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 Kingswood
lies on the eastern border of Bristol. Part of the constituency
lies within the city itself and was inherited from the former seat
of Bristol South East which was abolished before the 1983 election.
However most of the constituency is in the borough of Kingswood
and was inherited from Wansdyke.
This seat was
effectively created in February 1974, and has always been considered
marginal, and until 1992 it was always won by the party who won
the General Election.
Labour’s Roger Berry broke the trend in 1992 and unseated the
sitting Tory MP Rob Hayward with an above-average swing of almost
6%.
This area includes
places like Stoke Gifford and serves as part of the city's commuter
belt so it contains strong support for the Conservatives.
The seat is
split between urban and rural regions. The Bristol ring road passes
through the borough, providing excellent communication links of
great benefit to the many small manufacturing industries based here.
Kingswood
used to be an important coal mining and shoe-manufacturing district.
However older factories in this area have been replaced by the likes
of Rolls-Royce, British Aerospace, DRG Cartons, Bendix Engineering
and Avon Tin Printers.
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