Tamworth has, since the Second World war, been one of the fastest growing towns in England, trebling its population in 40 years.
The seat consists of the urban centre of Tamworth, which still falls just below the size of electorate needed for a constituency, plus generous numbers of rural electors to the north and west of the town. Tamworth itself is dominated by tower blocks of council accommodation, but the growth in more recent years of suburban private estates has ensured that the seat remains demographically balanced.
Tamworth is associated in political history with Sir Robert Peelís Tamworth Manifesto of 1834, the first time a political party outlined its proposals before a general election.
More recently, it threw up a psephological oddity when the SDP saw a leap in its vote to take second place in 1987, which then collapsed again with a fall of 17.1% in 1992. Theories of lost votes abound but no clear explanation for the swings has ever emerged.