Tag Archives: 1832 Reform Act

The ‘March of Reform’ and the changing backgrounds of 19th century MPs

Continuing our series reflecting on the recent ‘Politics before Democracy’ conference, our assistant editor Dr Kathryn Rix looks at the impact of the 1832 Reform Act on the personnel of the House of Commons. In March 1833, two months after Parliament assembled following … Continue reading

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190th Anniversary of the 1832 Reform Act

For a 20 minute talk about the Reform Act by Dr Philip Salmon please click here. This month marks the 190th anniversary of the passing of the 1832 Reform Act, one of the iconic milestones in modern British political history. … Continue reading

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Surveying the UK’s parliamentary boroughs: map-making and the 1831-2 boundary commissions

To coincide with the publication of the initial proposals of the 2023 English boundary commission and the Society for One-Place Studies recent focus on maps, our research fellow, Dr Martin Spychal, explores the city and town plans created by the … Continue reading

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‘The power of returning our members will henceforth be in our own hands’: parliamentary reform and its impact on Exeter, 1820-1868

This week Dr Martin Spychal, research fellow for the Commons 1832-68, uses polling and voter registration data to explore the 1832 Reform Act’s impact on elections in Exeter. This blog was originally published on the History of Parliament blog as … Continue reading

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Corruption at elections in Britain in the 19th century

Following on from Martin Spychal’s blog about the paper he gave at last month’s ‘From “Old Corruption” to the New Corruption?’ conference, organised jointly by Oxford Brookes and Newman Universities, we hear from our assistant editor Kathryn Rix. She gave … Continue reading

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Science, parliamentary inquiry and the Whig decade of reform

In January two members of the Victorian Commons project spoke in Oxford at the ‘From “Old Corruption” to the New Corruption?’ conference, organised jointly by Oxford Brookes and Newman Universities. This week Dr Martin Spychal takes a look at one of the … Continue reading

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Some parallels: the 1832 and 2018 boundary reviews

To celebrate the recent open-access publication of his article ‘‘One of the best men of business we had ever met’: Thomas Drummond, the boundary commission and the 1832 Reform Act’, our Research Fellow on the 1832-1868 project, Dr Martin Spychal, … Continue reading

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Boundary Changes: the Victorian legacy

The recent report of the boundary commission, remodelling England’s constituency arrangements in line with population movements, serves as an important reminder of the prominent role played by boundary reforms during the nineteenth century. Every extension of the franchise – 1832, … Continue reading

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Constituencies available on our preview site

The 1832 Reform Act completely redrew the electoral map of Britain and Ireland. It removed many small corrupt boroughs and gave representation to growing industrial towns such as Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds. However, small towns and county seats remained the … Continue reading

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