Conclusion: Urban politics in modern England

Abstract

The structure of politics in English provincial metropolises in the mid-nineteenth century was the product of the interaction between the institutional and social structure of Victorian urban communities. The pattern and boundaries of politics in Victorian cities were determined by a struggle for control between social groups, a conflict over the exercise of power in urban society. Such political battles were fought across a wide range of battlefields which it has been the object of this study to identify and characterize. The analysis has rested upon the discovery and exploration of four levels of political activity within the urban community. The foundations of the Victorian urban political system were to be found in the minor parochial and township institutions of city life. Growing out of the pre-industrial vestry, the churchwardens, boards of guardians, improvement commissions and highway surveyors struggled with the problems of the new urban milieu. These posts carried intrinsic authority and were further politicized by becoming either focal points in a wider struggle for power or agents for implementing a wider political (often reform) objective. Many political activists who served their apprenticeship in these minor offices looked to town councils as the next level in the urban hierarchy and it was widely believed that councils were natural political institutions.

‘THE HASLINGDEN LIBERAL ASSOCIATION respectfully urges all Liberals to vote for each and every Candidate nominated by the Association.... This election is important. DON’T SPLIT YOUR VOTES.’ Handbill for Haslingden local board election, 1890 (Lancashire Record Office DDX 118/15)