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Mossley (constituency)

Parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom, 1918-1950

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 16, 2026
Entity authorityQ6916674 ↗
Source-derived summary

Mossley was a parliamentary constituency which returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom Parliament.

It was created at the 1918 general election as a county division of Lancashire, taking areas formerly in the Gorton and Prestwich constituencies. The area consisted of small towns which were increasingly suburban to Manchester, such as Droylsden and Failsworth (now part of Oldham borough), together with some towns then further out such as Denton, and stretching out to the edge of Saddleworth Moor to take in Mossley.

This created a mixed area which declined in social status during its existence as Manchester expanded to the east and its industrial area expanded. The electorate also increased over time, and in a boundary change in 1950 the seat was divided with the areas adjacent to Manchester forming the new Droylsden constituency while the remainder including Mossley itself formed part of Ashton-under-Lyne.

Boundaries

The Borough of Mossley, the Rural District of Limehurst, and the Urban Districts of Audenshaw, Denton, Droylsden, Failsworth, and Lees.

Members of Parliament

Election results

1910s election results

* Hopkinson was not a member of any political party but was adopted by both the local Conservative and Liberal Associations, received the Coalition Coupon and saw himself as a Liberal. However, he said this did not bind him to support the coalition government or to vote with it, and that he had accepted the coupon for the good of the country.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Mossley (constituency)” as parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom, 1918-1950. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1918, 1950—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1918-12-14. The account is most persuasive where Mossley, constituency and Parliamentary can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom, 1918-1950. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6916674. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1918 and 1950.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Mossley (constituency)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.