Swaledale and Arkengarthdale 1841-1901

This is the home page for a series of essays originally based on Swaledale/Arkengarthdale census data from 1841 to 1901, covering Birkdale to Marrick. This edition, published in 2008, adds information from 19thC newspapers. This photograph of Swaledale was taken from Marrick on a hot and hazy July afternoon:

Now you can buy the book!

In October 2010 the Upper Dales Family History group celebrates its 10th anniversary. The celebrations include the publication of a book containing over one hundred stories of migration from Swaledale and Wensleydale.

I wrote the index for this book so I have had a preview. For anyone with family names from these dales the stories are moving or funny or astonishing and all are remarkable. To read more about the book or to order online, please click this link.

Introduction

My original plan was to analyse a small, isolated community, to see how self-sufficient it might have been. This plan quickly faltered with the realisation that even small isolated communities have wider links. Having started with Gunnerside in Swaledale, because of family ancestry links, I decided to stop when I had got to Birkdale (upstream) and Marrick (downstream) and had a database of over 35,000 people. That should be enough, I thought.

The data set shows everyone who was in the dale on census night, between 1841 and 1901, in Swaledale (from Birkdale to Marrick) and in Arkengarthdale. With her agreement, I started with Christine Amsden's census transcripts (see Useful Links below), added notes, calculated everyone's date of birth, and made them easy to search and sort. I also lodged an electronic copy of the files with the Swaledale Museum in Reeth, as the ultimate backup. If you would like your own copies of these Excel files, use the link to send me an email. Once you have the files you can group the data into everyone living in the dale for any one census, or everyone living in a particular district between 1841 and 1901. You can search, sort, count, and restore to the original census order. It's up to you. I had no idea what I was getting into.

The links on the left lead to details of the data lists, and to a series of essays I have written based directly or indirectly on the data contained in those censuses (more details below), with the occasional drilldown into individual families. The 2008 edition adds information from 19thC newspapers and other publicly-available sources.

Here is what the dale looked like in 1577, when Saxton published his magnificent map of Yorkshire.

part of Saxton's Map of Yorkshire, 1577: An early map showing Swaledale, which lies to the east of Richmond

Move the cursor over the map to see an enlarged version ... thanks to Scott Kimler of randsco.com for the clever zoom code.

And here is a modern map of the dale showing the main village names. It is interesting to compare it with the Saxton map and see which names no longer appear, although the places still exist. Winterings, Satron, Harcaside, Whitaside, Healey (Healaugh?) Park, were all much more important in Saxton's time.

Modern Yorkshire: The Ordnance Survey shows Swaledale as it is now

Move the cursor over the map to see an enlarged version ... thanks to Scott Kimler of randsco.com for the clever zoom code.

Here are some other sources of maps which you might find helpful:

The Grinton map pages on Genuki show many of the places named in the censuses, so I do not replicate them here. Many of the names used in the census returns do not appear in all censuses. This may be due to the enumerator, or to changes in names, or to new build or disuse. For my own information I wrote a summary of all the places and houses named in the various censuses and checked to see when they appeared and disappeared. Contact me if you are interested and I will send the list to you as an Excel file.
Some large-scale old maps are available on the internet and these show places not on newer maps.
The modern Philip's Street Atlas for North Yorkshire (extremely useful when driving around) shows some individual place names, as does the Ordnance Survey Yorkshire Dales map, but only those still in use today.
Ordnance Survey 6" maps show great detail. If you can find old ones you have the best chance of finding individual houses and tiny hamlets.
David & Charles have a reprint of the first edition (around 1860) of the 1" OS map of Richmond area, which covers Swaledale, but unfortunately the dramatic engraving lines obscure much of the small print.
A stunning satellite photograph of Swaledale is instantly available on the internet (in 2007) if you have access to Google maps. Just zoom in on the north of England, find Richmond then drag the map west until you can see the whole dale.

This iconic Dales image was captured by an old-fashioned camera during a summer picnic by the river Wharfe at Yockenthwaite.

Lead miners and dressmakers

Much of the industry in Swaledale started long before the censuses were taken. By 1841, the hosiery trade was almost gone, though hand-knitting was still an occasional occupation. Lead mining had also peaked some time before and by the end of the century cheap lead was being imported and profits had really dropped. So by 1841, although lead mining was still the major industry of the dale, everything was now in decline, and the decline accelerated as the decades went by.

In 1851, Swaledale and Arkengarthdale had a population of 6,835 of which 1124 were lead miners. By 1891, this had dropped by more than half to a population of 3,250 and 258 miners.

I analysed the census data to see what was happening. Every district had at least three dressmakers and bootmakers but there was only one pharmacist in the whole dale. The only vet lived in Reeth. The only doctors were in Reeth or Gunnerside.

There was a miller in most districts but only one baker in Reeth - everyone else must have made their own bread..

This sketch of 1880s leadminers is from the Snailbeach Lead Mine museum in Shropshire.

To begin with, I used "dressmakers" in the title here simply as a contrast to lead miners, and also because I have been one myself, part time, for many years (alongside teacher and technical author and grandmother).

But I was astonished to find that, after lead mining, dressmaking was the next most common occupation (if you don't count domestic service).

Here are some smart 1870s clothes. No doubt the milliner, staymaker and mantua-maker (an early description for simple dressmaking) were involved too. And the cordwainer. But, as I found, the lady would have had to go to Richmond for her gloves.

What the essays are about

I have not attempted to write in detail about lead mining, or the Dales in general. These subjects are already well researched and described elsewhere (see the Useful Links below). But I hope this introduction has prompted you to find out more about Swaledale in the 19th century. Please use these links to read much more about my discoveries when researching this beautiful and remote dale.

The original data describes the rules I used when standardising the census transcripts and assigning an occupation to everyone, and some odd things I noticed on the way.

Census Explanatory notes has a map showing the different census district boundaries, explains what the census data means, and suggests ways in which you could use the data yourself.

Who did what? describes what I found when I analysed the census data: the ratio of farmers to lead-miners (and how many were both); who had servants? what did the women do? who looked after the children? I also looked at the trade directories for Richmond, which was the nearest big town, to see what was available there.

Farms and farming looks at the number and sizes of the Swaledale farms, a bit about farm wages and market prices, what an acre looks like, and at the kind of farming possible in this bleak and northern dale, where snowdrifts 20 feet deep were common and the few bridges were regularly washed away by the roaring river Swale.

Transport and communications looks at the roads and bridges in Swaledale in the 19thC, and turnpikes and toll houses; how far you could go by cart or coach as the century progressed, and how the postal and telegraph systems were provided in the dale. The latest edition of the essay adds information from 19thC newspapers about the development of the railway, and how it so nearly came up Swaledale in the 1880s.

Births and marriages is a detailed analysis of the census data which reveals family sizes, the local birth rate, age at marriage. I then went on to investigate deaths in childbirth, contraception, illegitimacy, and second marriages.

Origins and destinations was my first attempt at finding out where Swaledalers came from, and went to. I started in a small way, very curious to know what sort of people moved in and out, and maybe to find out why. I then analysed and wrote about the lead-mining families who were in the 1891 census but had moved out by 1901.

Migration in the 1880s was written almost a year later, and more ambitiously looks at everyone who was in the dale in 1881 and not there in 1891. I traced marriages, and movement to the West Riding, and what kind of people stayed, and what kind moved on. Out of 4,700 residents, I tracked down all but 121 of the ones who had been born in the dale, and had a fascinating time doing it. This essay also mentions many more names than my earlier essays.

Home ownership in 1870 is based on a lucky find in the North Yorkshire County Records Office, which enabled me to discover the surprisingly high proportion of renters, and the surprisingly low number of owner-occupiers. Again I list names. A local newspaper gave details of a huge sale forced by Chancery, which I write about here, and another chance find uncovered a wonderful story of the 1882 local by-election and its effect on Swaledale's tenant farmers.

The capable Margaret Tiplady is a diversion into the story of one couple. All the details are there in the censuses and this is the one story here which was written by John (a corner of whose whose website I occupy because I can - the Home page button on this page goes to his home page).

Nappa Hall connections is another short diversion into the Wensleydale history of the breakfast set which was displayed with such symmetry on my mother's prized Ercol dresser.

Useful and interesting Links

Christine Amsden's original Swaledale and Wensleydale census transcripts
and her main website
the Gunnerside website which provides a very useful resource for family historians, including biographies, and transcripts of wills and letters
the Grinton village website which contains an interesting history section, memorial inscriptions from Grinton parish church, and some beautiful photographs
freebmd, which is the fastest (and free) way to search for English BMD records after 1837
Swaledale lead mines
Upper Dales family history group, a goldmine of archived information, obscure links and helpful emailers
The Swaledale Museum in Reeth
Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority page
GENUKI’s Yorkshire home page
A Vision of Britain - collection of government and academic statistical reports; drill down to see historical data and analysis about individual towns
a website in Swaledale, with webcam, weather station, and some lovely old photographs
For guidance in dating old photographs, try Roger Vaughan's Victorian and Edwardian photographs
For excellent on-line (and free) access to searchable old English trade and Post Office directories, try Leicester University's historical directories site.
If you are interested in other Yorkshire stories, or HEARFIELDs, or how windmills work, click here

and here are some of the useful and interesting books I have found:

Mining and Miners in 19th century Swaledale and Arkengarthdale by Alan Mills, a book available through the Upper Swaledale FHS which describes wages and mortality rates as well as the lead mining process itself.
Life and Tradition in the Yorkshire Dales and A Dales Heritage, by the awesome Marie Hartley and Joan Ingilby, each contain many old photographs of people with familiar names, and placenames, and stories about farmers and craftsmen and horsefairs and baking and mining, all done by families who will be well-known to anyone with Dalesfolk as their ancestors.
Life behind the cottage door by Valerie Porter, pub 1992, Whittet Books
A Victorian Poacher, James Hawker's Journal ed Garth Christian, pub 1961, Oxford University Press

A footnote: Please will any Arkengarthdalers (and Birkdalers and Stonesdalers) forgive me if from now on I use "Swaledale" to mean "Swaledale and Arkengarthdale and Birkdale and Stonesdale"?