Buckrose (UK Parliament constituency)

UK former constituency infobox
Name = Yorkshire, East Riding, Buckrose Division
Type = County
Year = 1885
Abolition = 1950
members = one

Buckrose was a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was a county constituency comprising the northern part of the East Riding of Yorkshire, represented by one Member of Parliament, and was created for the 1885 general election.

It was redefined in 1918 as covering the borough of Bridlington, the urban districts of Great Driffield, Filey, Norton and the rural districts of Bridlington, Great Driffield, Norton and Sherburn.

Buckrose was abolished for the 1950 general election, when boundary changes reduced the East Riding's number of county constituencies from three to two, the eastern part of the constituency and most of the voters being included in the new Bridlington constituency and the remainder in the Beverley constituency.

Boundaries

The constituency consisted of the northern third of the East Riding. The largest town was Bridlington, but the constituency also included Filey, Driffield and Norton, as well numerous villages, and the rural element was predominant. At the time of the 1921 census, almost two-fifths (38%) of the occupied male population were engaged in agriculture.

Name

Buckrose took its name from the wapentake of Buckrose, one of the medieval sub-divisions of the East Riding which, however, had long ceased to have much administrative significance by 1885, and had covered only part of the area of the constituency and a minority of its population. (The constituency also included the whole of the former wapentake of Dickering, which included Bridlington and Filey, and part of the wapentake of Harthill which included Driffield.) The name seems to have been chosen primarily to avoid offending any local sensibilities, and with little regard for comprehensibility (a criticism also levelled at many of the other new constituency names created under the 1885 Reform Act).

Members of Parliament

Notes

References

* F W S Craig, "British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-49" (Glasgow: Parliamentary Research Services, 1969)
* Michael Kinnear, "The British Voter" (London: Batsford, 1968)
* Frederic A Youngs, jr, "Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Vol II" (London: Royal Historical Society, 1991)
* "The Constitutional Yearbook, 1913" (London: National Unionist Association, 1913)
*