SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



The return of 1886 shows that compared with the coal-hewers, engine- 

 wrights, fitters, and boiler-makers earn a considerably greater weekly sum. 

 In North Staffordshire the average weekly wage was estimated at zSs. qd., 

 whilst in the south it was given as varying from 2 p. yd. to 5u. 8</., but 

 as comparatively few men received the higher pay, the average wage would 

 probably work out at much the same rate as in the north. 83 * 



An analysis of the census returns in the period between 1801 and igoi 836 

 shows an enormous aggregate increase in the population of Staffordshire, 

 which in the latter year stood fourth on the list of English counties. The 

 greatest increase has of course been in the great industrial regions of North 

 and South Staffordshire, the Potteries and the Black Country, and in the 

 neighbourhood of the small Cheadle coalfield in the north. 



But even in the agricultural districts there has been a rise in population 



in a considerable number of cases in the first half of the nineteenth century, 



. though this has often failed to maintain itself. Bromley Regis is a case in 



point ; it had a population of 454 in 1801 which increased in the next forty 



years to 718, but has now fallen to 500. 



The township of Salt and Enson, in the hundred of Pirehill, shows 

 exactly the same number of inhabitants in 1901 as it did a hundred years 

 ago, viz. 370, but in the year 1841 its numbers had reached 580. These 

 are only two instances out of a good many similar ones which might 

 be cited. 



The growth of population both in the industrial and agricultural districts 

 is due directly or indirectly to the industrial development of the county, and 

 to the growth of railways during the last century. 



Of the four most densely populated towns in the county three are in 

 South Staffordshire, and one only, the smallest, in the north. During the 

 century Wolverhampton, the most populous, has increased from 12,565 to 

 94,187 ; Walsall, the centre of the leather, saddlery, and harness trade, has 

 risen from 10,399 in 1801 to 87,464 in 1901. The largest part of this rise 

 in population is due to the growth of Walsall Foreign as it is called, as the 

 township proper has only risen from 5,177 to 5,729 in the hundred years, 

 though in 1851 it contained more inhabitants, viz. 8,761. West Bromwich 

 contained, in 1801, 5,687 persons, compared with 65,114 in 1901. The 

 population of Hanley county borough in 1901 was 61,599. I ts g row th cannot 

 be tabulated so clearly as the other towns, as the town of Hanley is part of 

 the ancient parish of Stoke upon Trent, and was not separately rated to the 

 relief of the poor until 1894, and its population is not separately shown in 

 the table given below. 



The sum of the populations of the two townships of Hanley and 

 :Shelton in 181 1, however, is estimated at about 9,968, but this is admittedly 

 only approximately correct. During the nineteenth century many industrial 

 villages have become towns, e.g. Burslem, which has risen rom 6,578 to 

 40,234, and Darlaston, which had a population of only 3,812 in 1801, and 

 at the last census contained 15,386 inhabitants. The parish of Sedgeley is 

 still made up of a number of scattered villages, but its numbers have gone 



"' Return of Rates of Wages in Mines and Quarries, 1891, p. 19. The weekly wages of a ' puddler ' are 

 jjiven as 30^. in 1893. See Ref>. of Lab. Com. 1893-4., xxxii (c 6894. x), 18. 

 195 See Table of Pop. appended to this article. 



315 



