J Burt - Thesis - Appendix A

This study was undertaken at Bedford College of Higher Education
BA Combined Studies (cnaa) Degree British History Third Year Individual Study

1881 Census for Rushden (Part)

Number of schedules examined - 218

Number of heads of households born in Rushden - 64

Number of heads of households born out of Rushden:-

a)	Radius of five miles	50
b)	Radius of twenty miles	53
c)	Radius cf over twenty miles	25
d)	Total	128

 

Number of inhabited houses	184
Number of uninhabited houses	2
Number of houses with multiple occupation (i.e. Lodgers)	34
Number of lodgers or boarders born outside the village and working in the shoe trade	34
Number of members (outside of the immediate) family born outside of the village and working in the shoe trade	7

From the Census returns, it appears that a lodger or boarder who was almost always unmarried, would often originate from the same village as the head of the household or his immediate family. The boarders frequently had the same name as the family and unmarried brothers and sisters would also join established families. I found that in some terraces of cottages, there would be several households with the same name and coming from the same village, and presumably as one member of the family found work in the village, other members would be encouraged to seek work and a home also. For example:-

The Wright family of Dean, Bedfordshire
6 Lewis Terrace	William Wright age 29 and family
2 Lewis Terrace	David Wright age 25 and family and Eli Wright age 22, listed as a boarder
High Street	Charles Wright age 30 and family and Amos age 20, his unmarried brother.

Of the heads of households who were born outside of the village, I found that although several came from the large established shoemaking towns of Northampton or Wellingborough (strangely no-one came from Ketterlng in my sample) most came from the surrounding villages where the predominant industry would be agriculture. A very few came from a great distance, for example, Leamington, Leicester, Berwick-on—Tweed, Newcastle, Louth, Lambeth, Surrey, Middx, Herts and Cheshire.

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