Penistone and Stocksbridge is a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom

Parliament of the United Kingdom

The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...

. It was contested for the first time at the 2010 general election, and returns one Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 (MP) elected by the first past the post system of election.

Boundaries

The electoral wards used in the creation of Penistone and Stocksbridge are:

• From Sheffield
  Sheffield
  Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
  
   - East Ecclesfield
  East Ecclesfield
  East Ecclesfield ward—which includes the districts of Chapeltown and Ecclesfield—is one of the 28 electoral wards in City of Sheffield, England. It is located in the northern part of the city and covers an area of in the eastern part of Ecclesfield Parish. The population of this ward...
  
  , Stocksbridge and Upper Don
  Stocksbridge and Upper Don
  Stocksbridge and Upper Don ward—which includes the districts of Deepcar, Oughtibridge, Stocksbridge, and Wharncliffe Side, and the villages of Bolsterstone, Ewden, and Midhopestones—is one of the 28 electoral wards in the City of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England...
  
   and West Ecclesfield
  West Ecclesfield
  West Ecclesfield ward—which includes the districts of Burncross, Grenoside, High Green—is one of the 28 electoral wards in City of Sheffield, England. It is located in the northern part of the city and covers an area of 12.5 km2 in the western part of Ecclesfield Parish. The...
  
  .
• From Barnsley
  Barnsley
  Barnsley is a town in South Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Dearne, north of the city of Sheffield, south of Leeds and west of Doncaster. Barnsley is surrounded by several smaller settlements which together form the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley, of which Barnsley is the largest and...
  
   - Dodworth, Penistone East and Penistone West

History

The seat largely resembles the old Penistone Constituency

Penistone (UK Parliament constituency)

Penistone was a Parliamentary constituency covering the town of Penistone in Yorkshire and surrounding countryside. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first-past-the-post voting system.-History:The constituency was...

, which returned Labour MPs from 1935 through to its abolition in 1983.

In 1983, two new constituencies were formed, Sheffield Hillsborough and Barnsley West and Penistone. Both of which returned Labour MPs at every election they were fought.

Character

The seat is most heavily populated on its eastern fringe, with communities built largely on the coal and steel industries, such as the ex-mining village of Dodworth and the steelworking town of Stocksbridge. Penistone too has a history of steelworking at the David Brown and Hitech foundries, although many local people have been employed at the Hepworth pipeworks (formerly Hepworth Iron Co./Hepworth Building Products).

The western area of the constituency is in the Peak District National Park.

The seat contains a number of old stately homes. Cannon Hall

Cannon Hall

Cannon Hall is a country house museum located between the villages of Cawthorne and High Hoyland north of Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England. Originally the home of the Spencer and later the Spencer-Stanhope family, it now houses collections of fine furniture, paintings, ceramics and glassware...

 is now in the hands of Barnsley Council, while Wortley Hall

Wortley Hall

Wortley Hall is a stately home in the small South Yorkshire village of Wortley, located west of Barnsley. For more than five decades the hall has been chiefly associated with the British Labour movement...

 (ancestral home of the Wortley-Montagu family) is now owned by trade union

Trade union

A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...

s. Part of Wentworth Castle

Wentworth Castle

Wentworth Castle is a stately home and estate near Barnsley in South Yorkshire. It was originally the seat of the Earls of Strafford. An older house existed on the estate, then called Stainborough, when it was purchased by Thomas Wentworth, Lord Raby , in 1711...

 is used as a residential adult education establishment.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	2010	Angela Smith Angela Christine Smith Angela Christine Smith is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Sheffield Hillsborough from 2005 to 2010, when she was elected to serve the new constituency of Penistone and Stocksbridge...	Labour Labour Party (UK) The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

Elections in the 2010s

* Served as an MP in the 2005–2010 Parliament

Sources

• Sheffield Recommendations of the Boundary Commission for England.
• Summary of the Sheffield Parliamentary Boundary Review.