Shropshire Routes to Roots
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Exploring industrialisation: Using the Census
This page gives definitions for the different parts of the 1851 Census. The 1851 Census only asked for fairly basic information. In comparison, the 2001 Census for England and Wales had eight pages of questions.
The address is the area within Wrockwardine Wood. Note that an area may not necessarily be called the same name as it is today.
Houses were not numbered in 1851. This number refers to the order in which the enumerator went round. Where the numbers are the same, this indicates a single household.
The relationship of the person to the head of the household. The head was usually the father. If the father was dead, the head would become the mother, marked out as 'wid' for widow.
The job or full time occupation of the person.
Note: Stone miner is an ironstone miner, "collier" is probably the same as "coal miner". Note that ironstone was found in the clay bands between the coal seams. "Pit bank labourer" was a job for girls and involved picking out the ironstone lumps from the clay/ironstone mixture raised from the pit.
The modern historian CH Lee suggested that there were five categories of occupation: agricultural work; mining and quarrying; manufacturing; building; providing services.
The Parish of birth.
Wombridge, Lilleshall, Shifnal, Wellington, Eyton were all neighbouring parishes to Wrockwardine Wood. In 1851, Shifnal included Priorslee and Snedshill; Lilleshall included Donnington and Donnington Wood.
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