Occupation and demography : a study of the Isle of Purbeck, Dorset, in the nineteenth century

Edgar, Michael Joseph Dacre (2007) Occupation and demography : a study of the Isle of Purbeck, Dorset, in the nineteenth century. University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.

Record type: Thesis (Doctoral)

Abstract

The thesis examines the notion of ‘occupational community’, which has been used to characterise agricultural rural villages in England in the mid-nineteenth century. It explores the extent to which the existence of a second industry alongside an agricultural sector might lead to the development of two distinct ‘communities’ within the same population, particularly in terms of their demographic characteristics.

The area studied is the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset, which contained a prosperous agricultural sector and also a long-established stone industry. In order to identify differences between the two occupational groups, a community reconstruction was undertaken. A computer assisted method was developed to assist in linking the census, vital registration and ancillary data for the populations of three parishes for the period 1841-1891.

The results were mixed, in that some demographic behaviour, notably migratory patterns and infant mortality trends, were markedly different between the two groups. Other demographic measures were less clearly differentiated between the two occupational groups. It was found that whilst the stone workers formed a very tight-knit economic community, they were much less exclusive in the social sphere, in areas such as marriage and religious worship.

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