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> United Kingdom > England > East Midlands > East Midlands
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| Established | December 14, 1918 |
| Disbanded | Still Active |
| Contributor | RP |
| Last Modified | RBH January 21, 2020 02:32pm |
| Description | The town used to be a safe Labour seat, with the party winning here from 1945 to 1983, until Corby was removed and made into a seat in its own right. As such, the rest of the modern-day Kettering seat, covering over 400 square miles, is made up of three semi-industrial A6 towns - Burton Latimer, Desborough and Rothwell. It also includes numerous villages around the Welland Valley and some commuter villages from the area covered by Daventry District Council. The area has excellent road and rail links, being on the A14 trunk road, having easy access to the M1, M6 and M11, combined with the Midland mainline rail service. Kettering is firmly at the crossroads of England, claiming access by road to three quarters of the UK population in two hours. Kettering itself is a commercial and light industrial town, with a substantial middle class - although there are some small pockets of deprivation within the town itself. The town is most noted for its footwear industry, but the economy is now more diverse and includes the headquarters of Weetabix, RCI timeshare property exchange and Pegasus accounting software. Outside the town, many historic and picturesque villages preserve the charm and tranquillity of a traditional rural community. Tourist attractions include Boughton House, which is one home of the Dukes of Buccleuch and Queensberry, and is known as "The English Versailles". Also in the constituency is Wicksteed Park, a leisure park created by engineer and inventor Charles Wicksteed in 1921 within a non-profit making trust "in order to change the lives for the better, of thousands of children". Another place of note in the seat is Rushton Hall. It was built by Sir Thomas Tresham, and includes the Triangular Lodge, where it is said that the gunpowder plot was conceived and planned. Today a school for the blind is based there. The 1983 boundary changes made this an apparently safe Tory stronghold, and so the party was very surprised to see Labour's Phil Sawford unseat cabinet minister Roger Freeman by just 189 votes.
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