Great Yarmouth (UK Parliament constituency) explained

Great Yarmouth
Parliament:	uk
Year:	1950
Type:	County
Elects Howmany:	One
Electorate:	70,077 (2023)^[1]
Year2:	1885
Abolished2:	1950
Type2:	Borough
Elects Howmany2:	One
Year3:	1295
Abolished3:	1868
Type3:	Borough
Elects Howmany3:	Two
Region:	England
County:	Norfolk
Next3:	East Suffolk North Norfolk
Previous2:	East Suffolk North Norfolk

Great Yarmouth is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom since the 2024 general election by Rupert Lowe of Reform UK.

History

The Parliamentary Borough of Great Yarmouth had been represented by two members of parliament (MPs) in the House of Commons of England from 1295 to 1707, in the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800, and in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom from 1801. The borough was unaffected by the Great Reform Act of 1832, but it was disenfranchised for corruption by the Reform Act 1867,^[2] when its voters were absorbed into the North Division of the Parliamentary County of Norfolk.

The seat was re-established as a single-member Borough by the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885^[3] and remained unchanged until the Representation of the People Act 1948, which came into effect for the 1950 general election. This abolished the Parliamentary Borough and replaced it with the County Constituency of Yarmouth, which incorporated the County Borough and surrounding rural areas.

Further to the local government reorganisation of 1974, which was reflected in the redistribution of seats which came into effect for the 1983 general election, the constituency was formally renamed Great Yarmouth and its boundaries coincided with those of the local authority of the Borough of Great Yarmouth. It has remained unchanged since then.

Boundaries and boundary changes

1885–1918

• The Municipal Borough of Great Yarmouth, including the parish of Gorleston, and part of the parish of Runham.^[4]

1918–1950

• The County Borough of Great Yarmouth.

1950–1974

• The County Borough of Great Yarmouth; and
• The Rural District of Blofield and Flegg except the civil parishes of Great and Little Plumstead, Postwick, and Thorpe-next-Norwich (later renamed Thorpe St Andrew).^[5]

The parts of the Rural District of Blofield and Flegg had previously been included in the abolished Eastern Division of Norfolk.

1974–1983

• The County Borough of Great Yarmouth; and
• the Rural District of Blofield and Flegg.^[6]

The remaining parishes of the Rural District of Blofield and Flegg were transferred from the abolished constituency of Central Norfolk.

1983–present

• The Borough of Great Yarmouth.^[7]

Thorpe St Andrew was transferred to Norwich North and remaining western parts to the new constituency of Mid Norfolk. Gained a small area from the abolished Suffolk constituency of Lowestoft, including Bradwell, which had been transferred to Norfolk as a result of the local government reorganisation of 1974, as laid out in the Local Government Act 1972.

The boundaries were unchanged by the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies.^[8]

The constituency covers the area in and around Great Yarmouth in Norfolk. Despite its rural area, there is a substantial amount of industry in the constituency.

Members of Parliament

Great Yarmouth borough

Great Yarmouth was a 2-seat constituency until 1868 when it was disenfranchised. It was recreated for the 1885 general election as a single-seat constituency.

MPs 1295–1640

Year	First member	Second member
1309	Nicholas Fastolf
1314	Nicholas Fastolf
1321	John Perbroun
1324	John Perbroun
1361	Hugh Fastolf
1366	Hugh Fastolf
1373	Hugh Fastolf
1377 (Jan)	Hugh Fastolf
1377 (Oct)	Hugh Fastolf
1385	Ralph Ramsey
1386	Ralph Ramsey	John Beketon^[9]
1388 (Feb)	Ralph Ramsey	John Ellis
1388 (Sep)	Ralph Ramsey	John Hacon
1390 (Jan)	Ralph Ramsey	John Ellis
1390 (Nov)
1391	Ralph Ramsey	John Hacon
1393	John Hacon	John Ellis
1394
1395	Ralph Ramsey	Hugh Fenn
1397 (Jan)	Richard Cley	Hugh Fenn
1397 (Sep)	Ralph Ramsey	William Oxney
1399	John Beketon	Hugh Fenn
1401
1402
1404 (Jan)	Roger Adams	Geoffrey Pamping
1404 (Oct)
1406	Robert Ellis	Henry Rafman
1407	Robert Clere	Peter atte Fenn
1410	William Parker	Alexander atte Gapp
1411	Nicholas Cates	Peter Atte Fenn
1413 (Feb)
1413 (May)	William Oxney	Alexander atte Gapp
1414 (Apr)
1414 (Nov)	Geoffrey Pamping	Robert Ellis
1415
1416 (Mar)
1416 (Oct)
1417	Henry S[pitling]	Richard [?Ellis]
1419	William Colkirk	John Cranley
1420	Thomas Dengaine	Robert Ellis
1421 (May)	Thomas Covehithe	Robert Ellis
1421 (Dec)	Richard Ellis	Robert Cupper
1455	Richard Southwell^[10]
1478	John Paston
1491	Robert Crowmer^[11]
1504	Thomas More^[12]
1510-1523	No names known^[13]
1529	Humphrey Wingfield	John Ladde, died and replaced 1353 or 1354 by Philip Bernard
1536	?	?
1539	?	?
1542	Sir Humphrey Wingfield	William Burgh
1545	Sir William Woodhouse	Robert Eyre
1547	Sir William Woodhouse	Robert Eyre
1553 (Mar)	Sir William Woodhouse	Nicholas Firmage
1553 (Oct)	Robert Eyre	Simon More
1554 (Apr)	William Bishop	John Echard
1554 (Nov)	Thomas Hunt	William Mayhew
1555	Nicholas Fen	Cornelius Bright
1558	Sir Thomas Woodhouse	William Barker^[14]
1558–9	Sir Thomas Woodhouse	William Barker
1562	William Grice	Thomas Timperley
1571	William Barker	William Grice
1572	William Grice	John Bacon, died and replaced Feb 1576 by Edward Bacon
1584	William Grice	Thomas Damet
1586	William Grice	Thomas Damet
1588	John Stubbe or Stubbs	Roger Drury
1593	Thomas Damet	John Felton
1597	Henry Hobart	John Felton
1601	Henry Hobart	Thomas Damet
1604–1611		John Wheeler
1614		George Hardware
1621–1622		Edward Owner
1624		George Hardware
1625		Edward Owner
1626		Thomas Johnson
1628		Sir John Wentworth
1629–1640	No Parliaments convened

MPs 1640–1868

Election		First member	First party		Second member	Second party
April 1640		Miles Corbet	Parliamentarian		Edward Owner	Parliamentarian
November 1640
December 1648				Owner not recorded as sitting after Pride's Purge
1653	Great Yarmouth was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament
1654		Colonel William Goffe			Thomas Dunn
1656		Charles George Cook	<	-- party -->		William Burton	<	-- party -->
January 1659
May 1659	Great Yarmouth was unrepresented in the restored Rump
April 1660		Sir John Potts			Sir William D'Oyly	<	-- party -->
1661		Sir William Coventry	<				-- party -->
1678					Sir Thomas Medowe
February 1679					Richard Huntington	<	-- party -->
August 1679		George England	<				-- party -->
1681					Sir James Johnson
1685		Sir William Cook			John Friend
1689		George England	<	-- party -->		Samuel Fuller
1698					John Nicholson
January 1701					Samuel Fuller
November 1701		John Burton			John Nicholson	<	-- party -->
1702		Benjamin England
1708		Roger Townshend			Richard Ferrier	<	-- party -->
1709		Nathaniel Symonds
1710		George England	<				-- party -->
1715					Horatio Townshend
1722		Hon. Charles Townshend			Horatio Walpole	<	-- party -->
1723		William Townshend	<				-- party -->
1734					(Sir) Edward Walpole^[15]	<	-- party -->
1738		Roger Townshend	Patriot Whig
1747		Hon. Charles Townshend
1756		Charles Townshend	<				-- party -->
1768					Hon. Richard Walpole
1784		Captain Sir John Jervis^[16]			Henry Beaufoy	<	-- party -->
1790		Charles Townshend
1795					Brigadier Stephens Howe	Tory^[17]
May 1796		Lord Charles Townshend killed by brother, 1796	Tory
October 1796		Major-General William Loftus	Tory		Henry Jodrell	Tory
1802		Captain Sir Thomas Troubridge^[18]			Thomas Jervis
1806		Hon. Edward Harbord	Tory		Dr Stephen Lushington	Tory
1808					Giffin Wilson	Whig
1812		William Loftus	Tory		Edmund Lacon	Tory
1818		Thomas Anson	Whig		Charles Rumbold	Whig
1819		Hon. George Anson	Whig
1835		Thomas Baring	Conservative		W. Mackworth Praed	Conservative
1837		Charles Rumbold	Whig		William Wilshere	Whig
1847 ^[19]		Lord Arthur Lennox	Conservative		Octavius Coope	Conservative
1848		Joseph Sandars	Conservative		Charles Rumbold	Whig^[20] ^[21] ^[22] ^[23]
1852		Sir Edmund Lacon	Conservative
March 1857^[24]		William McCullagh	Independent Whig^[25] ^[26] ^[27]		Edward Watkin	Radical^[28] ^[29] ^[30]
August 1857		Adolphus William Young	Whig		John Mellor	Whig^[31] ^[32]
1859		Sir Edmund Lacon, Bt	Conservative		Sir Henry Stracey, Bt	Conservative
1865					James Goodson	Conservative
1868	Constituency disfranchised for corruption

MPs 1885–1950

• 1885: Constituency revived, electing only a single member

Election		Member	Party
1885		Sir Henry Tyler	Conservative
1892		James Marshall Moorsom	Liberal
1895		Sir John Colomb	Conservative
1906		(Sir) Arthur Fell	Conservative
1922		Arthur Harbord	Liberal
1924		Sir Frank Meyer	Conservative
1929		Sir Arthur Harbord	Liberal
1931			Liberal National
1941 by-election		Percy Jewson	Liberal National
1945		Ernest Kinghorn	Labour
1950	Great Yarmouth borough abolished: new county constituency named Yarmouth

Yarmouth County Constituency

MPs 1950–1974

Election		Member	Party
1950		Ernest Kinghorn	Labour
1951		Anthony Fell	Conservative
1966		Hugh Gray	Labour
1970		Anthony Fell	Conservative
1983	Constituency renamed Great Yarmouth

Great Yarmouth County Constituency

MPs since 1983

Election		Member	Party
1983		Michael Carttiss	Conservative
1997		Tony Wright	Labour
2010		Sir Brandon Lewis	Conservative
2024		Rupert Lowe	Reform UK

Elections

Elections in the 1910s

* Wilson - who stood as a 'Patriotic Trade Unionist's and Seamen's' candidate - supported the Coalition Government and was supported by the National Sailors' and Firemen's Union. He claimed to have been adopted by both the Liberal Party and National Democratic and Labour Party, but only appeared on the former's official list.** Dawson initially was endorsed by the National Federation of Discharged and Demobilized Sailors and Soldiers who then repudiated him.

Election results 1885-1918

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: Arthur Fell
• Liberal:

Election results 1832-1868

Elections in the 1830s

Wilshere resigned, causing a by-election.

Elections in the 1840s

The election of Lennox and Coope was declared void on petition on 14 February 1848 due to bribery, causing a by-election.^[33]

Elections in the 1850s

The election was declared void on petition due to bribery by McCullagh and Watkin's agents, causing a by-election.^[34]

Elections in the 1860s

Extensive bribery was found in the seat and its right to return a member was lost. It was then incorporated into East Suffolk and North Norfolk.

See also

• List of parliamentary constituencies in Norfolk
• Yarmouth (Isle of Wight) (UK Parliament constituency)

Sources

• Robert Beatson, A Chronological Register of Both Houses of Parliament (London: Longman, Hurst, Res & Orme, 1807) A Chronological Register of Both Houses of the British Parliament, from the Union in 1708, to the Third Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, in 1807
• D Brunton & D H Pennington, Members of the Long Parliament (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954)
• Cobbett's Parliamentary history of England, from the Norman Conquest in 1066 to the year 1803 (London: Thomas Hansard, 1808) titles A-Z
• The Constitutional Year Book for 1913 (London: National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations, 1913)
• F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885 (2nd edition, Aldershot: Parliamentary Research Services, 1989)
• F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949 (Glasgow: Political Reference Publications, 1969)
• Maija Jansson (ed.), Proceedings in Parliament, 1614 (House of Commons) (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1988) Proceedings in Parliament, 1614 (House of Commons)
• J E Neale, The Elizabethan House of Commons (London: Jonathan Cape, 1949)

External links

• Great Yarmouth UK Parliament constituency (boundaries April 1997 – April 2010) at MapIt UK
• Great Yarmouth UK Parliament constituency (boundaries April 2010 – May 2024) at MapIt UK
• Great Yarmouth UK Parliament constituency (boundaries from June 2024) at MapIt UK

Notes and References

1. Web site: The 2023 Review of Parliamentary Constituency Boundaries in England – Volume two: Constituency names, designations and composition – Eastern . Boundary Commission for England . 26 June 2024 . dmy .
2. Web site: The Representation of the People Act, 1867.
3. Book: Great Britain, Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for England and Wales. The public general acts. Proprietors of the Law Journal Reports, 1884. unknown library. en.
4. Book: . The Public General Acts of the United Kingdom passed in the forty-eighth and forty-ninth years of the reign of Queen Victoria . https://archive.org/details/publicgeneralac01walegoog/page/n113/mode/2up . London . Eyre and Spottiswoode . 111–198 . 1885 . Chap. 23. Redistribution of Seats Act, 1885 .
5. Web site: Representation of the People Act, 1948. www.legislation.gov.uk. en. 2019-03-11.
6. Web site: The Parliamentary Constituencies (England) Order 1970. www.legislation.gov.uk. 2019-03-11.
7. Web site: The Parliamentary Constituencies (England) Order 1983. www.legislation.gov.uk. 2019-03-11.
8. Web site: The Parliamentary Constituencies Order 2023 . Schedule I Part 2 Eastern region.
9. Web site: History of Parliament. 2011-10-11.
10. Book: Davis, Norman. The Paston Letters: A Selection in Modern Spelling.
11. Book: The English Parliaments of Henry VII. 2012-03-17. 9780191610264. Cavill. P. R.. 2009-08-13. OUP Oxford.
12. Web site: History of Parliament. 2011-10-13.
13. Web site: History of Parliament. 2011-10-11.
14. Web site: History of Parliament. 2011-10-11.
15. Knighted (KB), 1753
16. Rear-Admiral from 1787
17. Book: Stooks Smith , Henry. . . The Parliaments of England . 1844-1850 . 2nd . 1973 . Parliamentary Research Services . Chichester . 0-900178-13-2 . 229–231 .
18. Rear-Admiral from 1804
19. The result of the 1847 election was declared void on petition, and a by-election was held
20. Web site: Escott. Margaret. RUMBOLD, Charles Edmund (1778–1857), of Woodhall Park, Watton, Hets.. The History of Parliament. 13 May 2018.
21. Book: Mosse. Richard Bartholomew. The Parliamentary Guide: a concise history of the Members of both Houses, etc. 1838. 13 May 2018. 219, 239.
22. Book: Edward. Churton. Edward Churton. The Assembled Commons or Parliamentary Biographer: 1838. 1838. Scott, Webster and Geary. 238, 197.
23. News: Great Yarmouth. 13 May 2018. Carlisle Journal. 14 July 1848. 3. British Newspaper Archive. subscription .
24. The result of the 1857 election was declared void on petition, and writ for a by-election was issued. No by-election was necessary as only two candidates were nominated, and they were returned unopposed.
25. Book: Howe. Anthony. Morgan. Simon. Bannerman. Gordon. The Letters of Richard Cobden: Volume II ~ 1848–1853. 2007. Oxford University Press. Oxford. 978-0-19-921196-8. 284. 13 May 2018.
26. 57. Torrens, William Torrens McCullagh. MacDonagh. Michael.
27. Book: Eldridge. C. C.. England's Mission: The Imperial Idea in the Age of Gladstone & Disraeli, 1868–1880. 1973. Palgrave Macmillan. London. 978-1-349-01879-6. 118. https://books.google.com/books?id=GJOuCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA118. 13 May 2018. England's Mission.
28. Greaves. John. Sir Edward Watkin and the Liberal Cause in the Nineteenth Century. Journal of Liberal History. Summer 2007. 55. 27. 13 May 2018.
29. Web site: Speller. John. Sir Edward Watkin. John Speller's Web Pages. 13 May 2018. 13 May 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180513224119/https://spellerweb.net/rhindex/UKRH/GreatCentral/SirEdward.html. dead.
30. Book: Hodgkins. David. The Second Railway King: The Life and Times of Sir Edward Watkin, 1819–1901. 2002. Merton Priory Press. 978-1898937494.
31. News: [Title not available]]. 13 May 2018. Coventry Standard. 13 March 1857. 4. British Newspaper Archive. subscription .
32. News: [Title not available]]. 13 May 2018. Coventry Standard. 27 March 1857. 4. British Newspaper Archive. subscription .
33. News: Dundee, Perth, and Cupar Advertiser . 5 November 2018 . 18 February 1848 . 2 . British Newspaper Archive. subscription .
34. News: The Yarmouth Committee. 13 May 2018. Norwich Mercury. 1 August 1857. 3. British Newspaper Archive. subscription .