Altrincham and Sale
Formercounty constituency for theHouse of Commons
Altrincham and Sale in Greater Manchester, showing boundaries used from 1983–1997
County	1945–1974:Cheshire 1974–1997:Greater Manchester
Major settlements	Altrincham andSale
1945–1997
Seats	One
Created from	Altrincham
Replaced by	Altrincham and Sale West andWythenshawe and Sale East

Altrincham and Sale was aparliamentary constituency inGreater Manchester, represented in theHouse of Commons of theParliament of the United Kingdom. It elected oneMember of Parliament (MP) by thefirst past the post system of election, and existed between1945 and1997.

TheHouse of Commons (Redistribution of Seats) Act 1944 set upBoundary Commissions to carry out periodic reviews of the distribution of parliamentary constituencies. It also authorised an initial review to subdivide abnormally large constituencies (those exceeding an electorate of 100,000) in time for the1945 election.^[1] This was implemented by the Redistribution of Seats Order 1945 under which Cheshire was allocated one additional seat, by splitting the constituency ofAltrincham into two seats:

• Altrincham and Sale, comprising the two respective municipal boroughs;^[2] and
• Bucklow, comprising the bulk of the remainder of the constituency

The constituency remained unchanged until 1 April 1974 when, under the terms of theLocal Government Act 1972, the boroughs of Altrincham and Sale were absorbed into the new metropolitan borough ofTrafford within the county ofGreater Manchester. However, the boundaries were not revised until the Third Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies came into effect for the1983 general election. The revised constituency consisted of the south-eastern area of Trafford, with the main town beingAltrincham, and comprised:

The Metropolitan Borough of Trafford wards ofAltrincham,Bowdon,Broadheath,Brooklands,Hale,Sale Moor,Timperley, andVillage.^[3]

Hale and Bowdon were transferred from the abolished Cheshire constituency ofKnutsford, while parts of the former municipal borough of Sale, including Ashton upon Mersey, were included in the new constituency ofDavyhulme.

The constituency was abolished for the1997 general election, when it was split in a roughly three to one ratio between the new constituencies ofAltrincham and Sale West andWythenshawe and Sale East.^[4]

The constituency always elected aConservative member with a comfortable majority and only had three MPs during its 52 years in existence. From 1945, it was represented byFrederick Erroll, a cabinet minister inHarold Macmillan's government, who was raised to the peerage in 1964. The ensuingby-election (held in 1965) was won byAnthony Barber, who served asEdward Heath'sChancellor of the Exchequer. Barber also entered theHouse of Lords, and at theOctober 1974 general election was succeeded byFergus Montgomery, later Sir Fergus Montgomery, who served asParliamentary Private Secretary toMargaret Thatcher, during her tenure as Secretary of State for Education, and then asLeader of the Opposition. Montgomery held the seat until he retired in 1997.

• List of parliamentary constituencies in Greater Manchester
• History of parliamentary constituencies and boundaries in Cheshire

• Parliamentary constituencies in Greater Manchester (historic)
• Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1945
• Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom disestablished in 1997
• Politics of Trafford

• CS1 errors: missing periodical
• Wikipedia articles incorporating an LRPP-MP template with two unnamed parameters
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from April 2022