded only on the odd piece of election material to have survived as an imprint at the bottom of a leaflet.

Dave Black canvassing, 1986

But ever was it so.

Pictures; Chorlton has its first Labour MP, Keith Bradley, 1987, courtesy of Manchester Evening News, remaining images, 1946-2024, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Drama on election night in Manchester ……………. new Party makes gains and threatens the Establishment ………..

It is the sort of headline the media delights to run, and will follow up with acres of “in depth investigation”, penetrating discussion, and of course soundbites from members of the public.

Solidarity, 1887

Back in 1894, the Manchester Guardian was less dramatic, more measured and a tad dismissive of the election of the first two Labour candidates to the city council.

They were John Edward Sutton and Jessie Butler, both worked in the coal industry, and both were members of the recently formed Independent Labour Party which had been established to campaign for the election of working class candidates at local and Parliamentary elections.

The Manchester Guardian was quick to point out both men were the outsiders.  

Mr. Sutton who was standing in the Bradford Ward was up against a sitting councillor who had been elected unopposed since 1888, “when he defeated Liberals and independent candidates by a majority of considerably more than a thousand.”

In Openshaw which was the other Labour gain the seat had been won by the Liberals the previous year with a majority of over 700 votes.

Labour makes gains, 1894

But as ever the devil is in the detail, and the Bradford branch of the ILP had in the words of the Manchester Guardian “practically grown from nothing to its present strength in the course of the past three years”

Moreover, some of the working families in both wards would have owed their livelihood to the Bradford Colliery, and the year before the industry had faced a major national strike following the employer’s decision to cut coal miners wages by one quarter, while the Miner’s Federation demanded a “living wage” for the workforce.

ILP logo, 1893-1975

The industrial conflict grew bitter, troops were dispatched to some of the coalfields, and as tensions grew strikers at Featherstone in Yorkshire were fired on, with sixteen hit and two killed, while in Llanelly, in Wales “police  armed with cutlasses” guarded the colliery after the cavalry had been withdrawn.**

The strike ran through the summer of 1893, and concluded in the November, and it appears to have played a major part in both Mr. Sutton and Mr. Butler becoming involved in politics.  John Edward Sutton joined the ILP during the strike and by its end, was “has been one of the principle leaders at the Bradford branch of the Independent Labour Party”.

While for Mr. Butler who was an assistant to the secretary of the Miner’s Federation , it “was in part the action taken by the Labour Party on behalf of the miners which [led him] to become a member”. 

The ILP arrives, Manchester, 1894

Both contests were hard fought with the Conservatives in the Openshaw ward distributing leaflets which branded the ILP as a vote for “Socialism and Anarchy”, but as the Manchester Guardian observed “It is improbable, however that the working class electors in the ward, who are perfectly familiar with Mr. Butler were in the slightest  degree influenced by an appeal exhibiting such a limited amount of intelligence”.***

And in Bradford Ward, despite the Conservatives  having “for some years occupied a strong position in this ward, holding all three seats ……. A large section of the working men, however, have expressed dissatisfaction with [the Tory candidate] and they gave effect to their feeling by nominating Mr. Sutton and working energetically in his behalf”.

ILP gain, Bradford, Manchester, 1894

A degree of confidence which saw them continue to elect him to the City Council for almost 20 years and followed that up with electing him as the MP in 1910, again in 1922 and from 1923 through to 1931.

But for many on that night of November 1894 the ILP’s entry on to the Manchester electoral scene was something to savour.  

In total they got just over 10,000 votes spread out across the eleven wards they contested, and racked up some very decent three figure results, some of which like at Harpurhey brought them close to being the second party.

John Edward Sutton, date unknown

All of which were promises for the future, while at Bradford and Openshaw the promise had arrived.

John Edward Sutton secured 2072 votes, ahead of his Tory rival who achieved 1,757, which gave the ILP a majority of 335, and 54% share of the vote.

In Openshaw it was a closer contest with Labour winning by 22 votes, but that is not to diminish the result.

Such can be election dramas.

Location; Manchester, 1894

Pictures; Solidarity, Walter Crane, 1887, extract from the Manchester Guardian, November 2nd, 1894, Logo of the ILP, 1893-1975, Manchester election results, November, November 2nd, 1894, and John Edward Sutton, date unknown

*The Municipal Elections, Manchester, the Manchester Guardian, November 2nd, 1894

**The Coal Strike, the Manchester Guardian, September 26, 1893

***Salford Eccles A General survey of the elections, the Manchester Guardian, November 2nd, 1984

Who were the 18 Knighton electors ……. and how did they vote in 1841? ... Leicester snapshots

Now I have yet to find a portrait of any of the Knighton electors who were eligible to vote in the General Election of 1841.

Elections in 1836

I am confident that I might strike lucky given that they were the good and respectable of the township of Knighton, added to which there were just 18 of them.

This was out of a total adult population of 180, which if I have done my sums correctly represents just 10%, which was still better than the national average which in 1833 stood at 4%.

But this was still a time when only men could vote, and only men with a property qualification.

So, of our 18, three were farmers, one was an aristocrat and the rest were engaged in commerce and industry, leaving Mr. William Simmons who not only held land and houses, but was the landlord of the Dun Cow.

Unlike many places almost all of our electors lived in Knighton, with just three living elsewhere.

And by sifting through the census returns, old directories, and poll books it is possible to get an idea of who they were.*

William Simmons for instance was 50 years old, was married and had one son who was a butcher.

One of his near neighbours was Charles Simkin who was a farmer with 140 acres, employing three labourers, while out on the London Road lived Mr. Richard Warner Wood, who in 1841 was in the hosiery business, a decade later described himself as a “Land Proprietor”, and retired as a banker, leaving £16,000 on his death in 1867.

So far I know a bit about 12 of the 18, and in time will find out about the others.

Knighton in 1834

But the 12 are the ones who interests me because they actually voted in the General Election and I know who they voted for, because each had his votes recorded.

This was after all, a good three decades before voting was undertaken in secret, and votes were not only recorded, but seen to be so.

And that in turn might lead to difficult choices, where some electors were tenants or customers of the powerful landed interests.
Voting bribery and intimidation did go on, and the election described in Pickwick Papers chimes in well malpractices reported in the press.

The Manchester Guardian reported in the July of 1841, how “a long string of voters came up from Rathy a parish which is the property of the Earl of Stamford” which was in the same constituency as ours, “decorated with the colours of the Tory candidate and when asked of whom they voted, replied ‘I vote for the two that Lord Stamford supports’”.**

How Knighton voted in 1841

The 1841 Election saw a big swing to the Tory Party from the Whigs, who in the previous decade had pushed through a series of reforms, from the Great Reform Act, the abolition of slavery and the reorganization of the Poor Law.

But for some they now looked like “extinct volcanoes” and the result of the election was a Tory victory with the Tories gaining 53 extra seats and the Whigs losing 73, giving the Tories 51% of the total vote.

Here in Knighton our 12 followed the national trend, with seven voting for the two Tory candidates and the remaining five supporting the Whigs.

Across the constituency the result was pretty much the same, and the two Tory candidates were re-
elected.

All of which leaves me to go looking for any election material that has survived, and perhaps even a comment from one of the 12 on that election result.

We shall see.

Location; Knighton

Pictures; The Election at Eatanswill, Phiz (Hablot K. Browne), August 1836, the Pickwick Papers,  Knighton in 1834, from Greenwood’s map of Leicestershire, Greenwood’s Atlas, 1829-1834, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

*1841 Census, Enu 8 St Margaret, Leicestershire, Poll Book 1841, Directories 1841 & 1843

**Leicester South, Manchester Guardian, July 14th, 1841

Chorlton & Didsbury voted ….. Local elections May 2022

So yesterday we went to the polls.

Midday in the sun at the Polling Station, 2022

Once upon a time in Manchester the counts would be conducted on the night, and within a few hours the results would be known.

That immediacy added to the drama of the election.

After a long day of campaigning, a brief visit to the pub to thank all the volunteers, the candidate, agent and a small team would make their way into town and the Town Hall where the counts were undertaken.

And in some cases arriving at the same time as the ballot boxes.

The contents of those boxes would  then be delivered to the relevant "counting room", the ballot papers counted to verify that all had arrived,  followed by the serious business of counting each candidate's votes.

These would be put into bundles which would be stacked at the front, and as the count continued it would be possible to estimate who was winning.

The rest was the declaration of the winning candidate, some cheers, speeches from the winner and losers, and then into the night to celebrate or not at a venue booked in advance.

But now many local authorities choose to count the votes the following morning, when all, and most importantly those doing the counting are fresh.

All of which makes perfect sense but delays the results, and takes the edge off the drama while leaving  the candidate, a few more hours of waiting.

Still in the case of Manchester some of the results will be through by midday, unlike the remote parts of Scotland where we might have to wait days.

But nothing like that stretch of eternity in the 1945 General Election when the results of the "service votes" held in far away theatres of war took weeks to trickle home.

So, this blog story has come to you later in the day, courtesy of the Elections Office at the Town Hall and the Manchester Evening News.*

Leaving me just to reflect that turn out in the 4 seats was higher than in other parts of the city, with Chorlton on 41.21%, Chorlton Park on 36.73% , Didsbury East, 44.61% and Didsbury West at 44.61%.

And at the Manchester City Councils, Election site, you can trawl past local, national and European results, and for those even more nerdy there the election records on the Guardian newspaper site right back into the 19th century.

The Guardian results along with the Guardian and Manchester Guardian are available online from Manchester Public Libraries.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; Polling Stations, May 5th 2022, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Local Election Results, Manchester City Council, https://www.manchester.gov.uk/info/500329/elections/4981/the_next_election/3

Socialism in Suburbia …………. more stories of Chorlton, Withington and Didsbury

Socialism in Suburbia is a slim pamphlet of just fourteen pages and sadly to day is very difficult to obtain.*

Forward The Day Is Breaking, 1910

My copy comes courtesy of Jeff Bridson and is an electronic version of his photo stated pages, which look to have been copied many times.

The original was written by Rhys Davies MP, and published in 1930 by the National Co-operative Publishing Society.

It is a fascinating account of the early years of the Labour Party in the old Withington constituency which included Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Withington, and Didsbury.

Socialism in Suburbia, 1930

At the outset Mr. Davies reflected that this was “suburbia in excelsis; [which] has more rich, petty bourgeoisie within its borders than almost any other part of England”.  Added to which “there is hardly a trade union branch to be found anywhere; there are no industries of any kind within in its confines; it is a residential area throughout.  

But within this vast political province there are hundreds, if not thousands, of trade union officers by the score make their home here.  The Woodworkers Society’s head office is right in the heart of things, whilst the Typographical Association of the National Union of Distributive and Allied Workers, and the Ironfounders’ Society Headquarters are just on its boundaries”.

The story began with a meeting called by the Clarion newspaper in 1906, requesting that “Socialists of the commercialized districts, come together at a meeting at the White Lion”.

A dozen attended and later meetings were held in the home of Mr. C.W. Hunt who became a Labour representative on the local Board of Guardians, and amongst others who regularly attended were Dr. Tom Garrett and Mrs. Garrett who also sat on Chorlton Union Board as socialist Guardians.

At which point it is worth pointing out that here in Chorlton the first socialist society had been formed in 1894, and while the evidence is fragmentary, they were active throughout that decade and into the next. **

R.J. Davies, MP, date unknown

None of which detracts from Socialism in Suburbia which gives a detailed account of those early years including how campaigning was undertaken, the results of municipal and Parliamentary elections, and the difficulty of “converting Withington’s inhabitants to Labour and Socialism”, with Mr. Davies commenting that “The achievement of not losing our £150 deposit in 1929 was regarded as much a victory as winning Ardwick, Clayton Gorton Hulme or Platting would be to Labour adherent’s resident within those constituencies in Cottonopolis”.

Not that he was a stranger to political campaigning.

He was born in 1877 in Wales, began work as a farm servant, before becoming a coal miner for ten years and then a cashier “to a co-operative society in financial difficulties and began at once to organize co-operative employers into a trade union.  

After four years in co-operative service, he was offered a post in the central offices at Manchester of the old Amalgamated Union of Co-operative Employees” ***

R.J.Davies, speaking, 1945

His record in Manchester in the labour movement is impressive, having been President of the Manchester and Salford Trades Council, as well as the Manchester and Salford Labour Party, was a City Councilor for ten years, and then elected as MP for Westhoughton in 1921, a seat he held till his resignation due to ill health in 1950.

Reading his speeches, I am struck with the range of the issues he embraced, as well as his knowledge, passion and commitment.

He campaigned on worker’s rights, the cotton industry, international peace and the welfare of children as well as calling for a national homeland for Jewish people.

Nor was he afraid of criticizing senior Labour members of the wartime coalition government, as well as  voting against the Labour Government in 1947 over the introduction of National Conscription.

But he remained firmly committed to the Labour Party,  taking  great pride in the Labour landside of 1945, and was seen on the first day of the new Parliament “pushing and chuckling his way to the Chamber, calling to a friend “Heavens above.  It might be a Labour party conference’”. ****

Members of Withington CLP circa 1990s

All of which brings me back to his book, and his closing comments that “this Suburbia and home of Manchester’s intelligentsia might well be won for Labour”, which was indeed the case in 1987 when Mr. Keith Bradley took the seat from the Conservatives.

Location; Withington, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Didsbury

Pictures; Labour Party poster, 1910, front cover of Socialism in Suburbia, 1930, R.J Davies, date unknown, R.J. Davies,MP,  speaking in 1945, and members of Withington CLP, circa 1990s, from the collection of Andrew Simpson


*Davies, Rhys, Socialism in Suburbia, 1930

**Beedle, Lawrence, Chorlton’s Socialist History 1996

***The Staffordshire Sentinel, April 14th, 1925

****R.J. Davies, Manchester Guardian, November 3rd, 1954

Four elections … four results …… Chorlton & Didsbury

Now, I live in Chorlton and have fond memories of Didsbury, and so yesterday I posted a story on the elections in the four wards.

Elections in 1836

The results came out late, and while three had been declared, Chorlton Park missed the post.*

So here are all four, with a side ways look at past contests.**

Enough said.

Location; Chorlton & Didsbury

Pictures; The Election at Eatanswill, Phiz (Hablot K. Browne), August 1836, the Pickwick Papers, Muncipal Election results for Chorlton, Chorlton Park, Didsbury, East & Didsbury West from Manchester City Council

*Election results for Manchester City Council, 2021, https://www.manchester.gov.uk/electionresults

**Elections; https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Elections

How I miss local elections ………… May 2021 three of four ..... Chorlton and the Didsbury's

Now the blog does elections.* 

Over the years it has burrowed deep into both Parliamentary and local elections, explored who could vote over the last two centuries and reflected on the popularity of the main political parties.

And each year it does that little exercise of transcribing local results onto a spreadsheet and representing them as a series of graphs.

Nerdy I grant you, but it beat watching paint dry, and has the added bonus that it forms a neat set of history stories.

This year of course is a little different.  

The absence of elections last year because of Covid, and  the interest in the nationalist vote in Scotland along with the electoral success of the Labour Party have drawn in the experts, and pretty much anyone who thinks their opinion is worth listening to.

All this  combined with the variety of elections to different bodies has inevitably coined the term “Super Thursday”.

And the sheer number of elections has meant that some results will not be declared until Saturday.

So here as they have tumbled out of the count are the results for Chorlton,   Didsbury East and West with Chorlton Park  to follow. 

And breaking news, Labour hold at Chorlton Park  with over 3,000 votes. 

*Elections; https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Elections

**Election results for Manchester City Council, 2021, https://www.manchester.gov.uk/electionresults