cen 2 1851 census Spittals Workhouse, Stoke-upon-Trent.

The 1911 census for the Spittals workhouse contains in excess of 700 inmates, a huge number the care for and to provide meals each day. The burden upon the local community was huge and with constant problems to manage.
The listing in this excel report is a further valuable contribution for those wishing to study the returns each year and as 1911 was almost at the hight of the industrial revolution and therefore the numbers fail to reflect that.
Viewing this return firstly using the age listing can easily locate the young from the old and importantly those of working age to enable a graph illustrating the difficulties in society. The same applies to the place of birth whereby setting a radius around stoke at every 10 or 20 miles to ascertain there most are coming from. There is no end to the illustrations of life in 1911. A further example of the work that can be done with facts and figures.

As partr of a local project the 1861 census is a valuable tool as this lists  all the details available to the time of people. In the small community of only 147 on the census tells us of the many family connections there are and if each of those families worked in the local coal mine.

However, its interesting to note that most of the managers came from different areas and not ‘home grown’

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.