From Clio Infrastructure

The UK project

The Occupational Structure of Britain 1379-1911

This research program run by Leigh Shaw-Taylor and Tony Wrigley, and based in the Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure, aims ultimately to reconstruct the evolution of the occupational structure of Britain from the late medieval period down to the late nineteenth century. The project has recently been recognised as a British Academy Research project. The ESRC have funded the second phase of this research program entitled, The changing occupational structure of nineteenth century Britain (RES-000-23-1579). The first phase entitled, Male occupational change and economic growth in England 1750-1851, was also funded by the ESRC (RES 000-23-0131). We are currently applying to the Leverhulme Trust for funding for a third project The occupational structure of England and Wales c.1379-c.1729. Further information can be found on the project website at: http://www.hpss.geog.cam.ac.uk/research/projects/occupations/. In due course virtually all of our datasets will be made freely available to the scholarly community (the only exceptions will be were we have built on dataset created by others and cannot distribute the datasets further).

A brief overview of digital datasets

1. Occupational datasets All occupational datasets contain both the original occupational entry from the source and are coded to the Primary, Secondary, Tertiary (PST) system devised by E.A. Wrigley. We will be coding all these datasets to the Historical International Standard Classification of Occupations (HISCO).
   1. Principal nineteenth century occupational datasets Nearly all these datasets are complete. A few are not quite finished.
      1. Male and female occupational data at county level for England, Wales and Scotland for 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891, 1901, 1911 (approximately 400 categories and varying detail on age structure). Derived from the census.
      2. Male and female occupational data for c.100 principal towns: 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871 and 1881 (approximately 400 categories). Derived from the census.
      3. Adult male occupations c.1817 at parish (municipal level, approximately 11,400 units) for all of England and Wales. Also available at the following spatial levels: registration sub-districts, ancient hundred, registration district, ancient county, registration county). Deriving from 11,400 Anglican baptism registers over the period 1813-20.
      4. Male and female occupations for England and Wales by parish, registration sub-district, ancient hundred (in principle), registration districts, ancient and registration counties.
      5. Registration district data (625 unit) for England and Wales for c.1817 (adult males only from parish registers), 1851 and 1861 (males and females from the published census) and 1881 (males and females constructed from nominal census material).
   2. Eighteenth century occupational datasets
      1. Occupational data for approximately 600 parishes c.1755 and 1785 for adult males from baptism registers mainly in northern counties.
      2. Occupational data for males 18-45 for c.1,000 parishes (mainly in southern England) 1762-1798.
      3. If we secure funding from the Leverhulme Trust we will add data for c.1,100 parishes c.1690-1729 and add increase the numbers for c.1755 and c.1785 in 2.1.1.
      4. If we secure funding from the Leverhulme Trust we hope to be able to add female data.
   3. Pre-eighteenth century occupational data If we secure funding from the Leverhulme Trust we will be able to add a variety of male datasets covering the period c.1379-c.1700 and hope to be able to add female datasets.
2. Population data
   1. Male and female population totals for England and Wales for 1801, 1811, 1821, 1831, 1841, 1851 for parishes, registration sub-districts, hundreds, ancient counties and registration counties (completed). 1861, 1871, 1881 for parishes, registration sub-districts and registration counties (to be added soon).
   2. Total populations of English hundreds (c.600 units) for 1761, 1771, 1781, 1791, 1801, 1811, 1821, 1831, 1841 and 1851.
   3. Total populations of English counties c.1600, c.1700, c.1750, 1801, 1811, 1821, 1831, 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891, 1901, 1911.
   4. If we secure funding from the Leverhulme Trust we hope to add much more disaggregated population totals for a variety of dates from 1377 to 1675.
3. Migration data
   1. Aggregate data on migratants origins by registration district 1851 from the published census.
   2. Nominal data on migrants origins for a two per cent sample of the census enumerators’ books for 1851.
   3. Nominal data on migrants origins for a two per cent sample of the census enumerators’ books for 1881.
4. Geographical Information Systems
   1. We have boundary data for parishes, hundreds, registration districts, registration and ancient counties (created from an original parish level resource built by Roger Kain, Richard Oliver and others). For examples of mapping undertaken with the GIS see: http://www.hpss.geog.cam.ac.uk/research/projects/occupations/englandwales1817/ and http://www.hpss.geog.cam.ac.uk/research/projects/occupations/economic1851/.
   2. We are building a GIS for the nineteenth century transport infrastructure: principal roads, canals, navigable waterways and railways. For an example see: http://www.hpss.geog.cam.ac.uk/research/projects/occupations/transport/.
   3. If we get the Leverhulme funding the transport GIS will be extended back through the early modern period.

Project Members

Leigh Shaw-Taylor (Director); E.A. Wrigley (Deputy director); Ros Davies; Amy Erickson; Peter Kitson; Jelle van Lottum; Gill Newton; Max Satchell; Richard M. Smith; Rebecca Tyler.

Management Committee

Nick Crafts (Chair); Professor Martin Daunton; Professor Jane Humphries; Professor Roger Kain; Dr Jack Langton; Professor Sheilagh Ogilvie.