Yateley's Population in 1881

Researched and written by Roy Maryon of the Yateley Society

Roy had been one of the researchers contributing to the Yateley History Project and used the Society's own transcriptions of the census records for 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871 and 1881

Mar 2008: Roy‘s diagrams and tables have not yet been added to these webpages

CARD C: HOW WERE YATELEY PEOPLE EMPLOYED?

The pie charts show, in broad terms, how the adult population of Yateley was employed in 1881. The largest single occupation for the men was still that of agricultural labourer, but the predominance was not so marked as in the preceding generation, when over half the men worked in the fields. There were about a dozen farms in Yateley and, although incomplete, the farmers‘ census returns of employees account for only a fraction of the agricultural labourers˜-many, presumably, worked in neighbouring parishes.

There had been a strong increase, since mid-century, in the numbers engaged in other manual occupations, whether skilled or as labourers, notably bricklayers (26) and carpenters (20). Other manual trades included plumbers, blacksmiths, thatchers, railway men (a relatively new source of employment), a wheelwright, a stone sawyer and a ropemaker (absent from home˜ was he working in Portsmouth?). Many men (61) were in service˜-over half of them gardeners. The village of course possessed its millers, grocers, boot & shoe makers, teachers, a postmaster˜-also about 8 publicans, but with a vicar and one policeman to keep it on the straight and narrow.

The women with no occupation‘ were, of course, for the most part hardworking (and no doubt often hard-pressed) housewives and mothers. A large number of women (78) were in service˜-a means of livelihood which had been on the increase over the last generation. Other occupations included needlewomen, dressmakers (7) and schoolmistresses (5). In the chart farm women‘ includes those who gave farmer‘s wife‘ (or daughter) as their occupation. No less than 40 (one in ten of the adult women) were laundresses, a common occupation for widows. With many children, often, the loss of the breadwinner must have plunged families into penury.

One is reminded of Thomas Hardy‘s lament for the agricultural poor the monotonous moils of strained, hard-run humanity...‘, but by 1878 things were beginning to look up for many. The railway and the military had arrived, dependence on the vagaries of the agricultural economy was declining, the variety of jobs available was beginning to expand, and only a handful of men described themselves as unemployed.

Back to 1993 Exhibition: Yateley in 1878

(c) The Yateley Society 2008

Page Exhib.1993.8