Welsh Journals

THE URBAN MORPHOLOGY AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE OF A WORKING-CLASS DISTRICT IN THE MID-NINETEENTH CENTURY: A CASE STUDY OF HIRAEL, BANGOR, GWYNEDD THE phenomenal growth of towns in the nineteenth century has occupied the attention of research workers across a range of disciplines. The particular contribution of historical geographers has been the analysis and interpretation of spatial processes and patterns, and their research has focused on two distinct approaches. First, the development of urban areas in terms of their physical characteristics and the factors which help to explain the differentiation of urban residential environments have been studied. The role of landownership, the pattern and size of fields and plots of land, the effects of the transfer of land by freehold or leasehold procedures, and the micro- details of the development process itself have been fruitful areas of investigation. A second focus has been the social differentiation of the urban population and the identification of discrete urban social areas. A basic ingredient of this study has been data drawn from the decennial censuses from 1841 to 1881 and this has been subjected to factorial ecological-processing techniques. Separation of morphological studies from the study of the social matrix would appear to be anomalous since one study complements the other; indeed, they are opposite sides of the same coin. Many research workers have recognised the need to fuse the two areas of study. David Harvey made a case for relating 'the social processes of the city to the spatial forms which the city assumes',3 and Dyos, observing that 'place alone cannot constitute itself M. R. G. Conzen. 'Alnwick, Northumberland: a study of town plan analysis', Transactions) l(nstitute) ofB(ritish) G(eographers), No. 27 (1960); H. J. Dyos, Victorian Suburb; a study of the growth ofCamberwell, Leicester (1966); D. Ward, "The urban cadastre of the urban pattern of Leeds'. Annals Assoc. American Geographers, 52 (1962), 50-66; M. J. Mortimer 'Landownership and urban growth in Bradford and environs in the West Riding conurbation, 1850-1950', 77BG, 46 (1969), 105-19; C. W. Chalkin, The Provincial Towns of Georgian England: a study of the building process, 1740-1820 (London, 1974). 2 W. A. Armstrong 'Social structure from the early census returns' in E. A. Wrigley (ed.), An introduction to English Historical Geography (London, 1966); R. Lawton and C. G. Pooley, The social geography of Merseyside in the nineteenth century (Liverpool, 1976); C. G. Pooley, "The residential segregation of migrant communities in mid-Victorian Liverpool', 77BG, N(ew) S(eries), 2 (1977), 364-82; K. A. Cowlard, 'The identification of social (class) areas and their place in nineteenth century urban development', ibid., NS, 4 (1979), 239-57; D. Cannadine, 'Residential differentiation in nineteenth century towns: from shapes on the ground to shapes in society' in J. H. Johnson and C. G. Pooley (eds.), The structure of nineteenth century cities (London, 1982), pp. 235-51. 3 D. Harvey, Social Justice and the City (London, 1975), p. 25.