Ashford in the Water

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Derbyshire Census

Census Transcriptions - "Four Rural Areas, 1851-1881"

This page provides information about a collection of transcriptions of the 1851, 1861, 1871 and 1881 Censuses which are available for Ashford-in-the-Water, Chelmorton, Flagg, Monyash, Sheldon and Taddington in Derbyshire. "Four Areas" refers to four counties - parishes in Norfolk, Shropshire and North Yorkshire are featured in the collection, as well as those in Derbyshire.

The above collection resulted from Study Number 2708 - Census Enumerators' Books : Four Rural Areas, 1851-1881 - a thesis by P.R.A. Hinde, of the University of Sheffield's Geography Department, "to measure population change in a variety of English rural areas between 1851 and 1881, with emphasis on marriage and fertility". The transcribed data includes all the necessary information for family history research, and comprises complete returns for these 6 Derbyshire villages.

Other typical villages in the counties of Norfolk, Shropshire and the North Riding of Yorkshire were also included in the study.

If you want to find this data for yourself, use the Search Catalogue option at UK Data Archive, and search by Study Number, entering "2708". Whilst there is a fee payable to access the data from this source, in relative terms it is quite modest - to begin with, £20 to register, after which it is possible to download this, or other available datasets for £5; a time, providing it's for private study. Genealogy, family and local history research are considered acceptable, whereas for other purposes, connected with employment, or business, it costs more.

Alternatively, the data is also available as part of the "1851 2% Census Sample" on various sites. Whilst this might not be immediately obvious, these villages were included with the 2%, along with data for 14 parishes in Antrim (all that was left, after returns for other parishes were destroyed by fire!), and a complete transcription for Keighley in the West Riding of Yorkshire, because they were available in the UK Data Archive at the time the 2% was assembled.

All this is a bit academic now so much census data is available to search online via Ancestry.co.uk (see Derbyshire - Census Returns 1801-1901), but I believe it's important to record our research heritage as well. We've come a long way since we were all drooling over this data, but if you don't remember where you came from, it's harder to know where you're going...

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[Information provided by Rosemary Lockie]

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