Census Help

[yeahyeah121212]

Hello,
I've stumbled across a quick issue when looking through the census for my relatives. As you will be able to see in the picture below, there are a few cottages and farms with one family occupying each one, yet there is "Ash Hill Common" which has 3 families occupying it, one of which is my relatives. Could someone please tell me what they would live in on "Common Land".

[Kay99]

Maybe they lived in cottages that were unnamed on or adjoining the common https://maps.nls.uk/view/120379302#zoom=3&lat=6403&lon=3318&layers=BT

Kay

[yeahyeah121212]

Maybe they lived in cottages that were unnamed on or adjoining the common https://maps.nls.uk/view/120379302#zoom=3&lat=6403&lon=3318&layers=BT

Kay

That is possible, but I looked for a few pages in the census, and all cottages and farms around there are named.

[Kay99]

Which census year was it?

[yeahyeah121212]

Which census year was it?

1901

[Kay99]

I think there was a fourth property on the next page listed as Ash Hill Common and then Ash Hill House.  I think the small properties on the common just weren't differentiated by name by the enumerator

Kay

[Andrew Tarr]

Many properties in rural villages until quite recently (20th century anyway) had no names.  Some ancestors in Suffolk are listed in the census with just the village name repeated in the left column.  I don't think you can make any assumptions about what they lived in.

At least two on my wife's tree from the north of England lived at isolated but named houses which have now vanished from Google Earth.  We have a photo of one of the places, a solid-looking long house with a turf roof.

[Maiden Stone]

At least two on my wife's tree from the north of England lived at isolated but named houses which have now vanished from Google Earth.  We have a photo of one of the places, a solid-looking long house with a turf roof.

I've come across similar. In particular a group of cottages or small farms called "The Edge" on early census returns. 19th century Ordnance Survey maps and Tithe maps showed them on the edge of a large area of common moorland. Residents of those dwellings would have had commoners' grazing and turf-cutting rights. There is a larger farm nearby, operating continuously for 300 years. The small farms or cottages have been gone since beyond living memory. A few other small cottages in the vicinity, probably originally farmworkers' cottages, were demolished in 20th century. One settlement was "Shepherd's Row" on a census but the last cottage standing was known by another name in the latter stage of its' existence. Names of a few of the farms changed over time as well. Comparing maps from different eras is sometimes required.

[heywood]

1891 shows the same addresses.

This might refer to the cottages.

https://history.wiltshire.gov.uk/community/getcom.php?id=242

The first half of the 19th century witnessed a great increase in population from 877 in 1801 to a high point of 1344 in 1851. Many people were working in the various brickworks and many more houses and cottages were built to accommodate the newcomers. These were mainly in the following areas; on common land to the south of the village, at the eastern end of the village, at Cowesfield, and to the east of Ash Hill House. Many of these were fairly simple timber-frame shacks that have now disappeared