 Kingswood lies on the eastern border of Bristol. Part of the constituency lies within the city itself and was inherited from the former seat of Bristol South East which was abolished before the 1983 election. However most of the constituency is in the borough of Kingswood and was inherited from Wansdyke.
This seat was effectively created in February 1974, and has always been considered marginal, and until 1992 it was always won by the party who won the General Election.
Labour’s Roger Berry broke the trend in 1992 and unseated the sitting Tory MP Rob Hayward with an above-average swing of almost 6%. This area includes places like Stoke Gifford and serves as part of the city's commuter belt so it contains strong support for the Conservatives. The seat is split between urban and rural regions. The Bristol ring road passes through the borough, providing excellent communication links of great benefit to the many small manufacturing industries based here.
Kingswood used to be an important coal mining and shoe-manufacturing district. However older factories in this area have been replaced by the likes of Rolls-Royce, British Aerospace, DRG Cartons, Bendix Engineering and Avon Tin Printers.
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