Darwen was a county constituency in Lancashire, centred on the town of Darwen. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1885 until it was abolished for the 1983 general election.
During the 1920s, the constituency was a fiercely contested marginal between the Liberal and Conservative Parties, with the sitting MP defeated at each election. At the 1924 general election, it saw a 92.7% turnout, a record for an English constituency. Following the defeat of Liberal leader Sir Herbert Samuel in 1935, the seat became a safe Conservative seat for the remainder of its existence.
It was largely replaced by the new Rossendale & Darwen constituency.
Boundaries 1885–1918: The Boroughs of Over Darwen and Blackburn, the Sessional Divisions of Darwen and Walton-le-Dale, and parts of the Sessional Divisions of Blackburn and Clitheroe.
1918–1950: The Borough of Darwen, the Urban District of Turton, and the Rural District of Blackburn.
1950–1955: The Borough of Darwen, the Urban Districts of Turton and Withnell, and the Rural District of Blackburn. Withnell Urban District was added from the pre-1950 Chorley constituency.
1955–1983: The St. Andrew's, St. Francis's and St. Mark's wards of the County Borough of Blackburn, the Borough of Darwen, the Urban District of Turton, and the Rural District of Blackburn.
Members of Parliament ElectionMemberParty 1885 James Gascoyne-Cecil Conservative 1892 Charles Philip Huntington Liberal 1895 Ald. John Rutherford Conservative Jan 1910 Frederick George Hindle Liberal Dec 1910 Ald. John Rutherford Conservative 1922 Sir Frank Bernard Sanderson Conservative 1923 Frederick Hindle Liberal 1924 Sir Frank Bernard Sanderson Conservative 1929 Sir Herbert Samuel Liberal 1935 Stuart Russell Conservative 1943 by-election Stanley Prescott Conservative 1951 Sir Charles Fletcher-Cooke Conservative 1983 constituency abolished
Election results
Elections in the 1880s
Elections in the 1890s
Elections in the 1900s
Elections in the 1910s
General Election 1914–15:
Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1915. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place and by July 1914, the following candidates had been selected; Unionist: John Rutherford Liberal: Frederick Hindle
Elections in the 1920s
Elections in the 1930s
Elections in the 1940s A General election was due to take place before the end of 1940, but was postponed due to the Second World War. By 1939, the following candidates had been selected to contest this constituency; Conservative: Stuart Russell Liberal: Phillip Rea Labour: Ronald Haines
Elections in the 1950s
Elections in the 1960s
Elections in the 1970s
See also 1943 Darwen by-election
References