Cheadle (UK Parliament Constituency) - Boundaries

Boundaries

When originally created in 1950, the Cheadle county constituency was defined as being the Urban Districts of Bredbury and Romiley, Cheadle and Gatley, Hazel Grove and Bramhall, and Marple. The area was predominantly urban in the south-eastern suburbs of the Manchester conurbation, and reasonably prosperous. The boundary was changed in 1955 when the boundaries of Bredbury and Romiley Urban District with the County Borough of Stockport were altered, but this change was very minor.

The growth of suburbs of Manchester led to a rapidly rising electorate from the late 1950s and by the 1970 election there were 107,225 electors and some reduction was inevitable. At the February 1974 General Election the constituency was divided in two, with the eastern parts forming the new Hazel Grove constituency. The creation of Hazel Grove took too many electors away and to replace them came the town of Wilmslow. The new constituency, which was a borough seat rather than a county one, was defined as the Urban Districts of Cheadle and Gatley, and Wilmslow.

As a result of changes in the county boundaries, the constituency crossed between Greater Manchester and Cheshire. Realigning with the county boundaries in 1983, the constituency was refashioned as a part of the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, losing Wilmslow to Tatton, and smaller parts to Macclesfield and Stockport. It retook some 20,000 voters from Hazel Grove to make up the loss. It was now defined as the following wards of Stockport: Bramhall South, Bramhall North, Cheadle and Gatley, Cheadle Hulme North, Cheadle Hulme South, Heald Green and Stepping Hill.

At the 1997 general election, minor changes were made around the north-western part to align the boundary with changes in the municipal boundaries, which resulted in gaining a small amount of Gatley from Manchester Wythenshawe.