As there were no township boundaries in 1832, the original constituency was defined as a circular area in a radius of three-quarters of a mile from the old market place. In 1868 the boundary was extended to include Wardleworth, Spotland, Wuerdle, Belfield, Newbold, Buersill, and Marland. 1918–1950: The County Borough of Rochdale 1950–1983: As prior but with redrawn boundaries 1983–1997: The Borough of Rochdale wards of Balderstone, Brimrod and Deeplish, Castleton, Central and Falinge, Healey, Newbold, Norden and Bamford, Smallbridge and Wardleworth, and Spotland 1997–2010: The Borough of Rochdale wards of Balderstone, Brimrod and Deeplish, Central and Falinge, Healey, Littleborough, Newbold, Smallbridge and Wardleworth, Spotland, and Wardle 2010–present: The Borough of Rochdale wards of Balderstone and Kirkholt, Central Rochdale, Healey, Kingsway, Littleborough Lakeside, Milkstone and Deeplish, Milnrow and Newhey, Smallbridge and Firgrove, Spotland and Falinge, and Wardle and West Littleborough The constituency is one of two covering the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. It contains most of the town of Rochdale itself as well as Littleborough, Wardle and some of the surrounding rural area. For the 2010 general election, the seat gained the villages of Milnrow and Newhey from Oldham East and Saddleworth and lost the areas of Sudden, Marland, and part of Norden to Heywood and Middleton, a 19.16% boundary change. Those changes made the seat a notional Labour victory in the Rallings and Thrasher figures which were used by the Press Association for determining gains, losses and swings. However, other predictions by political commentatorMartin Baxter showed the seat maintaining a narrow Lib Dem majority.
History
Rochdale was one of the constituencies created by the Reform Act of 1832, and has been a Labour/Liberal Democrat marginal for many years, although it was held by the Conservatives for part of the 1950s, until a 1958 by-election. It was held for two decades by Cyril Smith, first of the Liberal Party and then of the Liberal Democrats. He won a by-election in 1972, taking the seat from Labour, and held it until his retirement in 1992. Since Smith's death it emerged Smith was a serial child abuser. After Smith's retirement, contests have been tighter. The Liberal Democrats held the seat, with Liz Lynne at the 1992 general election, only to lose to Labour's Lorna Fitzsimons at the 1997 election. However, the Liberal Democrats regained the seat at the 2005 election, with Paul Rowen. In 2010, the town was brought to national attention when then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown was caught on a tape recording describing a local woman, Gillian Duffy, as a "bigot" after having a conversation with her while campaigning, but despite the unfavourable publicity, Labour still managed to narrowly win the seat from the Liberal Democrats, and in 2015 achieved their highest majority in the seat's history, with the Liberal Democrats falling to fourth place.
A General Election was due to take place by the end of 1915. By the summer of 1914, the following candidates had been adopted to contest that election. Due to the outbreak of war, the election never took place.
