Muncipal_Elections_of_Rochdale_in_1921

The research our group undertook was in Rochdale in the year of 1921. The Municipal elections occurred in early November. The elections were dominated by the Conservative and Liberal party as they both shared the wards. Labour strangely did not win a single ward and in fact lost its only possession to the Liberal party in the ward of Wardleworth West. Even though at the time Labour was on a rise and many historians sense there was a decline in Liberalism at the time, it was not evident in this election. Within this piece of writing there are all of our group’s findings that were relevant to the 1921 election in Rochdale and some information of what was happening at the time in this area. The first section describes how many were contested and uncontested in the 1921 Rochdale Municipal election. Within the 11 wards that took part in the Rochdale Municipal elections there were 6 Contested Seats, which were won between the Conservatives and Liberal parties. These contested seats occurred in the wards of, Castleton East, Castleton Moor, Castleton South, Spotland East, Wardleworth East and Wardleworth West. The Conservatives won contested Seats in Castleton East, Castleton Moor, Castleton South, and Spotland East. The Liberals won contested seats in Wardleworth East and West, the remaining five seats were Uncontested. The Conservative party were uncontested in the wards of Castleton North and Spotland East. The Liberal party were uncontested in the wards of Castleton West, Wardleworth South and Wuerdle. This shows that both the Conservative party and Liberal party had strongholds in wards, as five seats were uncontested and even when the seats were contested the Conservative and Liberal parties never stood against each other. Within Rochdale there were only three parties that put up electoral Candidates in 1921.The parties that ran were the Conservative, Liberal and Labour parties. The Conservatives put up 4 candidates in contested seats. The candidates were; • William Gray-Hardman in the Castleton East ward. • George Hutton in the Castleton South ward. • Edwin Haworth in the Spotland East ward. • John Appleyard in the Castleton Moor ward. In the contested seats Conservatives were successful in every ward against Labour, showing that Labour was not on the rise at this time as they were unsuccessful in every ward. Which is interesting as Rochdale was a working class industrial city that Labour should have thrived under but due to anti-socialist policies, housing and high rates; Labour was unable to gain votes, as it was not strong enough in these areas. The conservatives also put up two Candidates in Uncontested seats showing that they were dominant in the two wards and were not challenged by another party. The names of these were; • William Davidson in the Castleton North ward. • William Carse in the Spotland West ward. The Liberal party put up two candidates in Contested Seats. These 2 candidates were successful in there wards against Labour. Showing there was not a decline in Liberalism at the time or more specifically in the year of 1921. These candidates were; • William Watson in the Wardleworth East ward. • Charles Dearden in the Wardleworth West ward. The Liberal party put forward three Candidates in uncontested Seats further showing their strength. These candidates were; • Edward Thomas in the Wardleworth South ward. • James Whitworth in the Wuerdle ward. • Charles Bryning in the Castleton West ward. Labour put up six Candidates but had heavy defeats in every Ward at this election. This brings in the debate that Labour was hindered by Socialism as the other parties discredited Labour at the time saying “socialism would tie a man down [and] a man would not be able to choose his employer”. Showing labour as being linked to Socialist ideas. From the Rochdale 1921 Municipal election there were several gains and losses for the two main competing parties the Conservatives and Liberals. The Conservatives gained Spotland East from the Liberals in a contested Ward. They also gained Spotland West in an uncontested Ward previously held by the Liberals. The Liberals Gained Wardleworth South from the Conservatives in an uncontested Ward. The Liberal also gained Labours only win of the previous election in Wardleworth West and this was a contested ward. These would have been big losses for each party if they had not made gains themselves in other wards. Labour suffering the most losing its only ward in the previous election. The balance of the parties was mainly kept in this year as certain wards can be seen as Conservatives or Liberal wards as earlier and later years show that these wards were kept by them continuously. Castleton East, Moor, North and South were all Conservative strongholds. Conservatives dominated these wards before, during and after the 1921 election. Castleton West, Wardleworth East and Wuerdle were Liberal strongholds throughout the interwar periods. Labour had no real balance between the interwar period in Rochdale, as pre 1921 Labour had only just really established itself as a party and had only won two wards previous to 1921. This trait continued in the 1921 election as they failed to win a single ward and lost the only ward they had won in the 1920 election. In Spotland East and West there were shock wins for the Conservatives as they had won seats in Liberal strongholds. Especially in Spotland West as it was an uncontested seat that the Conservatives had won. Conservative and Liberal dominance of wards over Labour was surprising, as Labour was seen as a party of the working class. Rochdale was a industrial working class town which should have had meant that Labour had a lot of representation but because of the policies of the conservative and Liberal party it took the light off the Labour party and they were dubbed as ‘socialists’, which gave Labour massive problems as there was a anti-socialist climate in Rochdale at the time. Labour tried to deny roots to socialism and said that it was the only party on the political field to be working for the rights of the working class, but even though they were looking to represent the working class they got no seats in any of the wards in the 1921 election. This can be seen as due to the policies of the Conservatives and Liberal parties and the parochial outlook of the working class that were not that interested in politics at the time. The Conservatives had policies such as in Spotland East, it was said that rates were too high, which working men and business men could not afford them, and everything had to be done to reduce rates. This could also be seen as having links with unemployment. This meant that the conservatives had taken Labours working class voters and gives reasons to why Labour received no seats in that area. The policies that the Liberal candidates used to gain seats were that there was not sufficient housing in Rochdale. They also suggested that under Liberal leadership and control that this could be amended. This appeals to the working class as standard of living would be improved and at the time, the standard of Living in Rochdale in addition to unemployment rates were described as ‘most degrading’. During the build up to the Elections there were meetings between each party in each ward discussing and trying to discredit opposition parties. Many of these meeting were held at school and had fluctuations in attendances. It can be seen that some people in Rochdale wanted to be involved in the elections to ensure that their parties would be elected. Press coverage was only high near to the election date, when campaign rallies had high attendances. But from the evidence we gained attendance figures were not particularly high enough to show that working class people were motivated to vote in the elections. They thought they had no party they could relate to that was in the interests of the working class. They were more interested in putting food on their plates, than of political parties. Which can give some evidence to why Labour a rising ‘working class’ party, gained no seats in the election, as they did not have the votes to gain seats. Out of all the research we did in the 1921 Rochdale municipal election it was interesting to note that Labour was not as strong as we initially thought it would be in a working class town. This shows that the idea that Liberalism was declining at the time is a false dawn as the results are dominated by a Liberal revival.