1841 Census enumeration district boundaries

[Huffwood]

My local parish is divided into two parts, a north and a south part. The boundary is a stream (across a public road) and a road from the church. Were the boundaries of enumeration districts always on public roads or paths? Or could the boundaries just go across any old private land, field etc?   How were the boundaries decided on?

[Little Nell]

Welcome to RootsChat.

That's a very good question!  The best answer I can come up with so far is to quote from a book called Making Use of the Census although it is a more general explanation than specifically for the 1841 census enumeration district boundaries.

Each superintendent registrar's district is divided into sub-districts, and each sub-district into enumeration districts.  The enumeration districts vary in size.  Those covering a rural area took into account the distance one man could travel in a day to collect the schedules from each household.
 On the other hand, enumeration districts in large towns, with a greater concentration of people, cover a much smaller area on the ground but a much larger number of individuals.  Parishes, townships, tithings, hamlets and liberties are gathered into appropriate enumeration districts, which may consist of several small places or an entire parish.  In other cases there may be several enumeration districts covering one large parish.  It is important to remember that these parishes are civil parishes and not necessarily have the same boundaries as their ecclesiastical equivalents

The civil parish was the result of poor law administration which in itself created boundary problems.
 The ecclesiastical parishes, which were based on the ancient parishes of England and Wales together with the chapelries created when the population increased and needed more places of worship, were found to be too large and unwieldy for administrative purposes and individual townships or tithings were allowed to levy their own rates.  This resulted in the establishment of civil parishes .... especially during the 19th century.

This doesn't really answer how the boundaries were decided, but I think it would be reasonable to think that a geographical feature such as a stream, river, or roadway was a logical place to draw the virtual boundary.  It was unlikely that an inhabited building would be on both sides of such features. 

Having said that, modern OS maps mark civil parish boundaries and I note that in some rural areas, the boundaries do go across a field.  In built-up areas, the boundary is marked down the middle of the road or river.

Nell

[Huffwood]

Nell, that is useful background, thank you.  One of the oddities about the boundary here in Nuthurst West Sussex, is that the 1841 and 1851 boundaries show they ran along "the road" from the church, coloured yellow on the tithe map of a similar era, went past Nuthurst Lodge (local big house) to Broadwater Lane.  No mention of the road being purely private or it being just a driveway. In fact the very detailed tithe map shows the turning circle of a drive for visitors to the big house to be gated off from the road that forms the boundary. In the latter part of the nineteenth century, a document in Parliament referred to the road as a "bridleway" . Sadly now, when walkers, horseriders and cyclists need to be safe on bridleways and off the busy roads, the tenet of "once a highway, always a highway" has been ignored it is now deemed to be a private drive.   Is there anything else Census documentation might be able to offer to confirm it was a road for public use at that time?

[Little Nell]

Unfortunately what constitutes a public right of way is a relatively recent concept.  There are various Acts of Parliament defining paths, bridleways and highways, but most are of more recent date.

There are lots of instances in parish records (and this would be the ecclesiastical parish) or manor records three or four hundred years ago where residents were fined for not paying their dues to maintain the public highway.  So the idea existed, but what happens when a newer house is built?  Access may well be a new driveway on an older path.  It may then depend whether the path still leads anywhere or is still viable.  Legal minefield probably!

If walkers can prove that a certain path has been used for 20+ years then it could be claimed to be a public path.  But it has taken centuries to reach this sort of point.

Nell

[Huffwood]

I know it's a minefield and it is that new house that caused the problem. I shall have a look through the parish records one day if I can find the time and be able to interpret the writing from then.

[dobfarm]

This may be a bit off exact topic:- ! but similar in the meaning - peoples abode and  parish boundaries which is worth a mention, I have found in places of worship. To be brief:- Boundaries & movement of travel between location of parishe churches and near by parish churches, thus  like in South Wales with many steep side valleys the nearest parish church or chapelry of the mother parish could be a mile over the hill but 5 miles by road to reach their parish church and the nearest next  parish church could be a 1l2 mile down the road in the same valley they live in but over the their mother parish boundary.

In Huddersfield were I live there are 3 big mother parish churches within 3 mile of one another but each parish area stretches out about 7 miles like a star from the centre of the churches, Almondbury to Mardsen and north part of Holmfirth -Kirkburton covers up to south Holmfirth with pockets of each parish around Holmfirth well in each others major parish boundaries - the 3rd parish church was Kirkheaton parish stretching about 6 miles west towards Wakefield with indirect routes between peoples abodes and parish church with some crossing in and out of different parish boundaries. 

[Huffwood]

Dobfarm, that is something I have wondered about here. From one part of the parish it's less than a mile directly on foot as the crow flies/footpath to the church  but about seven by road; the next parish about half the distance. I wonder how they got coffins to their parish church. The terrain via the footpaths would make it impossible.   There is a possible old road, which existed at the end of the eighteenth century but we don't know when it was first in existence.

[spendlove]

Hi,

Have you spoken to the Footpaths Officer for West Sussex, to ascertain if this was ever a right of way?

The following is connection to map, expand with fingers legend on left.  When it expands look for number 1712 which is area of Nuthurst.

https://www.westsussex.gov.uk/land-waste-and-housing/public-paths-and-the-countryside/public-rights-of-way/public-rights-of-way-imap/imap/

Although named “tithe Map”, was not a directional Map and was only created, together with the Tithe Book, in order that the church could collect their tithe in cash.  So will not show rights of way.
The Enclosure Award is another such map and awards book, again not a directional map but created to show who owned land in order to distribute common land.

The same applies to Census they have no relation to rights of way.

If a new house, have you examined their planning application, to see if a right of way is mentioned?


Hope this helps.

[Huffwood]

Thanks, Spendlove, one of the frustrations here is there was no enclosure here. The tithe map whilst not a map of public or private roads in Nuthurst was very detailed and did show "public" footpaths not that there were such things then because it was pre the definitive map but footpaths are still there today and public.  The roads maintained by the parish on the tithe map are in a category of roads and clearly not owned by a landowner.  The road of the census boundary is  yellow coloured and rather ambiguous hence I was interested to know if the recording of roads on the census ever showed the public-private status of the road.