cen 13 Penkhull Council Rates Valuation 1914

The 1851 is the first census that is reliable especially regarding the ages, even so many parents had no idea how old their children were as birthdays were not celebrated as they are now.
Not only useful for family research, but this census gives an insight to the very nature of workhouses, the break-up of families just to survive. A study of each location of birth gives data regarding areas of poverty or unemployment. Other areas can be identified as wealthy. The grouping of ages also gives remarkable results for students of humanities. Lastly the gender balance in certain areas can be identified.

Ballgreen was a mining village in a quite rural district to the north of Stoke-on-Trent. As a result, the vast majority of residents were employed within the mining industry. In many families three generations were employed including grandparents.

In this census of 1901, there have been huge increases in the number of residents over the previous ten years amounting to 449. The whole community has changed with the demand for coal increasing but how many other occupations have arrived and what about the community facilities such as schoolteachers, shop keepers and publicans. How have these changed the community landscape.
It is an interesting document to use along with other census returns to both follow families throughout and also to obtain a visual of how and when other occupations started to appear in the village. Make a good project for a local history group or local school to draw conclusions.

Newcastle under Lyme was only a small workhouse in comparison with that of The Spittles for Stoke-upon-Trent Union. Nevertheless, the enteries are interesting to both those who tracing their family tree but also the student of social histories or humanities as the census records, if used correctly can identify a number of family structures and frequently the circumstances which drove them into the workhouse to become dependent upon the poor law.