HST imaging of CFRS and LDSS galaxies; 1, Morphological Properties

(Abridged) We analyse Hubble Space Telescope images of a complete sample of 341 galaxies drawn from both the Canada France and Autofib/Low Dispersion Survey Spectrograph ground-based redshift surveys. We discuss morphological classifications of these galaxies, and quantify possible biases that may arise from various redshift-dependent effects. We then discuss these biases in the context of automated classifications, and quantify the expected misclassification in our system. After allowing for such biases, the redshift distribution for normal spirals, together with their luminosity function derived as a function of redshift, indicates approximately 1 magnitude of luminosity evolution in B(AB) by z=1. The elliptical sample is too small for precise evolutionary constraints. However, we find a substantial increase in the proportion of galaxies with irregular morphology at large redshift. These galaxies also appear to be the dominant cause of the rapid rise with redshift in the blue luminosity density identified in the redshift surveys. Although galaxies with irregular morphology may well comprise a mixture of different physical systems and might not correspond to present day irregulars, it is clear that the apparently declining abundance and luminosities of our distant ``irregulars'' holds an important key to understanding recent evolution in the star formation history of normal galaxies