Welsh Journals

THE DEMOGRAPHIC STRUCTURE OF A WELSH RURAL VILLAGE DURING THE MID-NINETEENTH CENTURY THE broad pattern of rural Britain's demographic structure during the nineteenth century is well known, but the situation in local areas has not been so fully investigated. In particular, little is known about the social structure, and the process of demographic change in rural areas. This aspect has even been neglected by the various community studies in Wales.2 For the nineteenth century as a whole there is a dearth of sufficiently detailed and reliable information upon which worthwhile and valid analysis can be made. However, for the middle of the century such data do exist in two important sources :-the Tithe Awards and the Census Enumeration Schedules.3 The former have been extensively used by historians and geographers, but the latter remain relatively unused.4 The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to review briefly the inform- ation contained in the two documents, and to exhibit, by means of a case-study, their potentiality and significance in socio-geographical and socio-historical investigations. The mid-nineteenth century demographic structure of a small Welsh village will be re-created, and the changes that overtook it, in a ten- year period, outlined. The village has been selected as a unit for analysis, since it has too often been identified and confused with the parish. The Tithe Surveys,6 for the most part carried out in the 1840s, contain details of occupation and ownership by holdings and by individual fields. They also allow the location of each household to be ascertained. The Census Enumeration Schedules7 tell us a great amount about the demographic situation during the mid-nineteenth century. Each township was enumerated separately, and within each township each household was numbered and is clearly distinguishable. The 1841 Schedules list the number of people in each household, giving the full name, sex, occupation, and age of each inhabitant. Those individuals aged fifteen and over were listed in five-year groups, and only the ages of those below fifteen were given exactly. On the other hand, the 1851 and 1861 Schedules list not only the full name, exact age, sex, and occupation of each person, but also their marital state, parish of birth, and relationship to the head of the household.8 This study concerns Bow Street, a small village located in Cardigan- shire, four miles to the north of Aberystwyth, in a relatively wide