1.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
2.
United Kingdom constituencies
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In local government elections electoral areas are called wards or electoral divisions. Since the advent of universal suffrage, the differences between county and borough constituencies are slight, formerly the franchise differed, and there were also county borough and university constituencies. Borough constituencies are predominantly urban while county constituencies are predominantly rural, otherwise they should be designated as borough constituencies. In Scotland, all House of Commons constituencies are county constituencies except those in the cities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, the returning officer will typically be a local Councils Chief Executive or Head of Legal Services. The role, however, is separate from these posts, the spending limits for election campaigns are different in the two, the reasoning being that candidates in county constituencies tend to need to travel further. For by-elections to any of these bodies, the limit in all constituencies is £100,000, in the House of Commons of England, each English county elected two knights of the shire while each enfranchised borough elected burgesses. From 1535 each Welsh county and borough was represented, by one knight or burgess, a county borough was the constituency of a county corporate, combining the franchises of both county and borough. Until 1950 there were also university constituencies, which gave graduates an additional representation, similar distinctions applied in the Irish House of Commons, while the non-university elected members of the Parliament of Scotland were called Shire Commissioners and Burgh Commissioners. After the Acts of Union 1707, Scottish burghs were grouped into districts of burghs in the Parliament of Great Britain, after the Acts of Union 1800, smaller Irish boroughs were disenfranchised, while most others returned only one MP to the United Kingdom Parliament. The Reform Act 1832 reduced the number of parliamentary boroughs by eliminating the rotten boroughs and it also divided larger counties into two two-seat divisions, the boundaries of which were defined in the Parliamentary Boundaries Act 1832, and gave seven counties a third member. Constituency names are geographic, and should reflect the main population centre contained in the constituency. Compass points are used to distinguish constituencies from each other when a suitable label cannot be found. This is the reason for the difference in naming between, for example, North Shropshire and Reading West, in the 2005 United Kingdom general election, the House of Commons had 646 constituencies covering the whole of the United Kingdom. This rose to 650 in the 2010 election, each constituency elects one Member of Parliament by the first-past-the-post system of election. The House of Commons is one of the two chambers of the bicameral Parliament of the United Kingdom, the other being the House of Lords, eleven additional members are elected from Greater London as a whole to produce a form or degree of mixed-member proportional representation. Constituency names and boundaries remain now as they were for the first general election of the assembly, the assembly is part of the Greater London Authority and general elections of the assembly are held at the same time as election of the mayor of London. There are 18 Northern Ireland Assembly Constituencies, four borough and 14 county constituencies elsewhere, each elects six MLAs to the 108 member NI Assembly by means of the single transferable vote system. Assembly Constituency boundaries are identical to their House of Commons equivalents, the constituencies below are not used for the election of members to the 11 district councils
3.
House of Commons of the United Kingdom
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The House of Commons of the United Kingdom is the lower house of the countrys parliament. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster, officially, the full name of the house is, The Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled. The House is a body consisting of 650 members known as Members of Parliament. Members are elected to represent constituencies by first-past-the-post and hold their seats until Parliament is dissolved, under the Parliament Act 1911, the Lords power to reject legislation was reduced to a delaying power. The Government is primarily responsible to the House of Commons and the prime minister stays in office only as long as he or she retains the support of a majority of its members. Although it does not formally elect the prime minister, the position of the parties in the House of Commons is of overriding importance, by convention, the prime minister is answerable to, and must maintain the support of, the House of Commons. Since 1963, by convention, the minister is always a member of the House of Commons. The Commons may indicate its lack of support for the Government by rejecting a motion of confidence or by passing a motion of no confidence, confidence and no confidence motions are sometimes phrased explicitly, for instance, That this House has no confidence in Her Majestys Government. Many other motions were considered confidence issues, even though not explicitly phrased as such, in particular, important bills that form a part of the Governments agenda were formerly considered matters of confidence, as is the annual Budget. Parliament normally sits for a term of five years. Subject to that limit, the minister could formerly choose the timing of the dissolution of parliament. By this second mechanism, the government of the United Kingdom can change without a general election. In such circumstances there may not even have been a party leadership election, as the new leader may be chosen by acclaim. A prime minister may resign if he or she is not defeated at the polls. In such a case, the premiership goes to whoever can command a majority in the House of Commons, in practice this is usually the new leader of the outgoing prime ministers party. Until 1965, the Conservative Party had no mechanism for electing a new leader, when Anthony Eden resigned as PM in 1957 without recommending a successor and it fell to the Queen to appoint Harold Macmillan as the new prime minister, after taking the advice of ministers. By convention, all ministers must be members of the House of Commons or of the House of Lords, a handful have been appointed who were outside Parliament, but in most cases they then entered Parliament either in a by-election or by receiving a peerage. Since 1902, all ministers have been members of the Commons
4.
Wiltshire
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Wiltshire is a county in South West England with an area of 3,485 km2. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, the county town was originally Wilton, after which the county is named, but Wiltshire Council is now based in the new county town of Trowbridge. Wiltshire is characterised by its high downland and wide valleys, Salisbury Plain is noted for being the location of the Stonehenge and Avebury stone circles and other ancient landmarks, and as a training area for the British Army. The city of Salisbury is notable for its mediaeval cathedral, important country houses open to the public include Longleat, near Warminster, and the National Trusts Stourhead, near Mere. The county, in the 9th century written as Wiltunscir, later Wiltonshire, is named after the county town of Wilton. Wiltshire is notable for its pre-Roman archaeology, the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age people that occupied southern Britain built settlements on the hills and downland that cover Wiltshire. Stonehenge and Avebury are perhaps the most famous Neolithic sites in the UK, in the 6th and 7th centuries Wiltshire was at the western edge of Saxon Britain, as Cranborne Chase and the Somerset Levels prevented the advance to the west. The Battle of Bedwyn was fought in 675 between Escuin, a West Saxon nobleman who had seized the throne of Queen Saxburga, in 878 the Danes invaded the county. Following the Norman Conquest, large areas of the country came into the possession of the crown, at the time of the Domesday Survey the industry of Wiltshire was largely agricultural,390 mills are mentioned, and vineyards at Tollard and Lacock. In the 17th century English Civil War Wiltshire was largely Parliamentarian, the Battle of Roundway Down, a Royalist victory, was fought near Devizes. The Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry currently lives on as Y Squadron, based in Swindon, around 1800 the Kennet and Avon Canal was built through Wiltshire, providing a route for transporting cargoes from Bristol to London until the development of the Great Western Railway. Information on the 261 civil parishes of Wiltshire is available on the Wiltshire Community History website, run by the Libraries and this site includes maps, demographic data, historic and modern pictures and short histories. The local nickname for Wiltshire natives is moonrakers and this originated from a story of smugglers who managed to foil the local Excise men by hiding their alcohol, possibly French brandy in barrels or kegs, in a village pond. The officials took them for simple yokels or mad and left them alone, many villages claim the tale for their own village pond, but the story is most commonly linked with The Crammer in Devizes. Two-thirds of Wiltshire, a rural county, lies on chalk. This chalk is part of a system of chalk downlands throughout eastern and southern England formed by the rocks of the Chalk Group, the largest area of chalk in Wiltshire is Salisbury Plain, which is used mainly for arable agriculture and by the British Army as training ranges. The highest point in the county is the Tan Hill–Milk Hill ridge in the Pewsey Vale, just to the north of Salisbury Plain, the chalk uplands run northeast into West Berkshire in the Marlborough Downs ridge, and southwest into Dorset as Cranborne Chase. Cranborne Chase, which straddles the border, has, like Salisbury Plain, yielded much Stone Age, the Marlborough Downs are part of the North Wessex Downs AONB, a 1,730 km2 conservation area
5.
Ceremonial counties of England
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The ceremonial counties, also referred to as the lieutenancy areas of England, are areas of England to which a Lord Lieutenant is appointed. The Local Government Act 1888 established county councils to assume the functions of Quarter Sessions in the counties. It created new entities called administrative counties, the Act further stipulated that areas that were part of an administrative county would be part of the county for all purposes. The greatest change was the creation of the County of London, which was both an administrative county and a county, it included parts of the historic counties of Middlesex, Kent. Other differences were small and resulted from the constraint that urban sanitary districts were not permitted to straddle county boundaries, apart from Yorkshire, counties that were subdivided nevertheless continued to exist as ceremonial counties. In 1974, administrative counties and county boroughs were abolished, at this time, Lieutenancy was redefined to use the new metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties directly. Following a further rearrangement in 1996, Avon, Cleveland, Hereford and Worcester, Cleveland was partitioned between North Yorkshire and Durham. Hereford and Worcester was divided into the counties of Herefordshire and Worcestershire. Humberside was split between Lincolnshire and a new county of East Riding of Yorkshire. Rutland was restored as a ceremonial county, many county boroughs were re-established as unitary authorities, this involved establishing the area as an administrative county, but usually not as a ceremonial county. Most ceremonial counties are therefore entities comprising local authority areas, as they were from 1889 to 1974, the Association of British Counties, a traditional counties lobbying organisation, has suggested that ceremonial counties be restored to their ancient boundaries, as nearly as practicable. In present-day England, the ceremonial counties correspond to the shrieval counties, the Lieutenancies Act 1997 defines counties for the purposes of lieutenancies in terms of metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties as well as Greater London and the Isles of Scilly. Although the term is not used in the Act, these counties are known as ceremonial counties. gov. uk
6.
Devizes
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Devizes /dᵻˈvaɪzᵻz/ is a market town and civil parish in the heart of Wiltshire, England. Standing on a hill at the east edge of the Vale of Pewsey, Devizes serves as a centre for banks, solicitors and shops and has an open market place where a market is held once a week. It has nearly five hundred listed buildings, some churches, a Town Hall. Its development has grown around the 11th century Norman castle, Devizes Castle was built by Osmund, Bishop of Salisbury in 1080, but the town is not mentioned in the Domesday Book. Because the castle was on the boundaries of the manors of Rowde, Bishops Cannings and Potterne it became known as the castrum ad divisas, on John Speeds map of Wiltshire, the towns name is recorded as The Devyses. The first castle on the site was of the motte and bailey form and was made of wood and earth. A new castle was built in stone by Roger of Salisbury, Devizes received its first charter in 1141 permitting regular markets. The castle changed several times during the civil war between Stephen of Blois and Matilda in the 12th century. The castle held important prisoners, including Robert Curthose, eldest son of William the Conqueror, the town has had churches since the 12th century and today has four Church of England parish churches. During the 12th and 13th centuries, the town of Devizes developed outside the castle with craftsmen, the first known market in Devizes was in 1228. The original market was in the space outside St Mary’s Church, rather than in the current Market Place. The chief products in the 16th and early 17th centuries were wheat, wool and yarn, with cheese, bacon, in 1643, during the English Civil War, Parliamentary forces under Sir William Waller besieged Royalist forces under Sir Ralph Hopton in Devizes. However the siege was lifted by a force from Oxford under Henry Wilmot, 1st Earl of Rochester. Devizes remained under Royalist control until 1645, when Oliver Cromwell attacked and forced the Royalists to surrender, the castle was destroyed in 1648 on the orders of Parliament, a process known as slighting, and today little remains of it. From the 16th century Devizes became known for its textiles, initially white woollen broadcloth but later the manufacture of serge, drugget, felt and cassimere or Zephyr cloth. In the early 18th century Devizes held the largest corn market in the West Country of England and also traded hops, cattle, horses and various types of cloth. Before the Corn Exchange was built in 1857, the trade in wheat and barley was conducted in the open, with sacks piled around the market cross. Todays cross displays the salutary tale of Ruth Pierce, accused of cheating some buyers at the market, The coroner, John Clare, wool merchants were able to build prosperous town houses in St. Johns and Long Street and around the market place
7.
Marlborough, Wiltshire
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Marlborough is a market town and civil parish in the English county of Wiltshire on the Old Bath Road, the old main road from London to Bath. It boasts the second widest high street in Britain, after Stockton-on-Tees, the town is on the River Kennet. The earliest sign of habitation is a 62 feet high prehistoric tumulus in the grounds of Marlborough College. Recent radiocarbon dating has found it to date from about 2400 BC and it is of similar age to the larger Silbury Hill about 5 miles west of the town. Legend has it that the Mound is the site of Merlin. On John Speeds map of Wiltshire, the name is recorded as Marlinges boroe. The towns motto is Ubi nunc sapientis ossa Merlini - Where now are the bones of wise Merlin, more plausibly, the towns name probably derives from the medieval term for chalky ground marl – thus town on chalk. Roman remains and the large Mildenhall Hoard of coins have found two miles to the east of Marlborough, at Mildenhall. A later Saxon settlement grew up around The Green and two river crossings were made at Isbury Lane and Stonebridge Lane. In 1067 William the Conqueror assumed control of the Marlborough area and set about building a motte and bailey castle. This was completed in around 1100, stone was used to strengthen the castle in around 1175. The first written record of Marlborough dates from the Domesday Book in 1087, William also established a mint in Marlborough, which coined the William I and the early William II silver pennies. The coins display the name of the town as Maerlebi or Maerleber and he also established the neighbouring Savernake Forest as a favourite Royal hunting ground and Marlborough castle became a Royal residence. Henry I observed Easter here in 1110, Henry II stayed at Marlborough castle in talks with the King of Scotland. His son, Richard I gave the castle to his brother John, King John was married here and spent time in Marlborough. He also established that weekly markets may be held on Wednesdays and Saturdays, later Henry III was also married here. Henry III held Parliament here, in 1267, when the Statute of Marlborough was passed and this seven-hundred-year-old law states that no-one shall seize his neighbours goods for alleged wrong without permission of the Court. Apart from Charters, it is the oldest statute in English law which has not yet been repealed, the castle fell into disrepair by the end of the 14th century but remained Crown property
8.
Durrington, Wiltshire
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Durrington is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. The village lies about 2 miles north of the town of Amesbury,10 miles north of the city of Salisbury and it is on the eastern part of Salisbury Plain, the largest remaining area of chalk grassland in northwest Europe. The parish includes the hamlet of Hackthorn, on the outskirts of Durrington. Durrington has a history, dating back to the Neolithic era. Two ancient sites lie in the parish, Durrington Walls and Woodhenge, the parish is in the Upper Avon valley, with the River Avon forming its eastern boundary, Durrington village is close to the river. The toponym is derived from the Old English Deor ingtūn, meaning farm or settlement connected with Deor, Deor being a personal name. The villages population of about 5,000 is served by several shops, the area had been occupied since Neolithic times but not necessarily continuously. The parish contains two important Neolithic sites, Durrington Walls and Woodhenge, recent archaeological excavations indicate that the Neolithic inhabitants of the village kept a large number of pigs, with bone evidence suggesting that the pigs were unusually large for the time. This may be because inhabitants fattened them up to them to visitors to nearby Stonehenge. There is little evidence of Saxon occupation, but this may be because buildings and utensils of that time were made of wood, the Domesday Book recorded two estates in 1086, having land for one plough team and with 5 acres of meadow. These two estates may represent the two manors. West End manor was part of the estate of Amesbury until 1120 but East End manor had different origins. At this time each manor was using the field system. The population also increasing and in 1377 there were 139 poll tax payers making Durrington one of the most populous villages in the hundred of Amesbury. In 1390, Durringtons manors had an income of £40 which gradually decreased to £29 8s 6d in 1521. In 1399 the West End manor was given as an endowment of the newly created Winchester College, and they have also provided the name for College Road. In 1405 the Durrington Fire occurred, the cause of which is unknown and it is widely theorised that a lamp falling onto a bale of hay caused it to ignite, or possibly that a house fire got out of control. Whatever the cause, the resulted in the destruction of most of the West End because most of the houses were built in an unusually close proximity to one another
9.
Pewsey
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Pewsey is a large village and civil parish at the centre of the Vale of Pewsey in Wiltshire, about 6 miles south of Marlborough and 80 miles west of London. It is within reach of the M4 motorway and the A303 and is served by Pewsey railway station on the London to Taunton line, in the Tudor era the Manor of Pewsey belonged to the Duchess of Somerset. Several of the houses were built in this era, the timber framed cruck house at Ball Corner, Bridge Cottage on the Avon. In 1764 the founder of the Methodist movement John Wesley preached at Pewseys Church of England parish church, the rector at that time, Joseph Townsend, was responsible for building of the first bridge over the River Avon. The Kennet and Avon Canal reached Pewsey in 1810, of more lasting effect for the village was the arrival of the Great Western Railway in 1862 which allowed fast travel to London and to the West Country. In 1898 Pewsey Carnival was first held, a tradition that flourishes today with a fortnight of events, including The Feaste, a prominent statue of King Alfred the Great, the former Anglo Saxon King of Wessex and a local landowner, stands in the middle of the village. The Pewsey White Horse hill figure is located on a slope of Pewsey Hill about a mile south of the village. It was cut in 1937 and is one of the smaller Wiltshire white horses and it replaces an earlier one which was possibly cut in 1785. An electoral ward in the name exists. The ward starts in the west at Pewsey and stretches east to Easton Royal, the total population of the ward at the 2011 census was 4,649. Pewsey has a secondary school, Pewsey Vale School, an Academy which is a specialist Arts College. It is adjacent to the leisure centre and indoor swimming pool. It has a state Primary Academy, Pewsey Primary School, the OFSTED of 2012 rated it as good with scope to use mathematics more across the school. It has achieved good Key Stage Two SATS results for Wiltshire and it appeared in the 100 Most Improved Schools table for its 2013 results and its 2014 results put it in the top 100 schools nationally. St. Francis School, an independent preparatory school, is just outside the village, the Anglican Church of St John the Baptist is Grade I listed. It was built in the 12th and 13th centuries with many later additions, a Methodist chapel was built in 1873 and became a church in 1932. The Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Family was built in 1964, Pewsey has a Post Office, a petrol station, and a Co-op supermarket. The village has one bar and five pubs
10.
United Kingdom general election, 1885
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The 1885 United Kingdom general election was from 24 November to 18 December 1885. This was the first general election after an extension of the franchise, for the first time a majority of adult males could vote and most constituencies returned a single-member to Parliament. It saw the Liberals, led by William Ewart Gladstone, win the most seats, but not an overall majority
11.
Claire Perry
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Claire Louise Perry is a Conservative Member of Parliament for Devizes, England, elected in the 2010 general election. Perry served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Philip Hammond, the Secretary of State for Defence and she was Rail minister from July 2014 to July 2016. The youngest of three children, Perry was raised in North Somerset and she was educated at Nailsea School and Brasenose College, Oxford, where she read Geography, graduating in 1985. One of her colleagues at Brasenose was journalist George Monbiot, who described her at the time as a firebrand who wanted to nationalise the banks and she later obtained an MBA at Harvard University. Perry worked in banking and finance for Bank of America, McKinsey & Company, after joining the Conservative party in 2006, Perry worked for the Chancellor George Osborne. She was selected in November 2009 as a Conservative candidate after Michael Ancram announced his intention to stand down from Devizes, in October 2011 Perry was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Philip Hammond, the Secretary of State for Defence. She held this role until October 2013 when she became a Government Assistant Whip, on 15 July 2014, Perry was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport, with responsibility for rail fares, rail franchising, freight and logistics and transport agencies. She resigned from this position on 14 July 2016 at the time of the reshuffle when Theresa May became Prime Minister, Perry campaigned for improvements in online safety and in 2011 led an Independent Parliamentary Inquiry into Online Child Protection, with a particular focus on online pornography. She was subsequently appointed by the Prime Minister, David Cameron, Perry argued for blocks on pornography for all internet users unless they opt out of it, citing the need to protect children. In July 2013, hackers placed pornographic images on Perrys own website, Perry accused political blogger Paul Staines – known as Guido Fawkes – of sponsoring the attack, while Staines threatened to sue her for libel if the claim was not removed. In 2012, Perry mistakenly stated that the debt and national deficit were the same thing in a discussion on BBC Radio 5 Live. She was one of only seven Conservative MPs to vote for an amendment arguing that Parliament should have the say on any deal to leave the EU. She subsequently voted with her party in approving the decision to enact Article 50 and she currently lives in Pewsey Vale
12.
Conservative Party (UK)
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The Conservative Party, officially the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a political party in the United Kingdom. It is currently the party, having won a majority of seats in the House of Commons at the 2015 general election. The partys leader, Theresa May, is serving as Prime Minister. It is the largest party in government with 8,702 councillors. The Conservative Party is one of the two major political parties in the United Kingdom, the other being its modern rival. The Conservative Partys platform involves support for market capitalism, free enterprise, fiscal conservatism, a strong national defence, deregulation. In the 1920s, the Liberal vote greatly diminished and the Labour Party became the Conservatives main rivals, Conservative Prime Ministers led governments for 57 years of the twentieth century, including Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher. Thatchers tenure led to wide-ranging economic liberalisation, the Conservative Partys domination of British politics throughout the twentieth century has led to them being referred to as one of the most successful political parties in the Western world. The Conservatives are the joint-second largest British party in the European Parliament, with twenty MEPs, the party is a member of the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe Europarty and the International Democrat Union. The party is the second-largest in the Scottish Parliament and the second-largest in the Welsh Assembly, the party is also organised in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. The Conservative Party traces its origins to a faction, rooted in the 18th century Whig Party and they were known as Independent Whigs, Friends of Mr Pitt, or Pittites. After Pitts death the term Tory came into use and this was an allusion to the Tories, a political grouping that had existed from 1678, but which had no organisational continuity with the Pittite party. From about 1812 on the name Tory was commonly used for the newer party, the term Conservative was suggested as a title for the party by a magazine article by J. Wilson Croker in the Quarterly Review in 1830. The name immediately caught on and was adopted under the aegis of Sir Robert Peel around 1834. Peel is acknowledged as the founder of the Conservative Party, which he created with the announcement of the Tamworth Manifesto, the term Conservative Party rather than Tory was the dominant usage by 1845. In 1912, the Liberal Unionists merged with the Conservative Party, in Ireland, the Irish Unionist Alliance had been formed in 1891 which merged anti-Home Rule Unionists into one political movement. Its MPs took the Conservative whip at Westminster, and in essence formed the Irish wing of the party until 1922. The Conservatives served with the Liberals in an all-party coalition government during World War I, keohane finds that the Conservatives were bitterly divided before 1914, especially on the issue of Irish Unionism and the experience of three consecutive election losses
13.
European Parliament
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The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union. Together with the Council of the European Union and the European Commission, the Parliament is composed of 751 members, who represent the second-largest democratic electorate in the world and the largest trans-national democratic electorate in the world. It has been elected every five years by universal suffrage since 1979. However, voter turnout at European Parliament elections has fallen consecutively at each election since that date, voter turnout in 2014 stood at 42. 54% of all European voters. The Parliament is the first institution of the EU, and shares equal legislative and it likewise has equal control over the EU budget. Finally, the European Commission, the body of the EU, is accountable to Parliament. In particular, Parliament elects the President of the Commission, and it can subsequently force the Commission as a body to resign by adopting a motion of censure. The President of the European Parliament is Antonio Tajani, elected in January 2017 and he presides over a multi-party chamber, the two largest groups being the Group of the European Peoples Party and the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats. The last union-wide elections were the 2014 elections, the European Parliament has three places of work – Brussels, the city of Luxembourg and Strasbourg. Luxembourg is home to the administrative offices, meetings of the whole Parliament take place in Strasbourg and in Brussels. Committee meetings are held in Brussels, the Parliament, like the other institutions, was not designed in its current form when it first met on 10 September 1952. One of the oldest common institutions, it began as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and it was a consultative assembly of 78 appointed parliamentarians drawn from the national parliaments of member states, having no legislative powers. Its development since its foundation shows how the European Unions structures have evolved without a master plan. Some, such as Tom Reid of the Washington Post, said of the union, nobody would have designed a government as complex. Even the Parliaments two seats, which have switched several times, are a result of various agreements or lack of agreements, the body was not mentioned in the original Schuman Declaration. It was assumed or hoped that difficulties with the British would be resolved to allow the Council of Europes Assembly to perform the task, a separate Assembly was introduced during negotiations on the Treaty as an institution which would counterbalance and monitor the executive while providing democratic legitimacy. The wording of the ECSC Treaty demonstrated the desire for more than a normal consultative assembly by using the term representatives of the people. Its early importance was highlighted when the Assembly was given the task of drawing up the treaty to establish a European Political Community
14.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
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It alone possesses legislative supremacy and thereby ultimate power over all other political bodies in the UK and its territories. Its head is the Sovereign of the United Kingdom and its seat is the Palace of Westminster in the City of Westminster, one of the boroughs of the British capital, the parliament is bicameral, consisting of an upper house and a lower house. The Sovereign forms the third component of the legislature, prior to the opening of the Supreme Court in October 2009, the House of Lords also performed a judicial role through the Law Lords. The House of Commons is an elected chamber with elections held at least every five years. The two Houses meet in separate chambers in the Palace of Westminster in London, most cabinet ministers are from the Commons, whilst junior ministers can be from either House. The Parliament of Great Britain was formed in 1707 following the ratification of the Treaty of Union by Acts of Union passed by the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland. The UK parliament and its institutions have set the pattern for many throughout the world. However, John Bright – who coined the epithet – used it with reference to a rather than a parliament. In theory, the UKs supreme legislative power is vested in the Crown-in-Parliament. However, the Crown normally acts on the advice of the Prime Minister, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was created in 1801, by the merger of the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland under the Acts of Union. The principle of responsibility to the lower House did not develop until the 19th century—the House of Lords was superior to the House of Commons both in theory and in practice. Members of the House of Commons were elected in an electoral system. Thus, the borough of Old Sarum, with seven voters, many small constituencies, known as pocket or rotten boroughs, were controlled by members of the House of Lords, who could ensure the election of their relatives or supporters. During the reforms of the 19th century, beginning with the Reform Act 1832, No longer dependent on the Lords for their seats, MPs grew more assertive. The supremacy of the British House of Commons was established in the early 20th century, in 1909, the Commons passed the so-called Peoples Budget, which made numerous changes to the taxation system which were detrimental to wealthy landowners. The House of Lords, which consisted mostly of powerful landowners, on the basis of the Budgets popularity and the Lords consequent unpopularity, the Liberal Party narrowly won two general elections in 1910. Using the result as a mandate, the Liberal Prime Minister, Herbert Henry Asquith, introduced the Parliament Bill, in the face of such a threat, the House of Lords narrowly passed the bill. However, regardless of the Parliament Acts of 1911 and 1949, the Government of Ireland Act 1920 created the parliaments of Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland and reduced the representation of both parts at Westminster
15.
Reform Act 1867
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The Representation of the People Act 1867,30 &31 Vict. c.102 was a piece of British legislation that enfranchised part of the urban male working class in England and Wales for the first time. Before the Act, only one million of the seven million adult males in England and Wales could vote, moreover, by the end of 1868 all male heads of household were enfranchised as a result of the end of compounding of rents. However, the Act introduced only a negligible redistribution of seats, the overall intent was to help the Conservative Party, yet it resulted in their loss of the 1868 general election. After 1848, this movement declined rapidly, and elite opinion began to change and it was thus only 28 years after the initial, quite modest, Great Reform Act that leading politicians thought it prudent to introduce further electoral reform. Lord John Russell, who in 1861 became the first Earl Russell, attempted this in 1860, but the Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston, when Palmerston died in 1865, however, the floodgates for reform were opened. Influential commentators included Walter Bagehot, Thomas Carlyle, Anthony Trollope, Karl Marx, in 1866, the Prime Minister, Lord Russell, introduced a Reform Bill. It was a bill, which proposed to enfranchise respectable working men, excluding unskilled workers and what was known as the residuum. This was ensured by a £7 householder qualification, which had been calculated to require an income of 26 shillings a week and this entailed two fancy franchises, emulating measures of 1854, a £10 lodger qualification for the boroughs, and a £50 savings qualification in the counties. Liberals claimed that the classes, strengthened by the best of the artisans. When it came to the vote, however, this split the Liberal Party, a split partly engineered by Benjamin Disraeli. On one side were the reactionary conservative Liberals, known as the Adullamites, the Adullamites were supported by Tories and the liberal Whigs were supported by radicals and reformists. The bill was defeated and the Liberal government of Russell resigned. The Conservatives formed a ministry on 26 June 1866, led by Lord Derby as Prime Minister and they were faced with the challenge of reviving Conservatism, Palmerston, the powerful Liberal leader, was dead and the Liberal Party split and defeated. Thanks to manoeuvring by Disraeli, Derbys Conservatives saw an opportunity to be a strong, viable party of government, however, the Adullamites, led by Robert Lowe, had already been working closely with the Conservative Party. Despite the fact that he had blocked the Liberal Reform Bill, in February 1867, by this time the attitude of many in the country had ceased to be apathetic regarding reform of the House of Commons. Huge meetings, especially the ‘Hyde Park riots, and the feeling that many of the working class were respectable, had persuaded many that there should be a Reform Bill. However, wealthy Conservative MP Lord Cranborne resigned his government ministry in disgust at the bills introduction, the Reform League, agitating for universal suffrage, became much more active, and organized demonstrations of hundreds of thousands of people in Manchester, Glasgow, and other towns. Though these movements did not normally use revolutionary language as some Chartists had in the 1840s, the high point came when a demonstration in May 1867 in Hyde Park was banned by the government
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First-past-the-post voting
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First-past-the-post voting method is one of several plurality voting methods. It is a common, but not universal, feature of voting methods with single-member electoral divisions, the method is widely used in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, and most of their current and former colonies and protectorates, and a few other countries. There is some confusion between highest vote, majority vote and plurality voting methods, all three use a first-past-the-post voting method, but there are subtle differences in the method of execution. First-past-the-post voting is used in two-round systems and some exhaustive ballots. First-past-the-post voting methods can be used for single- and multiple-member electoral divisions, in a single-member election, the candidate with the highest number – not necessarily a majority – of votes is elected. The two-round voting method uses a first-past-the-post voting method in each of the two rounds, the first round determines which two candidates will progress to the second, final-round ballot. In a multiple-member, first-past-the-post ballot, the first number of candidates – in order of highest vote, if there are six vacancies, then the first six candidates with the highest vote are elected. The Electoral Reform Society is a pressure group based in the United Kingdom which advocates abolishing the first-past-the-post method for all national and local elections. It argues FPTP is bad for voters, bad for government and it is the oldest organisation concerned with electoral methods in the world. States other than Maine and Nebraska use a form of simple plurality, first-past-the-post voting. Under a first-past-the-post voting method the highest polling candidate is elected, in this real-life example, Tony Tan obtained a greater number than the other candidates, and so was declared the winner, even though majority of voters did not vote for him. It is more likely that a party will hold a majority of legislative seats. In the United Kingdom,18 out of 23 general elections since 1922 have produced a single-party majority government. For example, the 2005 United Kingdom general election results in Great Britain are as follows, It can be seen that Labour took a majority of seats, 57%, the largest two parties took 69% of votes and 88% of seats. Meanwhile, the smaller Liberal Democrat party took more than a fifth of votes, another example would be the UK General Election held on 7 May 2015, Here, the Conservatives took 51% of the seats with only 37% of the vote. It should be noted that the Liberal Democrats also suffered under first-past-the-post, the benefits of FPTP are that its concept is very easy to understand, and ballots can be easily counted and processed. Alternative methods such as rank-based voting require far more work or processing power to tabulate results than a single choice, supporters of FPTP argue that it is the electoral method providing the best governance. It trades fairness in representation for more responsible government and its tendency to produce majority rule allows the government to pursue a consistent strategy for its term in office and to make decisions that may be both correct and unpopular
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Redistribution of Seats Act 1885
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The Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was associated with, but not part of, the Reform Act 1884, the first major reform of parliamentary seats took place under the Reform Act 1832. The next redistribution of seats occurred in three parliamentary acts in 1867–68. The Reform Act 1867 applied to English and Welsh constituencies and this was followed by the Representation of the People Act 1868 which redistributed Scottish seats and gave Scotland extra seats at the expense of England. The third act was the Representation of the People Act 1868, the 1868 redistribution had proved unsatisfactory and there had been only superficial attempts to match the numbers of representatives to the population of a constituency. A few of the largest towns were given three MPs, but electors could vote for two candidates. As a result, the importance of these boroughs was reduced, for example. In a Commons vote on party lines, the Conservative neutralised one of the Liberals, smaller boroughs with two members of the same party had twice the voting power in the house as the larger boroughs. By the 1880s, continued growth and resulting population movements had resulted in an increased imbalance between the constituencies in terms of the numbers of MPs and the population. The Liberals had a majority in the House of Commons. The House of Lords, on the hand, was dominated by the Conservative Party. The Conservative leader, Lord Salisbury, was opposed to the bill, the majority of the Conservative partys MPs were elected by the counties, with the Liberals being electorally strong in the boroughs. This, he claimed, would lead to the absolute effacement of the Conservative Party, Salisbury hoped to use the Conservative majority in the Lords to block the bill and force Gladstone to seek a dissolution of Parliament before the reforms could be enacted. The Lords duly rejected the bill and returned it to the Commons, a campaign organised around the slogan The Peers Against the People called for reform or abolition of the Lords if they rejected the bill a second time. In October 1884 Queen Victoria intervened in what was becoming a constitutional crisis, urging the party leaders to meet. Negotiations duly started at Salisburys London home in Arlington Street, Westminster, Salisbury agreed to allow the reform bill to pass on condition that a bill to redistribute parliamentary seats was also enacted. The two parties reached an agreement, known as the Arlington Street Compact, whereby the majority of MPs would be elected in single-member constituencies. The division of boroughs would allow the suburban areas of towns to be represented separately from the inner cities, allowing the growth of Villa Toryism
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Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth
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Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth, PC was a British statesman who served as Prime Minister from 1801 to 1804. He is best known for obtaining the Treaty of Amiens in 1802, when that treaty broke down he resumed the war but he was without allies and conducted a relatively weak defensive war, ahead of what would become the War of the Third Coalition. He was forced from office in favour of William Pitt the Younger, Addington is also known for his ruthless and efficient crackdown on dissent during a ten-year spell as Home Secretary from 1812 to 1822. He is the longest continuously serving holder of office since it was created in 1782. Henry Addington was the son of Anthony Addington, Pitts physician, and Mary Addington, as a consequence of his fathers position, Addington was a childhood friend of William Pitt the Younger. Addington studied at Reading School, Winchester and Brasenose College, Oxford, Addington is a relative of Robert Sharrock who collaborated with Robert Boyle. Addington is the relative of John Sharrock of the Visitation Family of Cornwall, david Sharrock, Heralds’ Visitation of Cornwall He was elected to the House of Commons in 1784 as Member of Parliament for Devizes, and became Speaker of the House of Commons in 1789. Both Pitt and the King insisted that Addington take over as Prime Minister, despite his own objections, foreign policy was the centerpiece of his term in office. Some historians have been highly critical saying it was ignorant and indifferent to Britains greatest needs, addingtons domestic reforms doubled the efficiency of the Income tax. In foreign affairs he secured the Treaty of Amiens, in 1802, at the time and ever since Addington has been criticized for his lackluster conduct of the war and his defensive posture. However without allies, Britains options were limited to defence and he did increase the forces, provide a tax base that could finance an enlarged war, and seize several French possessions. To gain allies, Addington cultivated better relations with Russia, Austria, and Prussia, Addington also strengthened British defences against a French invasion through the building of Martello towers on the south coast and the raising of more than 600,000 men at arms. Although the king stood by him it was not enough because Addington did not have a strong hold on the two houses of Parliament. Addingtons greatest failing was his inability to manage a majority, by cultivating the loyal support of MPs beyond his own circle. This combined with his speaking ability, left him vulnerable to Pitts mastery of parliamentary management. Pitts parliamentary assault against Addington in March 1804 led to the slimming of his majority to the point where defeat in the House of Commons was imminent. Addington remained an important political figure, however, and the year he was created Viscount Sidmouth. He served in Pitts final Cabinet as Lord President of the Council to 1806 and he returned to government again as Lord President in March 1812, and, in June of the same year, became Home Secretary
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Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
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The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is the head of Her Majestys Government in the United Kingdom. The prime minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Monarch, to Parliament, to their political party, the office is one of the Great Offices of State. The current prime minister, Theresa May, leader of the Conservative Party, was appointed by the Queen on 13 July 2016. The position of Prime Minister was not created, it evolved slowly and erratically over three hundred years due to acts of Parliament, political developments, and accidents of history. The office is therefore best understood from a historical perspective, the origins of the position are found in constitutional changes that occurred during the Revolutionary Settlement and the resulting shift of political power from the Sovereign to Parliament. The political position of Prime Minister was enhanced by the development of political parties, the introduction of mass communication. By the start of the 20th century the modern premiership had emerged, prior to 1902, the prime minister sometimes came from the House of Lords, provided that his government could form a majority in the Commons. However as the power of the aristocracy waned during the 19th century the convention developed that the Prime Minister should always sit in the lower house. As leader of the House of Commons, the Prime Ministers authority was further enhanced by the Parliament Act of 1911 which marginalised the influence of the House of Lords in the law-making process. The Prime Minister is ex officio also First Lord of the Treasury, certain privileges, such as residency of 10 Downing Street, are accorded to Prime Ministers by virtue of their position as First Lord of the Treasury. As the Head of Her Majestys Government the modern Prime Minister leads the Cabinet, in addition the Prime Minister leads a major political party and generally commands a majority in the House of Commons. As such the incumbent wields both legislative and executive powers, under the British system there is a unity of powers rather than separation. In the House of Commons, the Prime Minister guides the process with the goal of enacting the legislative agenda of their political party. The Prime Minister also acts as the face and voice of Her Majestys Government. The British system of government is based on an uncodified constitution, in 1928, Prime Minister H. H. Asquith described this characteristic of the British constitution in his memoirs, In this country we live. Our constitutional practices do not derive their validity and sanction from any Bill which has received the assent of the King, Lords. They rest on usage, custom, convention, often of slow growth in their early stages, not always uniform, the relationships between the Prime Minister and the Sovereign, Parliament and Cabinet are defined largely by these unwritten conventions of the constitution. Many of the Prime Ministers executive and legislative powers are actually royal prerogatives which are still vested in the Sovereign
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Speaker of the House of Commons (United Kingdom)
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The Speaker of the House of Commons is the presiding officer of the House of Commons, the United Kingdoms lower chamber of Parliament. The office is held by John Bercow, who was initially elected on 22 June 2009. He was returned as an MP in the 2010 general election and was re-elected as Speaker when the House sat at the start of the new Parliament on 18 May 2010. He was again returned as an MP in the 2015 general election and was re-elected, unopposed, the Speaker presides over the Houses debates, determining which members may speak. The Speaker is also responsible for maintaining order during debate, the Speaker does not take part in debate or vote. Aside from duties relating to presiding over the House, the Speaker also performs administrative and procedural functions, the Speaker has the right and obligation to reside in Speakers House at the Palace of Westminster. The office of Speaker is almost as old as Parliament itself, the earliest year for which a presiding officer has been identified is 1258, when Peter de Montfort presided over the Parliament held in Oxford. Early presiding officers were known by the title parlour or prolocutor, Edward III was frail and in seclusion, his prestigious eldest son, Edward the Black Prince, terminally ill. It was left to the son, a furious John of Gaunt. He arrested De la Mare and disgraced other leading critics, in the next, Bad Parliament, in 1377, a cowed Commons put forward Gaunts steward, Thomas Hungerford, as their spokesman in retracting their predecessors misdoings of the previous year. On 6 October 1399, Sir John Cheyne of Beckford was elected speaker, the powerful Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Arundel, is said to have voiced his fears of Cheynes reputation as a critic of the Church. Eight days later, Cheyne resigned on grounds of ill-health, although he remained in favour with the king, in such a situation, the influence of the speaker should not be underestimated. Sir Thomas More was the first speaker to go on to become Lord Chancellor, until the 17th century, members of the House of Commons often continued to view their Speaker as an agent of the Crown. As Parliament evolved, however, the Speakers position grew into one that involved more duties to the House than to the Crown, such was definitely the case by the time of the English Civil War. This change is said to be reflected by an incident in 1642. The development of Cabinet government under King William III in the late 17th century caused further change in the nature of the Speakership, Speakers were generally associated with the ministry, and often held other government offices. For example, Robert Harley served simultaneously as Speaker and as a Secretary of State between 1704 and 1705, the Speaker between 1728 and 1761, Arthur Onslow, reduced ties with the government, though the office did remain to a large degree political. The Speakership evolved into its modern form—in which the holder is an impartial and apolitical officer who does not belong to any party—only during the middle of the 19th century, over 150 individuals have served as Speaker of the House of Commons
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Ludgershall, Wiltshire
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Ludgershall is a town and civil parish 16 miles north east of Salisbury, Wiltshire, England. It is on the A342 road between Devizes and Andover, the parish includes the Faberstown housing estate which is contiguous with Ludgershall, and the hamlet of Biddesden which is 1.5 miles to the east on the border with Hampshire. There is evidence of settlement in the late Bronze Age or early Iron Age at Windmill Down on the edge of the parish. The entry in the Domesday Book reads as follows, Edward of Salisbury holds Ludgershall, alfward held it before 1066, it paid tax for one hide. In Lordship 2 ploughs,3 slaves,8 Cottagers with 1 plough, pasture 3 furlongs long and 1 furlong wide, woodland ½ league long and 2 furlongs wide. Ludgershall was originally called Litlegarsele, often rendered as lytel, small and garsheath, in 1141 the Empress Maud took refuge in Ludgershall Castle as she fled from King Stephens army. She was accompanied by Milo Fitzwalter and escaped disguised as a corpse to Vies, some 600 years later a seal was found by a ploughman, bearing a knight in armour and holding a lance shield with the inscription Sigillum Millonis De Glocestria. It is thought Fitzwalter threw away the seal to avoid identification when he escaped as a beggar, during succeeding centuries Ludgershall Castle was occupied by many distinguished persons and royalty frequently resided there. The village grew around the castle, the town now features the remains of this 12th century fortified royal residence known as Ludgershall Castle. Three large walls still remain of the residence, which was turned into a hunting lodge by King Henry III. The property is now under the care of English Heritage, extensive earthworks remain, although a large section of the original plot is now a private residence. The remains of a Medieval preaching cross known as Ludgershall Cross are situated in the town centre and this is also under the care of English Heritage. It was re-erected some time in the early 19th century in the area formed the old market place. It is some 12 feet in height and in 1897, to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria, the cross has carved representations on four sides but they are badly eroded. H. Huth and bear a crown in each corner, a local Masonic lodge, The Border Lodge no.3129, consecrated in 1905 and meeting at the old Prince of Wales House hotel building, uses the preaching cross as its emblem. The Anglican Church of St James dates from the 12th century and is Grade I listed, during the Second World War, Army depots were built to the north and south of Tidworth Road. The War Office transferred the Army Medical Store to a site west of the railway station, the US Army prepared vehicles for the invasion of Europe at the depot in 1943. The barracks are now home to 26 Engineer Regiment, Royal Engineers, Ludgershall had a railway station on the Swindon, Marlborough and Andover Railway which was opened in 1882
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Tidworth
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Tidworth is a garrison town and civil parish in south-east Wiltshire, England, located along the A338 road and close to the A303 road. It has a civilian population. Tidworth was listed in the Domesday Book as Todeorde, in the Andover Hundred and it was once the family home of the Studd family. On John Speeds maps, the town is referred to as Tudworth, North Tudworth belonging to Amesbury hundred in Wilshire, and South Tudworth to Andover hundred in Hamshire. When the boundary between Wiltshire and Hampshire was redrawn in 1992, the old distinction between North Tidworth and South Tidworth vanished, and the town became part of Wiltshire. The two parts remained as civil parishes until 1 April 2004. In recent years the population of the town has increased as Tidworth Camp has expanded, the population of Tidworth will continue to increase with the implementation of the Army Basing Plan leading up to 2020. The parish elects a town council, the parish includes the village of Perham Down. It is in the area of Wiltshire Council unitary authority, which is responsible for most local government functions, an electoral ward exists with the same name. The population of the ward taken at the 2011 census was 9,174 and its situation near the A303, and hence the M3, places Tidworth within commuting distance of London. Tidworth has a commercial area containing two supermarkets, two veterinary surgeries, a pharmacy, and other shops and services including a 900mobile phone shop. A dental surgery serves Tidworth and the area, covering approximately 5,000 people. In 2003 a new centre was completed, the cost being split between the Ministry of Defence and the NHS, as it serves the armed forces and their dependants within the surrounding area. Tidworth has one of the lowest crime rates per thousand in Wiltshire, in 2014, it was rated by the Royal Mail as the most attractive postcode area to live in in England. The community is served by three schools and an infant school. The Wellington Academy, which was sponsored by Wellington College, opened in September 2009. The academy has a sixth form college, a sports pitch. The parent unit of the CCF is 26 Royal Engineers, housed nearby at Swinton Barracks, the local garrison commander is a governor of the academy
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Bulford
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Bulford is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, close to Salisbury Plain. The village is close to Durrington and about 1.5 miles north of the town of Amesbury, the Bulford Camp army base is separate from the village but within the parish. The Salisbury Avon forms the boundary of the parish. The Bulford Kiwi a large representation of a kiwi on the hill above the village. Evidence of occupation of the area in the late Neolithic era is provided by many round barrows on the downs, a Bronze Age boundary ditch is in the northeast of the parish. The 1086 Domesday Book recorded 39 households at Bulford, within an estate of Amesbury Abbey, the name is derived from the Old English bulut ieg ford meaning ragged robin island ford. It is recorded in the Wiltshire Charter Rolls of 1199 as Bultiford and it is then recorded as Bulteforde in the Ecclesiastical Tax Records of 1291. From 1897, land east of Bulford began to be used by the Army as Bulford Camp, the line closed to passengers in 1952 but goods services continued until 1963. The civil parish elects a parish council and it is in the area of Wiltshire Council, a unitary authority which is responsible for most local government functions. The parish is part of Bulford, Allington and Figheldean electoral ward, the ward starts in the north at Figheldean, stretches south through Bulford and ends in the south at Allington. The population of the ward at the 2011 census was 6,018, the Church of England parish church of St Leonard, to the west of the village near the Avon, is from the late 12th century and is a Grade I listed building. Alterations were made in the 13th century, and again in the 14th and 16th, the foundations of the tower proved to be inadequate and its height was reduced, probably in the 16th century. In the 19th century a north transept was added, restoration in 1902–11 was directed by C. E. Ponting. Today the church is part of the Avon River team ministry, Bulford Independent Congregational Chapel was built towards the south of the village in 1828 to replace an earlier meeting house. As of 2016 the chapel is still in use and the congregation is associated with the Evangelical Fellowship of Congregational Churches, the Camp has an Anglican church, St Georges and a Catholic church, Our Lady Queen of Peace. Bulford St Leonards CE Primary School serves the village, an elementary school was built on the High Street in 1874, replacing a school founded in 1758 which was housed in a cottage near the church. Following the expansion of the village in the 1960s, the present building was opened in 1971 on a new site towards the northeast of the village, avondale School is an independent preparatory school for children aged 2–11. The school was founded in Amesbury and has been on Bulfords High Street since 1957, Bulford Camp has a primary school called Kiwi Primary School
