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Mid Durham was a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election from 1885 to 1918.

Mid Durham
Former County constituency for the House of Commons
1885–1918
Number of members	one
Replaced by	Chester-le-Street, Durham, Spennymoor and Sedgefield
Created from	North Durham and South Durham

History

Creation

The constituency was created by the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, when the North Durham and South Durham county divisions were replaced by eight new single-member county constituencies. These were Barnard Castle, Bishop Auckland, Chester-le-Street, Houghton-le-Spring, Jarrow, Mid Durham, North West Durham and South East Durham. In addition there were seven County Durham borough constituencies.

Boundaries

The Sessional Division of Durham and Willington (including all the parish of Shadforth and excluding all the parish of Moorhouse) and the Municipal Borough of Durham.[1][2]

See map on Vision of Britain website.[3]

NB: 1) Boundary Commission proposed name was "Brancepeth"

2) Included only non-resident freeholders in the parliamentary borough of Durham

Abolition

The seat was abolished for the 1918 general election, when its contents were distributed as follows:

• Parish of Witton Gilbert to Chester-le-Street;
• Remaining northern areas, including Brandon and Willington, to the newly created county division of Durham, which also absorbed the abolished parliamentary borough;
• South-western areas, including Brandon and Willington, to the new constituency of Spennymoor; and
• South-eastern areas, including Ferryhill, to the new constituency of Sedgefield.

Members of Parliament

Year		Member	Whip
	1885	William Crawford	Liberal
	1890	John Wilson	Liberal
	1915	Samuel Galbraith	Liberal
1918		constituency abolished

Elections

Elections in the 1880s

General election 1885: Mid Durham[4][5][1]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Lib-Lab	William Crawford	5,799	64.1
	Conservative	Francis Vane-Tempest[6]	3,245	35.9
Majority			2,554	28.2
Turnout			9,044	81.1
Registered electors			11,145
	Lib-Lab win (new seat)

General election 1886: Mid Durham[4][5]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Lib-Lab	William Crawford	Unopposed
	Lib-Lab hold

Elections in the 1890s

1890 Mid Durham by-election[4][5][7]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Lib-Lab	John Wilson	5,469	61.8	N/A
	Conservative	Francis Vane-Tempest[6]	3,375	38.2	New
Majority			2,094	23.6	N/A
Turnout			8,844	77.8	N/A
Registered electors			11,362
	Lib-Lab hold

General election 1892: Mid Durham[4][5][8]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Lib-Lab	John Wilson	5,661	60.7	N/A
	Conservative	Charles Edward Hunter	3,669	39.3	N/A
Majority			1,992	21.4	N/A
Turnout			9,330	79.1	N/A
Registered electors			11,789
	Lib-Lab hold		Swing	N/A

General election 1895: Mid Durham[4][5][9]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Lib-Lab	John Wilson	5,937	58.0	-2.7
	Conservative	Anthony Wilkinson	4,295	42.0	+2.7
Majority			1,642	16.0	-5.4
Turnout			10,232	81.7	+2.6
Registered electors			12,519
	Lib-Lab hold		Swing	-2.7

Elections in the 1900s

General election 1900: Mid Durham[5][9]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Lib-Lab	John Wilson	5,565	57.5	-0.5
	Conservative	Charles Edward Hunter	4,105	42.5	+0.5
Majority			1,460	15.0	-1.0
Turnout			9,670	75.5	−6.2
Registered electors			12,816
	Lib-Lab hold		Swing	-0.5

General election 1906: Mid Durham[4][5]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Lib-Lab	John Wilson	Unopposed
	Lib-Lab hold

Elections in the 1910s

General election January 1910: Mid Durham[4][10]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Lib-Lab	John Wilson	Unopposed
	Lib-Lab hold

General election December 1910: Mid Durham[4][10]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Lib-Lab	John Wilson	Unopposed
	Lib-Lab hold

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;

• Liberal: Samuel Galbraith
• Unionist:
• Labour: Joseph Batey

1915 Mid Durham by-election

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Lib-Lab	Samuel Galbraith	Unopposed
	Lib-Lab hold

See also

• History of parliamentary constituencies and boundaries in Durham

References

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "D" (part 4)

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