Referendum on the Sunday opening of public houses in Wales (2371)
Type of Data: Referendum on the Sunday opening of public houses in Wales (2371)
Faith Community: General
Date: 1961, 8 November
Geography: Wales
Sample Size: 844834 votes cast (47% turnout)
Population: Adults aged 21 and over on the electoral register
Keywords: Licensing, public houses, Sunday, Wales
Collection Method: Secret ballot in national referendum
Collection Agency: Welsh local authorities
Published Source:
The Times, 10 November 1961Arnold John James and John Emlyn Thomas, Wales at Westminster: A History of the Parliamentary Representation of Wales, 1800-1979, Llandysul: Gomer Press, 1981, pp. 277-8Christopher Mark Wilson, 'The Sunday Opening Referenda, 1961-1989: A Study in Social and Cultural Change in Wales' (M.Phil. thesis, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, 1993)
BRIN ID: 2371
Remarks:
Public houses were closed by law on Sundays in Wales until 1961. The Licensing Act 1961 (carried forward by the Licensing Act 1964) imposed a requirement on Welsh local authorities to hold polls on the subject every seven years if petitioned by 500 or more electors. The first such polls, in 1961, were, in effect, a national referendum. Polls continued to be held in some areas in 1968, 1975, 1982, 1989 and 1996 until the requirement to hold them was repealed in 2003. For 1968 and 1975 see James and Thomas, Wales at Westminster, pp. 279-80; and for 1975-82 see Lawrence John Williams, Digest of Welsh Historical Statistics, 1974-1996, Cardiff: Welsh Office, 1998, p. 323
Posted by: Clive D. Field
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Eddie You can email them to c.d.field@bham.ac.uk Best wishes. Clive