Page 29 - October 24

A pe��on in favour of a bill to reform the House of Commons in 1831 proposed that
Tamworth should lose one of its two seats, but Peel successfully resisted this and
eventually the proposal was withdrawn. However, the Reform Act 1832 did substan�ally
reduce the number of parliamentary boroughs in England and Wales by elimina�ng the
ro�en boroughs. Nevertheless, Peel retained his Tamworth seat under a new franchise and
represented it un�l his death in 1850. Members of his family represented the borough for
much of the nineteenth century.

The Redistribu�on of Seats Act 1885 finally reduced boroughs such as Tamworth from two
seats each to one, and so from 1885 to 1918 Tamworth sent a single MP to Westminster.
In this period the parliamentary boundary was defined as ‘The Municipal Borough of
Birmingham, the Sessional Divisions of Birmingham and Solihull, part of the Sessional
Divisions of Atherstone and Coleshill, and part of the Municipal Borough of Tamworth’.
Hampton-in-Arden was part of this.
From 1918 to 1945 the cons�tuency boundary was redefined as ‘The Municipal Borough
of Su�on Coldfield, the Rural Districts of Meriden and Solihull, and part of the Rural District
of Tamworth’ Once again this covered Hampton, then part of Meriden Rural District.
In 1945 the Tamworth cons�tuency was abolished with the crea�on of new seats for parts
of Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Birmingham and Solihull. Hampton ended up in the
sprawling Su�on Coldfield cons�tuency un�l 1955 when the new cons�tuency of Meriden
was created.
A new Tamworth cons�tuency was created for the elec�on of 1997, but this one was
wholly within Staffordshire.
Peter Green
Local History Group

Hampton in ArdenParishChurch B920AA
ChristmasisforLife,notjustforChristmas
• Aseries of 3 Bible Studies on what the
different Gospelwriters tell us about
Christmas
• In Church (or church vestrywhen it getscold)
• Sundayevenings:
nd
Sept 22 : St Matthew
th
Oct 27 : St Luke
th
Nov 24 : St John
• Starting at:
5pm for 11 to 21 yearolds
6.30pm for 18sand over

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