Chippenham is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom since 2024 by Sarah Gibson, a Liberal Democrat. The 2024 constituency includes the Wiltshire towns of Calne, Chippenham, Corsham and Royal Wootton Bassett.
In May 2023, the incumbent Chippenham MP, Michelle Donelan, announced she would be standing for the new Melksham and Devizes constituency. In July 2023, the local Conservative Association announced that their candidate for the new Chippenham constituency would be a local unitary councillor, Nic Puntis.
The Chippenham constituency is located in Wiltshire and is mostly rural. Its largest town is Chippenham with a population of around 37,000. Other settlements include the towns of Corsham, Calne and Royal Wootton Bassett and the village and military base of Lyneham. Chippenham is a historic market town and the area houses many workers who commute to nearby Swindon, Bath and Bristol. Most of the constituency is affluent, particularly Chippenham's Pewsham ward which is one of the 10% least-deprived areas in England.
Compared to national averages, residents of the constituency have high incomes and average levels of education and professional employment. White people made up 94% of the population in 2021. At the local county council, most of the constituency is represented by Liberal Democrats, although Reform UK councillors were elected in Calne and Conservatives were elected in some rural areas. An estimated 51% of voters in the constituency supported leaving the European Union in the 2016 referendum, similar to the nationwide figure.
A parliamentary borough of Chippenham was enfranchised in 1295. It sent two burgesses to Parliament until 1868 and one thereafter until the borough constituency was abolished in 1885. There was a county division constituency named after the town of Chippenham from 1885 to 1983, when the name of that constituency was changed to North Wiltshire.
Following the 2003âÂÂ2005 review into parliamentary representation in Wiltshire, the Boundary Commission created a new county constituency, reviving the name of Chippenham, effective from the 2010 general election. It was formed from parts of the previously existing Devizes, North Wiltshire and Westbury constituencies. Further boundary changes came into effect at the 2024 general election.
1295âÂÂ1832: The parliamentary borough of Chippenham in the unreformed Parliament consisted of only part of the parish of Chippenham in Wiltshire. However, as Chippenham was a burgage borough, in which the right to vote was confined to the resident occupiers of specific properties, the boundary had no practical function. The borough had a population of 1,620 in 1831, for 283 houses.
1832âÂÂ1885: The Boundary Act which accompanied the Great Reform Act extended the boundaries of the parliamentary borough, to include the whole of Chippenham parish, the adjoining parishes of Hardenhuish and Langley Burrell, as well as the extra-parochial district of Pewsham. This more than trebled the borough's population, to 5,270 by the 1831 figures, for 883 houses.
1885âÂÂ1918: During this period, Wiltshire was split into five county divisions and one borough, of which The North-Western (or Chippenham) Division of Wiltshire was one; it was often colloquially referred to simply as either Chippenham or as North-West Wiltshire. It was bordered by the Cricklade division to the east, Westbury to the south and Devizes to the southeast. Over the county boundary were the Thornbury division of Gloucestershire to the west, the Cirencester division of Gloucestershire to the north and the Frome division of Somerset to the southwest.
The Chippenham division included the towns of Calne and Malmesbury as well as Chippenham, both of which had also been parliamentary boroughs in their own right before 1885. By the outbreak of World War I, the population of the constituency was about 45,000.
1918âÂÂ1950: In 1918 Wiltshire was split into five divisions, but there was no borough constituency in the county. The Wiltshire, Chippenham division was expanded, taking in the towns of Cricklade and Wootton Bassett, also former parliamentary boroughs, as well as the surrounding rural areas: in full, it was composed of the then Municipal Boroughs of Calne, Chippenham, and Malmesbury, and the Rural Districts of Calne, Chippenham, Malmesbury, Cricklade and Wootton Bassett (part), and Tetbury (excluding the part in the administrative county of Gloucestershire).
1950âÂÂ1983: In the redistribution which took effect at the 1950 general election, Wiltshire was divided into one borough and four county constituencies. Chippenham County Constituency consisted of the same Municipal Boroughs as in 1918 and the Rural Districts of Calne and Chippenham, Cricklade and Wootton Bassett, and Malmesbury.
1983âÂÂ2010: Constituency replaced by North Wiltshire. 2010âÂÂ2024: The North Wiltshire wards of Cepen Park, Chippenham Allington, Chippenham Audley, Chippenham Avon, Chippenham Hill Rise, Chippenham London Road, Chippenham Monkton Park, Chippenham Park, Chippenham Pewsham, Chippenham Redland, Chippenham Westcroft/Queens, Corsham, Lacock with Neston and Gastard, and Pickwick, and the West Wiltshire wards of Atworth and Whitley, Bradford-on-Avon North, Bradford-on-Avon South, Holt, Manor Vale (i.e. Limpley Stoke, Monkton Farleigh, South Wraxall, Westwood and Winsley), Melksham North, Melksham Spa, Melksham Without, Melksham Woodrow, Paxcroft.
The constituency was re-established as a result of increasing the number of seats in Wiltshire from six to seven. Chippenham and Corsham were transferred from North Wiltshire; Melksham from Devizes; and Bradford-on-Avon from Westbury.
Further to the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies which came into effect for the 2024 general election, the constituency is composed of the following Wiltshire electoral divisions (as they existed on 4 May 2021):
Calne Central, Calne Chilvester & Abberd, Calne North, Calne Rural, Chippenham Cepen Park & Derriads, Chippenham Cepen Park & Hunters Moon, Chippenham Hardenhuish, Chippenham Hardens & Central, Chippenham Lowden & Rowden, Chippenham Monkton, Chippenham Pewsham, Chippenham Sheldon, Corsham Ladbrook, Corsham Pickwick, Corsham Without, Lyneham, Royal Wootton Bassett East, Royal Wootton Bassett North, and Royal Wootton Bassett South & West.
The constituency was realigned to retain Chippenham and Corsham, and gained most of Calne, Lyneham and Royal Wootton Bassett from the abolished North Wiltshire constituency. Bradford-on-Avon and Melksham became part of a new Melksham and Devizes constituency.
The Chippenham name was revived in 2010 for the new constituency that includes Bradford on Avon, Chippenham, Corsham.
A general election was expected to take place in 1914/15. The following were to be candidates;
A petition was lodged in relation to the December 1910 election, but this was later withdrawn after a recount, resulting in the above numbers. The original count had placed the Conservatives with 4,139 votes and the Liberals with 4,113 votes.
Seat reduced to one member