Cleveland (UK Parliament constituency)

Cleveland
Former County constituency
for the House of Commons
1885 (1885)–February 1974 (February 1974)
Number of members	1
Replaced by	Cleveland and Whitby
Created from	North Riding of Yorkshire

Cleveland was a county constituency in the North Riding of Yorkshire.

Electorate

It returned one Member of Parliament to the British House of Commons, using the first past the post voting system. All elections were conducted with a secret ballot, which had been introduced under the Ballot Act 1872.

The franchise was initially restricted, and extended on several occasions:

• The Representation of the People Act 1884 gave a vote to adult males who met a property qualification; women, and about 40% of men, had no vote
• The Representation of the People Act 1918 extended the vote to all adult males and to women over the age of 30 who met certain property qualifications
• The Representation of the People Act 1928 allowed women to vote from age 21, on the same terms as men
• The Representation of the People Act 1948 abolished the plural votes previously granted to electors who met a property qualification because of their business or shop premises
• The Representation of the People Act 1969 lowered the voting age to 18

History

The Cleveland constituency was created when the North Riding of Yorkshire constituency was divided by the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, and Cleveland then covered the northern tip of the North Riding.

In 1918 it was redefined in terms of local government areas, and covered part of Guisborough Rural District and the Middlesbrough Rural District, along with the urban districts of Eston, Guisborough, Hinderwell, Loftus, Redcar, Saltburn by the Sea and Skelton and Brotton. In 1948 it was redefined again to cover Eston, Guisborough, Loftus, Redcar, Saltburn and Marske by the Sea and Skelton and Brotton; the new boundaries were first used for the 1950 general election.

It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom until it was abolished for the February 1974 general election.

It was largely replaced by the new Cleveland & Whitby constituency.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
1885		constituency created
	1885	Henry Fell Pease	Liberal
	1897 by-election	Alfred Edward Pease	Liberal
	1902 by-election	Herbert Samuel	Liberal
	1918	Sir Park Goff	Coalition Conservative
	1923	Sir Charles Walter Starmer	Liberal
	1924	Sir Park Goff	Unonist
	1929	William Thomas Mansfield	Labour
	1931	Robert Tatton Bower	Conservative
	1945	Octavius George Willey	Labour
	1952 by-election	Arthur Palmer	Labour
	1959	Wilfred Proudfoot	Conservative
	1964	James Tinn	Labour
Feb 1974		constituency abolished: see Cleveland & Whitby

References

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "C" (part 4)