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Volume 2 BEST COPY AVAILABLE Variable print quality DAMAGED TEXT IN ORIGINAL TEXT CUT OFF IN ORIGINAL 266 Chapter 4 The Population of Middlesbrough 1) General Accounts a) Shortcomings in the mid-Nineteenth Century Sources Regarding the printed census material for Middlesbrough down to 1871, two aspects are important. From 1801 to 1831, Middlesbrough appears as part of the Liberty of West Langbaurgh in the North Riding: the information obtainable is limited, as is the general case, until after 1841, and the only complication is the separation of the township of Middlesbrough from the township of Linthorpe, both of which constitute the parish of Middlesbrough. Yet in all these early censuses the population of both townships was very small, and it is only in the year before the 1831 census was taken that the industrialisation of Middlesbrough began. From 1841 to 1871 Middlesbrough township was enumerated as part of Yarm sub-district, which was in the Registration District of Stockton, in the Registration County of Durham. As such, the town of Middlesbrough was not given the attention it may have received if it had remained part of the North Riding area. Some confusion arises because although most of the information on Middlesbrough appears with the Durham information, some crops up nevertheless under the North Riding auspices. Yet in spite of the fact that two areas present information on Middlesbrough, there are gaps in the presentations. This is especially annoying because in these years Middlesbrough experienced its 'mushroom' growth: population more than doubled between 1851 and 1861, and also between 1861 and 1871. These gaps can be illustrated by looking at specific questions. There is information for each census regarding the lumber of people in the town, their sex, and houses occupied and building. 267 Conversely information would not be expected on family size, household structure, and actual families and streets. Yet between these two sets of information there remains data on ages, birthplaces, and occupations. Normally one would expect to find this information for a growing industrial town, for as W. A. Armstrong has remarked ' one can easily obtain birthplace, occupational, and age-sex distributions for a given Victorian town 1 from the printed volumes'. Armstrong notes that the problem is to obtain relationships within these variables, and it is here of course that sampling from the enumerators' books comes in. Yet in respect of Middlesbrough even the variables are not easily obtainable. ' In 184.1 two of these three variables are obtainable. In the North Riding information in the Enumeration Abstracts, part I, there is included a break-down into parishes and townships oP 2 ages by sex, under and above 20 years. Also in the Age Abstracts, part I, there is North Riding information of the principal towns 3 in the county for ages by sex, for every quiennium: and the 4 chapelry of Middlesbrough is included as a principal town. Available also is information on birth places. On the same page of the Enumeration Abstracts as shows Ages above and below 20 years, there is a table showing how many of the total population were born in 'this county', and how many 'elsewhere'. For an indication of occupation, the information is less helpful. 1) W. A. Armstrong - The Interpretation of the Census Enumerators Books for Victorian Towns (in The Study of Urban History, 1968) 2) Emuneration Abstract, Part I, 184.3 (496) p 376. (497) 3) Age Abstract, Part I, 1843 pp 334 - 5. 4) The term ' ohapelry' used only in this census, is synonymous with the term 'township' as used in all the other censuses. 268 The preface of the Occupation Abstraft notes that 'there are separate returns ( distinguishing the sex, and whether above or under 20 years of age) for every county in Great Britain and for 1 the larger towns ' all ... Yet for neither the native county nor the registration is 'larger county Middlesbrough classed as .a town'. The North Riding limits itself to Richmond, Scarborough 2 and Whitby; whilst Durham limits itself to Bishops Wearmouth, 3 Darlington, Durham City and Gateshead. Thus, whilst in one volume of the 1841 census, Middlesbrough is included as a 'principal town' within the traditional county, it is not included in another volume as a 'larger town' in either the traditional or the registration county. The consequence is that the information regarding occupation is very much inferior to that of the 1831 census. In 1851 the situation deteriorated even further. Data on none of these three variables is available for the town. For the Ages of the population, the only available information is at district and sub-district levels, thus the nearest one can get to a break-down of the Middlesbrough data is as part of the sub-district of Yarm, where quinquennial groups are given for a total population 4 of 12,611.. For birth places the break-down of information is even more remote. Middlesbrough is included in the Stockton district figures, which show birth places with an analysis of under and over 20 years. A footnote merely records that 'part 1) Occupational Abstract, Part I, 1841 (587) p 7- 2) nnnnp 218. 3) nnnnp 34. 4) E1691 Population Tables II, vol II, 1854 - Ill p 744. 269 of the Stockton District containing 12,681 inhabitants, extends I into the North Riding of York' : nearly half this number were of course in the township of Middlesbrough. Occupations are listed 2 according to age and sex but only for the registration county. Thus for all three variables there is no information specifically for Middlesbrough. Sometimes details regarding age, birth place, and occupations are given for the 'principal' towns, but Middlesbrough is not so classed in the appropriate volume; however in the volume dealing with the Number of Inhabitants, Middlesbrough does appear in 3 the index as a 'principal' town which in this case refers to 'towns 4, 2000 inhabitants but the information in this of and upwards' , given volume refers only to population totals and houses, which information 5 is available in more detailed form elsewhere in the census publications. The published data for 1861 is equally unhelpful for the t own. Middlesbrough does not appear in the population tables volume under 6 a list of 'principal cities, boroughs, and towns', although by now the population of the township was 18,714.. In connection with this particular census, and the birth places of the inhabitants of 1) Population Tables II, II `1691 vol , 1854 - II] p 801. 2) " .. n it pp 756 - 61. [632 3) vol II, 1852 p 674. n nnp 102. 5) nn Div X, pp 12 - 13. 0322] 6) vol II, 186 3 Div X, p 937. 270 Middlesbrough, Ravenstein provides an interesting example of how he attempted to use Middlesbrough as one of his main examples, whilst lacking the sort of information I have mentioned. In making his comparison between the 1861 and 1871 birth place information he showed that between these two censuses, the I native' county element 1 dropped from 73.2% to 50.1% ; yet one must ask where his 2 information for 1861 came from. In a footnote he shows that he took 'the superintendent-registrar's district of Guisborough (22,128 inhabitants) as representing the Middlesbrough (18,992 inhabitants) of 1861', as 'no other details of the birthplaces for that year (were) obtainable'. He suggests in this way that the major part of the Guisborough area was made up of the population 3 Middlesbrough but that the aase: Guisborough of , was not was a registration district within the North Riding part of the Yorkshire registration county, whilst Middlesbrough was part of the Yarm sub-district within the Stockton registration district, as part of the Durham registration county. There was no demographic over- lap between the two areas. Ravenstein's method dictated that he take the information of the Yarm sub-district as the basis of his calculation: here the total population was 25,079, of whom 18,714 (75.6%) were in the township of Middlesbrough. Yet even here, 4 information was once more not obtainable. , With the publication of the data for 1871 the Piddle sbrough information became adequate, and comparable with places of a similar size. All three variables are available for the town although not without some slight inconsistency. Age, birthplace and occupation 1) See next section p 276. 2) (Journal E. G. Ravenstein - The Laws of Migration of the Statistical Society, vol 6,1885) p 215. 3) See Ravenstein's asterisked footnote in above article, p 216. 4) See appendices for an illustration of the limited use of the data available. 271 data for Middlesbrough are available within the Yorkshire Division, yet although the Durham Division data gives the Middlesbroush statistics for age and occupation, it omits birthplaces. The long- term pattern is thus that Middlesbrough data was comparatively adequate up to 1831 and from 1871, but in the gap between, the data was less adequate for 1841 and absent for 1851 and 1861, and even in 1871 the information is fuller in the Yorkshire pages than in those of Durham, although Middlesbrough was still part of the registration county of Durham. One gets the impression that the town is less well served, even in this statistical sense, because of its lack of status in the pre-census period, and because of its mid-way position between Durham and the North Riding, that caused it to become part of Durham for demographic purposes whilst remaining in most senses as part of the North Riding. This poverty of source material however has not inhibited a great amount of detailed comment on the town's population, as I shall demonstrate in my next section.