By the Rev. J. Wilkinson. 



23 



three small rooms and 10 or 15 perches of garden ground fetch £4 

 a year. The explanation is, that a large proportion of the cottages 

 for hire are owned by one person, who also keeps a beer shop and 

 general store of such articles as the poor require. lie works the 

 rent against the shop, and the shop against the rent, so that he is 

 able to keep up prices in both commodities. 



Population. 



The earliest official enumeration of the population, with houses 

 and occupations, was in 1801, and the results for this parish in that 

 year, and in every succeeding tenth year up to the present time, 

 are as follow : — 



Year. 



Hons 



ES. 





Population. 





Occupations of Families 





Inhabited. 



Uninh. 



Males. 



Females. 



Total. 



Families. 



Agricul. 



Trade or; Other 

















Manuf. Occup. 



1801 



114 



1 j 



282 



331 



613 



114 



35 



77 2 



1811 



125 



4 



291 



365 



656 



187 



62 



120 5 



1821 



139 



1 



393 



383 



776 



145 



43 



99 j 3 



1831 



149 



5 



360 



375 



735 



184 



58 



64 62 



1841 



156 





378 



363 



741 









1851 



156 



11 , 



353 



339 



692 









In the return for 1831, it is evident that the families, engaged 

 in trade or manufactures, and in other occupations, are not classi- 

 fied on the same principle as in the preceding returns. In 1841 

 the birth places were given, and of the 741 then living here, 725 

 were born in Wilts and only 16 elsewhere. In 1841, 1851, the 

 families and their occupations are given generally in the census 

 abstracts, but not in detail for each parish. I estimate our families 

 now to be 148, of whom 63 are agricultural, 33 weavers, 52 of 

 other or of no occupation. The present population may be given 

 at 612. The proportion then of acres to a person is 2'6, of persons 

 to a house 37. Throughout the county generally these proportions 

 are 3*4, 4*9, respectively. 



The population is steadily decreasing. The cause is decline of 

 employment for the hand-loom weavers. We dwell pretty well 



