Indeed – but change in the northern wards is happening quickly. I cannot see any other party taking this seat in the near future, but, in a 1997-style landslide, the Conservative majority may well be much lower than in 1997 – and some hypthetical seat uniting most of Croydon South and New Addington could even be winnable in a “normal” landslide year for Labour in a decade or so.

I may have read elsewhere – not on this site – that it is split between other wards and constituencies (part of the site in Carshalton and Wallington?) Is this correct?

Broadly speaking, the airport buildings were in modern Croydon, along the Purley Way, and the airfield lay in modern Sutton – the part of Beddington South ward to the east of Foresters Drive and to the south of Stafford Road. Most of the Sutton section was replaced by the Roundshaw estate; the airport is commemorated by the aeronautical names of the streets.

I presume, perhaps in error, that this term will be his last (he’ll be 70 in 2015).

Now I don’t know how long ago that was, but I’ve been following the personnel of the cabinet and shadow cabinet since 1997 and the Conservatives were in government from 1979.
I must have missed that one.