Tewkesbury is a constituency in Gloucestershire represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2024 by Cameron Thomas, a Liberal Democrat.
History
1610 to 1918
Tewkesbury existed in this period, first in the parliamentary borough form. It returned two MPs until this was reduced to one in 1868, then saw itself become instead a larger county division under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, before it was abolished in 1918.
;Prominent politicians
- William Dowdeswell was Chancellor of the Exchequer for two years under Rockingham, and his short tenure of this position appears to have been a successful one, he being in Lecky's words a good financier, but nothing more. To general astonishment, he refused to abandon his friends and to take an office under The 1st Earl of Chatham ("Pitt the Elder"), who succeeded Rockingham in August 1766. Dowdeswell then led the Rockingham party in the House of Commons, taking an active part in debate until his death. In 1774 he warned MPs against passing the Boston Port Act, related to the later Boston Tea Party.
- Charles Hanbury-Tracy was heir to much of the Pontypool part the growing iron industry and served as the chairman of the commission of 1835 that commissioned the new Houses of Parliament and judged designs.
- After service for Tewkesbury Frederick Lygon, 6th Earl Beauchamp entered the Lords and then served in Cabinet positions under the earlier governments headed by Lord Salisbury, before the turn-of-the century third government.
1997 to date
The Fourth periodic review of Westminster constituencies in 1997 saw the seat's recreation when the number of constituencies in Gloucestershire was increased from five to six. It was primarily formed from a minority of the larger county division Cirencester and Tewkesbury, together with parts of West Gloucestershire and Cheltenham.
Boundaries
1885–1918: The Municipal Boroughs of Gloucester and Tewkesbury, the Sessional Divisions of Berkeley, Cheltenham, Gloucester, Tewkesbury, and Winchcombe, part of the Sessional Division of Whitminster, and the parish of Slimbridge.
1997–2010: The Borough of Tewkesbury wards of Ashchurch, Bishop's Cleeve East, Bishop's Cleeve North, Bishop's Cleeve South, Brockworth Glebe, Brockworth Moorfield, Brockworth Westfield, Churchdown Brookfield, Churchdown Parton, Churchdown Pirton, Cleeve Hill, Coombe Hill, Crickley, De Winton, Dumbleton, Gotherington, Horsbere, Innsworth, Shurdington, Tewkesbury Mitton, Tewkesbury Newtown, Tewkesbury Prior's Park, Tewkesbury Town, Twyning, and Winchcombe, and the Borough of Cheltenham wards of Leckhampton with Up Hatherley, Prestbury, and Swindon.
2010–2024: The Borough of Tewkesbury wards of Ashchurch with Walton Cardiff, Badgeworth, Brockworth, Churchdown Brookfield, Churchdown St John's, Cleeve Grange, Cleeve Hill, Cleeve St Michael's, Cleeve West, Coombe Hill, Hucclecote, Innsworth with Down Hatherley, Isbourne, Northway, Oxenton Hill, Shurdington, Tewkesbury Newtown, Tewkesbury Prior's Park, Tewkesbury Town with Mitton, Twyning, and Winchcombe, the Borough of Cheltenham wards of Prestbury and Swindon Village, and the City of Gloucester ward of Longlevens.
2024–present: Further to the 2023 review of Westminster constituencies which came into effect for the 2024 general election, the constituency is composed of the following (as they existed on 1 December 2020):
- The Borough of Cheltenham wards of: Prestbury; Springbank; Swindon Village.
- The City of Gloucester wards of: Elmbridge; Longlevens.
- The Borough of Tewkesbury wards of: Cleeve Grange; Cleeve Hill; Cleeve St. Michael's; Cleeve West; Innsworth; Isbourne; Northway; Severn Vale North; Severn Vale South; Tewkesbury East; Tewkesbury North & Twyning; Tewkesbury South; Winchcombe.
In order to bring the electorate within the permitted range, the area between the city of Gloucester and the town of Cheltenham, including the communities of Badgeworth, Brockworth, Churchdown and Shurdington, was included in the newly created constituency of North Cotswolds. To partly compensate, the Springbank and Elmbridge wards were transferred in from the Cheltenham and Gloucester seats respectively.
As its name suggests, the main town in the constituency is Tewkesbury, but other settlements include Twyning, Ashchurch, Bishop's Cleeve, Winchcombe, Prestbury, Swindon, Innsworth, Longlevens and Elmbridge.
Constituency profile
The town has a raised centre with the second largest parish church in the country that is the church of a former Benedictine monastery, named Tewkesbury Abbey, the town also has its own mustard and July medieval battle festival. Workless claimants, registered jobseekers, were in November 2012 significantly lower than the national average of 3.8%, at 2.2% of the population based on a statistical compilation by The Guardian.
Members of Parliament
MPs 1610–1629
- Constituency created (1610)
The constituency was enfranchised on 23 March 1610 – the first record of its members sworn is 16 April 1610.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Parliament!!First member!!Second member
|-
| Parliament of 1604–1611 (1610)
|rowspan="6"|Sir Dudley Digges
| Edward Ferrers
|-
|Addled Parliament (1614)
| Sir John Ratcliffe
|-
|Parliament of 1621–1622
|Giles Brydges
|-
|Happy Parliament (1624–1625)
|rowspan="4"|Sir Baptist Hicks
|-
|Useless Parliament (1625)
|-
|Parliament of 1625–1626
|-
|Parliament of 1628–1629
|rowspan="2"|Sir Thomas Colepeper
|-
| May 1628
|Sir William Hicks
|-|colspan="4"|No Parliament summoned 1629–1640
|-
|}
MPs 1640–1868
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Year!!!!First member!!First party!!!!Second member
|-
|August 1641
|rowspan="2" style="color:inherit;background-color: " |
|rowspan="2"| Sir Robert Cooke||rowspan="2"| Parliamentarian
|style="color:inherit;background-color: " |
|Sir Edward Alford||Royalist
|-
|1641
|rowspan="3" style="color:inherit;background-color: " |
|rowspan="3"|Edward Stephens||rowspan="3"|Parliamentarian
|-
|August 1643
|colspan="3"|Cooke died — seat left vacant
|-
|1645
|rowspan="2" style="color:inherit;background-color: white" |
|rowspan="2"|John Stephens||rowspan="2"|
|-
|December 1648
|colspan="3"|Edward Stephens excluded in Pride's Purge – seat vacant
|-
|1653
|colspan="6"|Tewkesbury was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament
|-
|1654
|style="color:inherit;background-color: white" |
|Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper – chosen for Wiltshire – replaced by Francis St John||<!-- party -->
|rowspan="2" colspan="3"| Tewkesbury had only one seat in the First and <br />Second Parliaments of the Protectorate
|-
|1656
|style="color:inherit;background-color: white" |
|Francis White||<!-- party -->
|-
|January 1659
|style="color:inherit;background-color: white" |
|Edward Cooke||<!-- party -->
|style="color:inherit;background-color: white" |
|Robert Long||<!-- party -->
|-
|May 1659
|colspan="6"|Not represented in the restored Rump
|-
|April 1660
|rowspan="2" style="color:inherit;background-color: white" |
|rowspan="2"| (Sir) Henry Capell
|rowspan="2"| <!-- party -->
| style="color:inherit;background-color: white" |
| Richard Dowdeswell
| <!-- party -->
|-
| 1673
|rowspan="2" style="color:inherit;background-color: white" |
|rowspan="2"| Sir Francis Russell
|rowspan="2"| <!-- party -->
|-
| 1685
|rowspan="6" style="color:inherit;background-color: white" |
|rowspan="6"| Richard Dowdeswell
|rowspan="6"| <!-- party -->
|-
| 1690
| style="color:inherit;background-color: white" |
| Sir Henry Capell
| <!-- party -->
|-
| 1692
| style="color:inherit;background-color: white" |
| Sir Francis Winnington
| <!-- party -->
|-
| 1698
| style="color:inherit;background-color: white" |
| Charles Hancock
| <!-- party -->
|-
| 1701
| style="color:inherit;background-color: white" |
| Edmund Bray
| <!-- party -->
|-
| 1708
|rowspan="2" style="color:inherit;background-color: white" |
|rowspan="2"| Henry Ireton
|rowspan="2"| <!-- party -->
|-
| 1710
|rowspan="2" style="color:inherit;background-color: white" |
|rowspan="2"| William Bromley
|rowspan="2"| <!-- party -->
|-
| 1712
|rowspan="5" style="color:inherit;background-color: white" |
|rowspan="5"| William Dowdeswell
|rowspan="5"| <!-- party -->
|-
| 1713
| style="color:inherit;background-color: white" |
| Charles Dowdeswell
| <!-- party -->
|-
| 1714
| style="color:inherit;background-color: white" |
| Anthony Lechmere
| <!-- party -->
|-
| 1717
| style="color:inherit;background-color: white" |
| Nicholas Lechmere
| <!-- party -->
|-
| 1721
|rowspan="5" style="color:inherit;background-color: white" |
|rowspan="5"| The Viscount Gage
|rowspan="5"| <!-- party -->
|-
| 1722
| style="color:inherit;background-color: white" |
| Brigadier George Reade
| <!-- party -->
|-
| 1734
| style="color:inherit;background-color: white" |
| Robert Tracy
| <!-- party -->
|-
| 1741
| style="color:inherit;background-color: white" |
| John Martin
| <!-- party -->
|-
| 1747
| style="color:inherit;background-color: " |
| William Dowdeswell
| Whig
|-
| 1754
|style="color:inherit;background-color: white" |
|rowspan="2"| Nicolson Calvert
|
| style="color:inherit;background-color: white" |
| John Martin, junior
| <!-- party -->
|-
| 1761
|style="color:inherit;background-color: " |
|Whig
|-
| 1774
| style="color:inherit;background-color: " |
| Joseph Martin
| Whig
|-
| 1857
|rowspan="2" style="color:inherit;background-color: " |
|rowspan="2"| Hon. Frederick Lygon
|rowspan="2"| Conservative
|-
| 1859
|rowspan="2" style="color:inherit;background-color: " |
|rowspan="2"| James Martin
|rowspan="2"| Liberal
|-
| 1864
|rowspan="3" style="color:inherit;background-color: " |
|rowspan="3"| John Yorke
|rowspan="3"| Conservative
|-
| 1865
| style="color:inherit;background-color: " |
| William Edward Dowdeswell
| Conservative
|-
| 1866
| style="color:inherit;background-color: " |
| Sir Edmund Lechmere, Bt
| Conservative
|-
|1868
|colspan="6"| Representation reduced to one Member
|}
MPs 1868–1918
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!colspan="2"|Election!!Member|
Elections in the 2010s
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="4" | 2019 notional result
|-
! bgcolor="#DDDDFF" width="130px" colspan="2" | Party
! bgcolor="#DDDDFF" width="50px" | Vote
! bgcolor="#DDDDFF" width="30px" | %
|-
|
| Conservative ||align=right| 31,291 ||align=right| 58.1
|-
|
| Liberal Democrats ||align=right| 11,848 ||align=right| 22.0
|-
|
| Labour ||align=right| 8,448 ||align=right| 15.7
|-
|
| Green ||align=right| 2,271 ||align=right| 4.2
|-
|colspan="4" bgcolor="#EAECF0"|
|-
|colspan="2"|Turnout
|align=right|53,858
|align=right|74.4
|-
|colspan="2"|Electorate
|align=right|72,426
|}
Elections in the 2000s
Election in the 1990s
Election results 1868–1918
Elections in the 1910s
thumb|120px|Mathias
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: Michael Hicks Beach
- Liberal: Richard Mathias
Elections in the 1890s
Election in the 1870s
Elections in the 1840s
- Caused by Martin's death