Great Britain Historical Database : Labour Markets Database, Poor Law Statistics, 1859-1939

<P>Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.</P><p>The <i>Great Britain Historical Database</i> has been assembled as part of the ongoing <i>Great Britain Historical GIS Project</i>. The project aims to trace the emergence of the north-south divide in Britain and to provide a synoptic view of the human geography of Britain at sub-county scales. Further information about the project is available on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/gbhdb/" target="_blank" style="outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(35, 82, 124); text-decoration-line: underline;">A Vision of Britain webpages</a>, where users can browse the database's documentation system online.<br></p><p>
The <i>Great Britain Historical GIS Project</i> has also produced digitised boundary data, which can be obtained from the UK Data Service Census Support service. Further information is available at&nbsp;<a href="http:\\census.ukdataservice.ac.uk" title="UK Data Service Census Support" target="_blank">census.ukdataservice.ac.uk</a></p><br><B>Main Topics</B>:<BR><p> The <span style="font-style: italic;">Great Britain Historical Database</span> is a large database of British nineteenth and twentieth-century statistics. Where practical the referencing of spatial units has been integrated, data for different dates have been assembled into single tables.<br>
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The <span style="font-style: italic;">Great Britain Historical Database </span>currently contains :<br></p><ul><li>Statistics from the 1861 Census and the Registrar General's reports, 1851-1861<br>
</li><li>Employment statistics from the census, 1841-1931<br>
</li><li>Demographic statistics from the census, 1841-1931<br>
</li><li>Mortality statistics from the Registrar General's reports, 1861-1920<br>
</li><li>Marriage statistics from the Registrar General's reports, 1841-1870<br>
</li><li>Trade union statistics for the Amalgamated Society of Engineers (ASE), 1851-1918<br>
</li><li>Trade union statistics for the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners (ASCJ), 1863-1912<br>
</li><li>Official poor law statistics, 1859-1915 and 1919-1939<br>
</li><li>Wage statistics, 1845-1906<br>
</li><li>Hours of work statistics, 1900-1913<br>
</li><li>Small debt statistics from county courts, 1847-1913 and 1938<br>
</li></ul><br>There are eight tables in this part of the <i>Great Britain Historical Database</i> :<br>
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<i>Plaw_c</i> holds county-level data for England and Wales on numbers of paupers taken from the <i>Annual Reports</i> of the Poor Law Board and later the Local Government Board for 1st January and 1st July from January 1859 to January 1915, plus January 1919.<br>
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<i>Plaw_c_f</i> holds a full transcript of county-level pauperage statistics for England and Wales taken from the <i>Annual Reports</i> of the Poor Law Board and later the Local Government Board for 1st January and 1st July 1860, 1863, 1866, 1868 and 1879.<br>
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<i>Plaw_u</i> holds data taken from the <i>Returns to Parliament</i> made by the Poor Law Board, and later the Local Government Board listing number of paupers in each poor law union on the 1st January and 1st July. Coverage is as follows: all poor law unions in Lancashire for 1st January and 1st July from 1860 to 1871; all poor law unions in England and Wales for 1st January only from 1900 to 1912; all unions in London, Lancashire, Durham and selected major urban unions for 1st January and 1st July in 1875, 1879 and 1880.<br>
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<i>Plaw_u_f</i> contains a full transcript of poor law union-level pauperage statistics for selected unions taken from the <i>Returns to Parliament</i>. Coverage is as follows: all poor law unions in Lancashire for 1st January and 1st July from 1860 to 1871; all unions in Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Cheshire and the East and West Ridings of Yorkshire for 1st January and 1st July in 1860, 1863, 1866, 1868 and 1869.<br>
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<i>Plaw_iw</i> holds inter-war poor law statistics taken from the <i>Returns to Parliament</i> for 1st January only for all poor law unions in England and Wales from 1922 to 1930, and for all counties and county-boroughs in England and Wales from 1931 to 1939.<br>
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<i>Plaw_20</i> holds poor law statistics for England and Wales for 1920 and 1921 for selected poor law union for 1st January only.<br>
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<i>Plu_gaz</i> converts names of poor law unions as they appear in <i>plaw_u</i>, <i>plaw_u_f</i>, <i>plaw_iw</i> and <i>plaw_20</i> into the form used in the GIS.<br>
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<i>Plu_gis</i> holds names and counties of poor law unions as they appear in the GIS; used for checking names and constructing <i>plu_gaz</i>.<br>
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Please note: this study does not include information on named individuals and would therefore not be useful for personal family history research.<br>
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