Maldon

Constituency profile

Maldon is a mostly rural constituency in Essex. It covers the Dengie Peninsula and the rural areas south of Chelmsford. It is named after the town of Maldon, which has a population of around 24,000 when taken together with the connected village of Heybridge. Other settlements in the constituency include the towns of South Woodham Ferrers and Burnham-on-Crouch and the villages of Danbury, Southminster, Mayland, Runwell and Galleywood. Maldon has a maritime history and is known for its production of sea salt. South Woodham Ferrers is a new town developed in the 1970s and Burnham-on-Crouch is an important centre for yachting. The constituency is generally wealthy with low levels of deprivation, particularly so in South Woodham Ferrers. House prices are higher than the national and East of England averages.

Residents of the constituency are generally older and have high rates of homeownership compared to the rest of the country. Few are degree-educated, but household income is high and the child poverty rate is low. A high proportion of residents work in the retail and construction sectors and few are unemployed. White people made up 96% of the population at the 2021 census. At the local council level, the constituency's towns are mostly represented by Liberal Democrats whilst the villages and rural areas elected Conservatives, localists and independents. Voters strongly supported leaving the European Union in the 2016 referendum; an estimated 60% voted in favour of Brexit compared to the nationwide figure of 52%.

History

The Parliamentary Borough of Maldon, which included the parish of Heybridge, had sent two members to the Parliament of England since it was founded in 1332 (36 years after the Model Parliament) until 1707, then to the Parliament of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800 and to the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801. Under the Reform Act 1867, its representation was reduced to one, and in 1885 the parliamentary borough was abolished and replaced with a division of the County of Essex (later a county constituency) under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885.

The constituency was abolished for the 1983 general election following the Third Periodic Review of Westminster Constituencies, but re-established for the 2010 general election by the Fifth Review. The current seat is primarily a successor to the Maldon and East Chelmsford constituency which existed from 1997 to 2010.

Boundaries and boundary changes

Historic

The Municipal Borough of Maldon;

The Sessional Divisions of Hinckford South (Braintree Bench) and Witham; and

Parts of the Sessional Divisions of Hinckford South (Halstead Bench), Lexden, and Winstree.

Formally known as the Eastern or Maldon Division of Essex, incorporating the abolished Parliamentary Borough of Maldon and extending northwards to include the towns of Witham, Braintree and Halstead.

The Municipal Borough of Maldon;

The Urban Districts of Braintree, Burnham-on-Crouch, and Witham;

The Rural District of Maldon; and

The Rural District of Braintree (including the detached part of the parish of Inworth which was wholly surrounded by the parishes of Great Braxted and Kelvedon).

Area to the south between the rivers Crouch and Blackwater, including Burnham-on-Crouch, transferred from the South-Eastern Division of Essex. The northernmost area, including Halstead, and eastern fringes transferred to Saffron Walden and Colchester respectively. Other minor changes.

The Municipal Borough of Maldon;

The Urban Districts of Braintree and Bocking, Burnham-on-Crouch, and Witham;

The Rural District of Maldon; and

Part of the Rural District of Braintree.

Marginal changes as a result of changes to local authority boundaries.

Current

Further to the 2023 review of Westminster constituencies, which came into effect for the 2024 general election, the composition of the constituency was expanded northwards slightly with the transfer in from Chelmsford of the City of Chelmsford ward of Galleywood.

The historic constituency (1332–1983)

Maldon was originally a parliamentary borough in Essex, first represented in the House of Commons in 1332; it elected two MPs until 1868, and one from 1868 until 1885. In that year the borough was abolished but the name was transferred to a county division of Essex, which continued with some boundary changes until 1983.

Maldon borough (1332–1885)

Until the Great Reform Act 1832, the borough consisted of the three parishes of the town of Maldon, a small market town and port on the coast of Essex.

Maldon had been a municipal as well as a parliamentary borough. Its first charter dated from the reign of Henry II, and at one time the corporation had the sole right to elect the town's MPs. From 1701 at the latest, however, the right to vote was exercised by the freemen of the town, whether or not resident within the borough; and, unusually, honorary freemen and those acquiring the freedom by purchase were also entitled to vote in Maldon. This had several consequences. The electorate in Maldon was much bigger than was usual in a town of that size — in the first half of the 18th century, the number of qualified voters was generally about 800 (the majority of whom did not live in Maldon). It also meant that the town corporation, with the power to create freemen and therefore voters, was in a position to gerrymander elections if it so wished. This might, as was the case in some other boroughs, have ended in one interest gaining control of the corporation and turning Maldon into a pocket borough; in fact, however, Maldon instead stayed independent but venal, and gaining election there tended to be an expensive business. Sometimes it was not merely a case of bribing the voters: in 1690, it was recorded in the House of Commons journals that the wives and daughters of Maldon freemen were being bribed at election time as well.

One interest that was firmly established by the middle of the 18th century, however, was that of the government, which ensured that lucrative posts in the customs house were reserved for loyally-voting freemen, and also attempted to have government supporters – often strangers to the town – elected to vacancies on the corporation. It was generally taken for granted that the government candidates would normally be elected.

However, in the 1750s the government's control of Maldon weakened, and a prominent local Tory, John Strutt, found he had enough influence with the voters to sway elections. He secured the election of several of his friends over the years and eventually, in 1774, successfully stood for election himself.

In the meanwhile, however, there was a dramatic change in the system. In 1763 one of the sitting MPs, Strutt's friend Bamber Gascoyne, was appointed to the Board of Trade and therefore had to stand for re-election at Maldon. Gascoyne's opponent, John Huske, accused him of threatening that any freemen working in the customs house who did not vote for him would be dismissed (which, by that time, would have been an illegal threat). Although the Prime Minister, George Grenville, denied having authorised Gascoyne to make any such threat and Gascoyne denied having made it, it seems clear it was believed in Maldon and the corporation sided with Huske, creating enough new freemen to ensure Gascoyne was defeated. Both sides started actions for bribery, but Gascoyne had decided on more drastic action. He took out a writ against the corporation, and the Courts ordered the ousting of the majority of members; eventually, in 1768, the corporation was dissolved by judicial order.

Maldon county constituency (1885–1983)

The Reform Act 1867, implemented in 1868, took seats from most of the smallest boroughs, and Maldon's representation was halved; but it was still too small, and at the election of 1885 the borough was abolished altogether. The county division into which the town was placed, however, was named after the town. (Officially, until 1918, it was the Eastern (or Maldon) Division of Essex; after that, simply the Maldon division.) As well as Maldon itself this contained the towns of Braintree, Halstead and Witham. Once again this constituency was a marginal one — almost the only rural county seat in the South East at this period not to be safely Conservative. The strength of the Liberal vote seems to have been based partly on the strength of Nonconformism in the Halstead area, but also on trade unionism among the agricultural labourers (which elsewhere in Essex was offset by a strongly Tory maritime vote which Maldon lacked).

After 1918, boundary changes added Burnham on Crouch and the surrounding district, but the constituency was still a rural one, with 35% of the occupied male population employed in the agricultural sector at the time of the 1921 census. The Labour Party rather than the Liberals were now the Conservatives' main opponents. When the Liberal Party split in 1922, Maldon's Liberals split as well, and the constituency was the first where the Lloyd George Liberals set up a constituency association, though this was apparently without the sanction of the national party headquarters and the association is not recorded as having organised any activities. In 1923 no Liberal candidate stood at all, and Labour captured the seat for the first time. The Conservatives retook the seat in 1924, holding it until the 1940s, but it was won by Tom Driberg in a wartime by-election. Labour held the seat until 1955 when the Conservatives gained it and held on with marginal majorities until the 1970s, when the seat gradually became safe with bigger majorities until its abolition.

The Maldon constituency was abolished in the boundary changes which came into effect at the 1983 election, being divided between the new Colchester South and Maldon and Rochford constituencies.

Members of Parliament

MPs since 2010

The re-formed Maldon seat was fought for the first time at the 2010 general election.

Elections

Elections in the 1940s

Driberg was elected in 1942 as an Independent Labour candidate, but took the Labour Party whip in January 1945, and stood in the 1945 election as a Labour Party candidate.

Election results 1832–1918

Elections in the 1850s

The 1852 election was declared void on petition due to bribery and treating, and the writ was suspended in March 1853. A by-election was held in August 1854 to fill the vacancy.

Elections in the 1860s

Seat reduced to one member

Elections in the 1870s

Sandford's resignation caused a by-election.

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: James Fortescue Flannery

Liberal: E. Tweedy Smith

Pre–1832 election results