Wikipedia:WikiProject UK Parliament constituencies/Official names of United Kingdom Parliamentary constituencies

The official names of United Kingdom Parliamentary constituencies (some of which originate from the names used for constituencies in predecessor Parliaments) are those given in the legal instrument creating the constituency or re-defining it at a re-distribution of seats.

The purpose of this article is to set out official names, taken from official sources wherever possible, to provide a definitive list which can then be used as a resource by those constructing constituency articles and other lists involving constituencies. It is requested that no amendments be made to the list, without a citation from the legal instrument creating a constituency, which has a greater validity than the source currently being used.

Sources of official names
The instruments creating or redistributing constituencies can be classified as:-


 * 1) Writs from the monarch requiring the election of members. This was the method used originally, from the thirteenth century, to summon the representatives of new communities to contribute to the Parliament of England. It is now obsolete as a method of creating new constituencies, but a writ is still sent as official notice of an election to the returning officer for each constituency.
 * 2) A Royal Charter creating a Parliamentary borough. This was a method often used up to the mid seventeenth century. It is now obsolete as a means of creating new constituencies.
 * 3) An Act of Parliament. This method was used from the sixteenth century creation of constituencies in Wales and Monmouthshire until the Representation of the People Act 1948 implemented the first general review of constituencies by the Parliamentary boundary commissions.
 * 4) An Order in Council, made under the authority given by an Act of Parliament. This is the modern method of giving legal effect to redistributions, as a result of the activities of the Parliamentary boundary commissions. The current fifth general review has already been implemented for Scotland (before the United Kingdom general election, 2005) and for Wales (for the next general election); the reviews for England and Northern Ireland have legal effect as of June 27, 2007.

The concept of a single definitive name for a constituency developed gradually. There are discrepancies in the way constituencies are referred to in statutes before the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, which for the first time included a list of all the then constituencies in one piece of legislation. There are also instances of more than one constituency with the same name, but no consistent official method to disambiguate them.

The method of referring to constituencies in the 1885 Act and subsequent statutes redistributing seats was not completely unambiguous, until the Representation of the People Act 1948 gave each individual constituency an absolutely clear and distinctive name. This practice has been followed in the Orders in Council used for redistributions from 1955.

The method adopted in this article is to include the name most commonly used, for constituencies created before 1832. In a few instances a similar choice is made between different versions of the name of a new constituency, used in the Representation of the People Act 1832 (enfranchising the new constituencies) and the Parliamentary Boundaries Act 1832 (defining the limits of the new constituencies).

Where there was a risk of confusion between different constituencies with the same or very similar names an unofficial prefix or suffix is added. In a few cases, such as Richmond (Surrey) and Richmond (Yorks) there was an official suffix. In a few other cases, such as City of London and the county constituency of City of Chester an official prefix was used even though it was not essential for disambiguation. When the prefix or suffix is unofficial it is given in the list below in italics.

General redistributions
Although local changes between general redistributions are not unknown, major changes amounting to a general redistribution of constituencies happen at intervals. Before 1832 such general changes only happened when new parts of the British Isles entered a Union with others.

The 'From' date is when the constituencies from a country became constituencies in the Parliament and the 'Until' date is when that distribution of seats ceases to apply. In this table, Great Britain means England, Wales and Scotland and United Kingdom (UK) means Great Britain and Northern Ireland (all of Ireland before 1921).

List of official constituency names
The number given for each redistribution, in which the constituency name was in use, was the number of members it returned. When the constituency name was not in use an * is used.

Even minor differences in a constituency name will produce an individual entry in the table.

Changes in a constituency name in use between redistributions are indicated by footnotes.

England
For the list of English constituencies see Official names of United Kingdom Parliamentary constituencies in England.

The names for the 1707 constituencies are, in general, taken from Namier and Brookes. The alternative forms for names, used in legislation abolishing some of the pre-1832 constituencies or in the case of Mitchell in common use as an alternative name, are included in the note column.

Wales
This section includes Monmouthshire, which before the twentieth century was usually officially considered to be in England.

A number of Welsh borough constituencies were composed of more than one borough. These are designated with the name of the principal town followed by 'Boroughs', before 1918. The one remaining such district after 1918 was officially designated as 'District of Boroughs'. A constituency based on one borough is considered to be distinct from a Boroughs constituency with the same principal town.

The 1955 redistribution altered some boundaries, but did not affect the number or names of constituencies, so there is no column for it in this table.

Scotland
Names for district of burghs constituencies from 1708 to 1832 are based upon the returning burgh in the district at the British general election, 1708. A former district constituency is considered to be distinct from a constituency based solely on the burgh in the former district name.

The Parliament of Scotland passed an Act Settling the Manner of Electing the Sixteen Peers and Forty Five Commoners to Represent Scotland in the Parliament of Great Britain in 1707. This defined the constituencies. The county constituencies are referred to as the "Shires or Stewartries" and the pairs of constituencies, electing a representative in alternate Parliaments, are referred to as (for example) "the shires of Clackmannan and Kinross".

The Representation of the People (Scotland) Act 1832 has a list of county constituencies, the main group of which are each referred to in a list headed "Counties to return one member each". The counties in the list are referred to in the form 'Aberdeen' rather than 'Aberdeenshire'. In other places the act refers to shires and counties. There is a definition clause (section XLVI) which confirms that the words "shire" or "county" should be held to include the word "stewartry".

County constituencies created in 1708, which have a name (minus the suffix shire) which is the same as a burgh constituency which exists at the same time are prefixed as the Shire of. Those created in 1832 in similar circumstances are prefixed as the County of. Individual burghs with the same name, which overlap, are prefixed by Burgh of. The suffixes 'Burghs', 'District of Burghs' and 'burghs' are not in italics, as they are a more official part of the constituency name.

Ireland
General Notes:-

(a) This section includes the whole of Ireland 1801-1922 and Northern Ireland from 1922.

(b) The names used for the constituencies are based on B.M. Walker (subject to a few minor modifications when they were checked against the statutes).

The problem in compiling a list is how to disambiguate borough and county constituencies, with the same name, whose existence overlapped. No consistent method is applied in the nineteenth century statutes. The list below includes an appropriate prefix (Borough of, City of or County) to supplement the name. This prefix is not necessarily part of the official name of the constituency. In later periods when there ceased to be two constituencies of the same name, only the name without any prefix is used.

(c) No columns are included for 1868, 1955, 1974 or the 2010 general election. Those potential redistributions did not alter the number of seats or names of constituencies, although some altered boundaries.