The constituency was centred on the town of Stretford and originally included an area to the south west of the city of Manchester.

A new Stretford borough constituency, part of the Greater Manchester parliamentary county, was formed.

The area was redistributed, with Moss Side and Whalley Range added to an enlarged Manchester Central seat.

[6] The last MP for Stretford, Tony Lloyd, was subsequently elected as the Member of Parliament for Manchester Central.

The sitting MP, Winston Churchill, moved to the newly created Davyhulme constituency which included part of the pre-1983 Stretford seat[34]