GB Historical DB

Selected union-level pauper statistics from the Poor Law/Local Government Board's Returns

Table ID:
PLAW_U     (1252716)
Contents:
Selected union-level pauper statistics from the Poor Law/Local Government Board's Returns
Approx. number of rows:
70,062
Table type:
Raw Data
Documentation Author:
Humphrey Southall
Geography:
Reporting units are identified by:
   Union (Poor Law) County
   Poor Law Union
   Poor Law Union Number
Chronology:
The data cover the period 1859 to 1912.
Dates and times are identified by:
   Month
   Year

Sources:

  1. Holds data taken from the 'Returns to Parliament' made by the Local Government Board, listing numbers of paupers in each union on the 1st of January and 1st of July from July 1859 to January 1912. The table is usually a "Comparative statement of the number of paupers relieved" in each half year. This is a partial transcription of columns, see notes below for further details.

Notes:

  1. Data in this table results from several separate phases of data entry, each with a different strategy. Coverage is as follows:
    • July 1859 to July 1882 (1st January and 1st July), plus 1884 January and July. All unions in London ('The Metropolis'), Lancashire and Durham plus selected major urban unions The Lancashire data for 1860-72 were inserted from plaw_u_full and comes from work by Humphrey Southall in the 1980s, while the remainder was input by Maureen Watters and Eileen Longland in 1995-6.
    • January 1900 to January 1912 (1st January only). All unions in England and Wales. These data were input by Pat Furniss and David Gilbert during 1989-91.
    • July 1900 to July 1911 (1st July only). All unions in London ('The Metropolis'), Lancashire and Durham plus selected major urban unions. These data were input by Maureen Watters and Eileen Longland in 1995-6. The transcription for July 1907 was extended to all unions in England and Wales by Eileen Longland in October 1998. NB July data from 1907 onwards is also loaded via a more complete transcription in plaw_u_july_1907_11.
    • January 1861 to July 1901 Census years (1st January and 1st July), plus 1911 July. All unions in England and Wales added in Spring 2017 by Harold Price at Portsmouth.
    • January and July 1860. All unions in England and Wales added in Summer 2017 by William Pearson at Portsmouth.
    • January 1862 to July 1870 ((1st January and 1st July), plus 1st July 1859, 1900 and 1902-1906. All unions in England and Wales added in Summer and Autumn 2017 and Spring 2018 by Harold Price at Portsmouth. Data which was previously being loaded into this table by selection from "plaw_u_full" for these dates has now been incorporated fully into this data-set.
    • January 1872 to July 1880, January 1882 to July 1890, January 1892 to July 1899 (all 1st January and 1st July). All unions in England and Wales added in Autumn 2018 by Harold Price at Portsmouth to fill the remaining gaps.
    To summarise:
    • Full geographical coverage for months of January and July, from July 1859 through to January 1912 inclusive.
      •
  2. The data starts in July 1859 as this was the first such table produced. The run ends in January 1912 because the 1913 report does not distinguish the able-bodied among those on outdoor relief.
  3. The values of neither plu_num/num_sfx nor u_name were unique within a single report, but combinations of the number and name are unique. For example, there were two unions called 'Newport' and two called 'Richmond', while there are, for example, separate rows for 'Keynsham' and 'Keynsham Out-Relief' which have the same number.
  4. Some unions have two union numbers associated with them. Atcham Union has union numbers 351 & 352 between January 1871 and January 1883. Halstead Union has union numbers 197 & 198, Nottingham Union has union numbers 432 & 433, and Knighton Union has union numbers 607 & 608 from January 1881 to January 1883. Chorlton and Manchester Joint Workhouse Co Union has union numbers 464 & 466 from 1899. For the ease of data loading these numbers has been manually altered to be just the first of these numbers in the relevant data file and a note added to the row giving the other number.
  5. The Local Government Act 1888 provision 58 allows for the formation of unions where the union is split between more than one administrative county. Indoor pauper provision continues within the original county where the workhouse is situated, out door provision is divided into 2 or more "out-relief" unions. (http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Vict/51-52/41/contents).
    This applies to ten units:
    • Malton & Norton. Created in Malton PLU on 28th December 1894
    • Belvoir & Grantham. Created in Grantham PLU on 28th December 1894
    • Bishopthorpe & Escrick & Flaxton & York. Created in York PLU on 28th December 1894
    • Keynsham & Warmley. Created in Keynsham PLU on 31st March 1895
    (http://www.workhouses.org.uk/glossary/).
    A separate column "out_relief" has been created to identify these units. For the time being their names are copied into here and the name of the Poor Law Union they were part of is inserted into the "plu_name" column instead as part of the loading script. The out-relief unions generally do not have their own entry in the AUO. This means plu_unit values must be aggregated to get figures for these unions.
  6. A few names in this table have "PART OF" after them where the union is split between two counties or two parts of a county. A separate column "part_of" has been created and populated with a 'P' to identify these units. The units are:
    • ALSTONEFIELD, STAFFORDSHIRE (altered relationship to DERBYSHIRE)
    • BARWICK IN ELMET, WEST RIDING (altered relationship to EAST RIDING)
    • CARLTON, WEST RIDING
    • GREAT PRESTON, WEST RIDING
    • SUTTON, SUSSEX
    The names were then edited to remove the "part of" from the name. These units will require aggregation for mapping purposes.
  7. Certain Poor Law Unions are listed in these returns in different counties to those given by Youngs'. Generally they change later on to become the same county as Youngs' gives. Rather than add additional 'IsPartOf' relationships to the AUO hierarchy, in these few cases the county has been manually altered in the table.
    The changes are:
    • Dulverton (10112140): Listed in Devon up to and including January 1863, thereafter in Somerset. Adjusted to be Somerset throughout
    • Kington (10043918): Listed in Radnorshire up to and including January 1871, thereafter in Herefordshire. Adjusted to be Herefordshire throughout
    • Hawarden (10154881): Listed in Cheshire up to 1st January 1903, when a note in the table indicates it moved to Flint Union County. Adjusted to be Flint throughout
    • Farnborough (10139892): Listed in Surrey, up to and including 1st January 1869, not listed thereafter. Adjusted to be Hampshire throughout.
  8. Middlesbrough Poor Law Union was not created until 1875. As this was one of the urban centres selected for the original transcription Guisborough PLU was substituted for Middlesbrough prior to 1875 in the original work. In some cases the row was labelled Middlesbrough and the 1871 Census population given was the one later ascribed to Middlesbrough. This has now been fixed, where the unit is Guisborough it is now labelled as such and the Census popluation is for Guisborough.
  9. New Winchester Poor Law Union changed its named to Winchester. It is recorded as occurring on the 26th March 1901 in the July 1901 return, however the 1902 return indicates the change occurred on 26th March 1902. As the 1901 date is earlier and had already been added to this unit in AUO, and the information is from different years in the same source for now this discrepancy is handled by a manual update to the name of the unit during matching in this table.
  10. The 1901-6 July data identifies data where "The Unions and Parishes [are] wholly comprised in Urban Districts are distinguished by the letter U., and those wholly in Rural District by the letter R. The remainder are situate partly in Urban and partly in Rural Districts, with the exception of those in London which are wholly Urban." These identifiers have been added into a separate column.
  11. The following data are missing from the transcription as we did not have photocopies of the relevant pages.
    • July 1887 data for Derbyshire (partial), Cheshire (all) and Lancashire (partial), pages 34-35.

Checking:

  1. Combinations of number and name to identify the Union were checked for uniqueness when indexing the table within the database.
  2. At the time of writing, all units have been matched to the AUO except for the following anomalies:
    • HUNTSWICK &C (W. Riding) in July 1859
    • CHORLTON AND MANCHESTER JOINT WORKHOUSE COMMITTEE CASUAL WARDS (Lancs) from 1899 to 1912
    • ALDERSHOT JOINT LOCK HOSPITAL COMMITTEE (Surrey) in 1901-4.
  3. The poor law unions were also matched against the polygons in the gis_prdist_2017 table. All polygons matched to rows of data in this table. A total of 49 poor law unions identified in this table do not have polygons available for them to match. These include the ten separately identified "Out-Relief" unions created from part of existing unions in 1894-5 as listed in general note 5 above. They also include a significant number of early Poor Law Parishes, Gilbert Unions and Incorporations which were abolished in the 1860s. They are:
      Poor Law Parish;
    • WILTSHIRE: SAVERNAKE & C. abolished 1862
      • Elizabethan Poor Law Parishes;
    • DEVON: EXMOOR abolished 1862
    • EAST RIDING: ANGRAM abolished 1862
    • LANCASHIRE: ARKHOLME & C abolished 1862, CATON abolished 1862
    • LINCOLNSHIRE: DEEPING FEN abolished 1862
    • LONDON: CHARTERHOUSE abolished 26th March 1877, INNER TEMPLE, MIDDLE TEMPLE and GRAYS INN all abolished by July 1881, and LINCOLNS INN abolished by July 1883
    • MONTGOMERYSHIRE: RHOSGOCH & C. abolished 1862
    • NORFOLK: BRINTON abolished 1862
    • NORTH RIDING: BAINBRIDGE, CARPERBY & C. both abolished 1862
    • STAFFORDSHIRE: ALSTONEFIELD (part) abolished 1862
    • SURREY: ASH, HEADLEY both abolished 1862
    • SUSSEX: ARUNDEL, HEENE & C., SUTTON (part) all abolished 1862
      • Gilbert Unions;
    • WEST RIDING: BEAMSLEY abolished 1862, CASTLEY, & C abolished 1862, COLTON, & C all abolished 1862
      • Incorporations;
    • WEST RIDING: GILDERSOME & C, KIRKBY OVERBLOW & C, NEWTHORPE & C, SILSDEN all abolished 1862
    Finally, GREAT BOUGHTON, CHESHIRE was abolished in 1871 and so does not appear in the polygon table, but is listed with data in January 1871.
  4. The data were not systematically checked as they were input as only some of the necessary columns were transcribed. Data copied from plaw_u_full were subject to the checks carried out for that table.
  5. The January data for the 1900s were visually checked in January and February 1995 by Maureen Watters. The union numbers and, where they were missing, the populations were added. Duplicate rows and other obvious mistakes were eliminated.
  6. In the 1980s and 1990s records where the total number of indoor or outdoor paupers were zero were checked. Most are special unions which provided only one type of relief, but where the cause was an error this was corrected.
  7. In the 1980s and 1990s records where the total number of indoor or outdoor paupers came to less than the sum of the relevant sub-groups were corrected. NB as only some of the sub-groups were input this located only some errors. (Subsequently, values for dup and total were input for the January 1900 data and a check sum computed; the relatively small number of errors located were corrected).
  8. Data input by Harold Price and William Pearson checked the total relieved matched the sum of indoor and outdoor relieved totals during input. Where a dup column existed this was subtracted to ensure the net total was matched. N.B. Because this is a selective transcription fuller checking was not possible. The following unions/dates failed these check sums but are correctly transcribed, indicating an error in the original:
    • 1861 Jan : Hartlepool (3), Gateshead (-3)
    • 1864 July: Auckland (-13)
    Check not done for 1901 onwards as not transcribed either dup or overall total column, or both.
  9. In July 1911 indoor and outdoor male and female totals were not given. Instead an able-bodied adults total and overall total was given for both.
  10. When loading into the database individual column figures were summed by county for individual dates and checked against the county totals in table plaw_c where there is complete geographical coverage and the same columns exist in both tables. Most of the errors listed below result from a spoiled or blurred copy of the original where the error is not identifiable. Further checks against the original may eliminate some of these.
    All years have now been figure checked.
  11. The following individual column figures were not checked against county figures as none of the figures match despite being correctly transcribed:
    Population (pop), Indoor Total (in_tot), Outdoor Total (out_tot), Indoor able-bodied adults (i_ab_a), Outdoor able-bodied adults (o_ab_a).
  12. The following individual column figures were not checked against county figures as we have not transcribed them at county level:
    Lunatics, Indoor vagrants (i_vag), Duplicates (dup).
  13. The following columns were checked where we have data and have no remaining errors:
    • Outdoor Female Paupers Wives
    • Outdoor Female Paupers Other
  14. Indoor able-bodied Male Paupers. Summed column by county did not match the county table figures: (see next check for errors after 1891).
    • 1859 July - LONDON, difference -73
    • 1860 Jan - LONDON, difference -113
    • 1860 July - LONDON, difference -108
    • 1862 Jan - LANCASTER, difference -10
    • 1862 July - LONDON, difference 90
    • 1871 Jan - KENT, difference -161
    • 1871 Jan - MIDDLESEX, difference -416
    • 1871 Jan - SURREY, difference -408
    • 1872 July - CUMBERLAND, difference 1
    • 1874 Jan - WEST RIDING, difference -23
    • 1883 Jan - GLOUCESTER, difference 1
    • 1886 Jan - LANCASTER, difference -1
    • 1888 Jan - WEST RIDING, difference 1
    • 1888 July - DEVON, difference 10
    • 1890 Jan - BUCKINGHAM, difference -20
  15. Indoor Male Paupers, broken down into In-health and Disabled after 1891 (see previous check). Summed column by county did not match the county table figures:
    • Indoor Male Paupers In health:
    • 1892 Jan - WEST RIDING, difference 1
    • 1893 Jan - LANCASHIRE, difference -10
    • 1893 July - LANCASHIRE, difference 5
    • 1895 Jan - NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, difference 1
    • 1895 Jan - STAFFORDSHIRE, difference 13
    • 1900 Jan - DERBY, difference 3
    • 1901 Jan - LANCASTER, difference 100
    • 1912 Jan - SOUTHAMPTON, difference 3
    • Indoor Male Paupers Temporarily disabled:
    • 1892 Jan - WEST RIDING, difference 11
    • 1893 Jan - LANCASHIRE, difference 10
    • 1893 July - LANCASHIRE, difference -5
    • 1895 Jan - NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, difference -1
    • 1906 July - CARDIGAN, difference -1
    • 1906 July - NORTH RIDING, difference 30
  16. Indoor able-bodied female paupers. Summed column by county did not match the county table figures: (see next check for errors after 1891).
    • 1859 July - LONDON, difference -146
    • 1860 Jan - LONDON, difference -218
    • 1860 July - LONDON, difference -187
    • 1861 July - SURREY, difference -10
    • 1861 July - WORCESTER, difference -2
    • 1862 July - CUMBERLAND, difference -3
    • 1862 July - LONDON, difference 269
    • 1862 July - WORCESTER, difference 9
    • 1863 Jan - LONDON, difference 20
    • 1863 July - CUMBERLAND, difference 3
    • 1863 July - DEVON, difference 14
    • 1863 July - WILTSHIRE, difference 10
    • 1867 July - LONDON, difference -19
    • 1867 July - WEST RIDING, difference 5
    • 1871 Jan - KENT, difference -243
    • 1871 Jan - MIDDLESEX, difference -522
    • 1871 Jan - SURREY, difference -508
    • 1876 July - NORTH RIDING, difference 1
    • 1880 Jan - NOTTINGHAM, difference 10
    • 1884 Jan - KENT, difference 10
    • 1886 Jan - LANCASTER, difference 1
    • 1888 July - DEVON, difference -10
  17. Indoor female Paupers, broken down into In-health and Disabled after 1891 (see previous check). Summed column by county did not match the county table figures:
    • Indoor Female Paupers In health:
    • 1891 Jan - KENT, difference -10
    • 1892 Jan - HERTFORD, difference 3
    • 1895 Jan - GLOUCESTER, difference 5
    • 1895 Jan - LANCASTER, difference 10
    • 1897 July - DERBY, difference -1
    • 1897 July - KENT, difference 20
    • 1901 Jan - GLOUCESTER, difference 7
    • 1901 Jan - LANCASTER, difference 1
    • 1906 July - SALOP, difference -6
    • Indoor Female Paupers Temporarily disabled:
    • 1891 Jan - KENT, difference 10
    • 1892 Jan - HERTFORD, difference -3
    • 1892 Jan - LONDON, difference -10
    • 1895 Jan - GLOUCESTER, difference -5
    • 1895 Jan - LANCASTER, difference -10
    • 1895 Jan - SUFFOLK, difference -10
    • 1897 July - DERBY, difference 6
    • 1906 July - SOMERSET, difference -1
  18. Outdoor able-bodied Male Paupers. Summed column by county did not match the county table figures: (see next check for errrors after 1891).
    • 1860 Jan - LONDON, difference -553
    • 1861 Jan - LINCOLN, difference -70
    • 1862 July - LONDON, difference -18
    • 1862 July - WORCESTER, difference 23
    • 1864 Jan - ESSEX, difference 1
    • 1867 July - WEST RIDING, difference 12
    • 1869 Jan - CORNWALL, difference 4
    • 1870 July - NORTHUMBERLAND, difference -1
    • 1871 Jan - KENT, difference -759
    • 1871 Jan - MIDDLESEX, difference -839
    • 1871 Jan - SURREY, difference -1796
    • 1871 Jan - WEST RIDING, difference -100
    • 1875 Jan - CORNWALL, difference 30
    • 1879 July - EAST RIDING, difference 1
    • 1881 Jan - LANCASTER, difference 100
    • 1881 Jan - WEST RIDING, difference 10
    • 1881 July - WEST RIDING, difference 3
    • 1884 July - WILTSHIRE, difference 10
    • 1888 Jan - BERKSHIRE, difference -10
    • 1888 July - MONMOUTH, difference -2
    • 1890 Jan - GLOUCESTER, difference -7
  19. Outdoor Male Paupers, broken down into Sick and Other after 1891 (see previous check). Summed column by county did not match the county table figures:
    • Outdoor Male Paupers Sick:
    • 1891 Jan - SOUTHAMPTON, difference 30
    • 1892 Jan - WEST RIDING, difference 1
    • 1893 July - WEST RIDING, difference 3
    • 1895 Jan - DERBY, difference -2
    • 1895 Jan - LEICESTER, difference 7
    • 1895 July - CUMBERLAND, difference 3
    • 1895 July - HEREFORD, difference -2
    • 1895 July - STAFFORD, difference 2
    • 1896 Jan - SOMERSET, difference 5
    • 1899 July - DEVON, difference 1
    • 1899 July - SOMERSET, difference 3
    • 1899 July - WARWICK, difference -5
    • 1901 Jan - EAST RIDING, difference 4
    • 1901 Jan - KENT, difference 4
    • 1901 July - BEDFORD, difference 4
    • 1903 July - DEVON, difference 5
    • 1904 Jan - HERTFORD, difference 6
    • 1904 July - STAFFORD, difference 4
    • 1905 July - CORNWALL, difference 2
    • Outdoor Male Paupers Other:
    • 1891 July - WEST RIDING, difference 3
    • 1895 Jan - DERBY, difference 2
    • 1895 Jan - LEICESTER, difference -7
    • 1895 July - CUMBERLAND, difference -3
    • 1895 July - HEREFORD, difference 2
    • 1895 July - STAFFORD, difference -2
    • 1896 Jan - SOMERSET, difference -5
    • 1898 July - CAMBRIDGE, difference 7
    • 1899 July - DEVON, difference -1
    • 1899 July - SOMERSET, difference -3
    • 1899 July - WARWICK, difference 5
    • 1904 Jan - NORTH RIDING, difference 2
    • 1907 Jan - STAFFORD, difference -2
    • 1908 Jan - SURREY, difference 8
  20. Outdoor able-bodied Female Paupers. Summed column by county did not match the county table figures: N.B. Female outdoor paupers are not broken down into sick and other like the males are.
    • 1860 Jan - LONDON, difference -1770
    • 1860 Jan - NORTH RIDING, difference 85
    • 1860 July - SUFFOLK, difference -10
    • 1862 July - LONDON, difference -116
    • 1862 July - WORCESTER, difference 57
    • 1864 Jan - OXFORD, difference 74
    • 1867 July - WEST RIDING, difference 85
    • 1870 Jan - DEVON, difference 2
    • 1871 Jan - KENT, difference -1939
    • 1871 Jan - MIDDLESEX, difference -2707
    • 1871 Jan - SURREY, difference -3381
    • 1881 July - STAFFORD, difference 30
    • 1883 July - NORFOLK, difference 100
    • 1884 July - LANCASTER, difference 100
    • 1887 Jan - LEICESTER, difference 14
    • 1891 July - LEICESTER, difference -63
    • 1891 July - NORTH RIDING, difference 3
    • 1891 July - SUFFOLK, difference -10
    • 1891 July - SUSSEX, difference 41
    • 1893 July - NOTTINGHAM, difference -10
    • 1900 Jan - BUCKINGHAM, difference -1
    • 1902 Jan - BEDFORD, difference 50
    • 1902 Jan - SOMERSET, difference -5
    • 1904 Jan - DURHAM, difference 1
    • 1906 July - WEST RIDING, difference 10
    • 1909 Jan - NORTH RIDING, difference 10

Indices:

IndexTypeColumn(s) indexed
plaw_u_pkey Primary key rec_num
plaw_u_idx Unique year, month, plu_name, plu_cnty, plu_num, out_relief

Constraints:

The table has the following associated constraints:

ConstraintTypeDetails
plaw_u_pkey Primary Key See details above for primary key index


Columns within table:

ColumnTypeContents
key Integer number. Unique sequence number (not always present)
year Integer number. Year to which data refer
month Integer number. Month to which data refer
plu_num Integer number. Numerical code identifying union within the individual report.
num_sfx Text string (max.len.=14). Letter part of identifying code; generally absent but covers, e.g., 463A or 515A1.
urban_rural Text string (max.len.=6). Letter identifying Unions entirely within an Urban or a Rural District.
plu_name Text string (max.len.=84). Union to which data refer (Max. 60 chars.) NB 'union' is a reserved word in SQL, hence unusable as a field name.
out_relief Text string (max.len.=6). Names of specifically created out-relief unions (the PLU is matched to the container Union).
part_of Text string (max.len.=6). Unions with names ending in part of are indiciated by a P in this column.
plu_cnty Text string (max.len.=28). Union county.
cnty_unit Integer number. Unit ID for the county containing the Union, as defined in the AUO.
plu_unit Integer number. Unit ID for the Union, as defined in the AUO.
pop Integer number. Population of union, usu. at previous census. NB included in dataset to facilitate simple analyses, but interpolated figures from separate census data are preferable.
i_ab_m_h Integer number. Indoor able-bodied men in health (in dataset from 1891 onwards).
i_ab_m_d Integer number. Indoor able-bodied men temporarily disabled (in dataset from 1891 onwards).
i_ab_men Integer number. Total of indoor able-bodied men (computed as i_ab_men_h+i_ab_men_d) (all years).
i_ab_w_h Integer number. Indoor able-bodied women in health (in dataset from 1891 onwards).
i_ab_w_d Integer number. Indoor able-bodied women temporarily disabled (in dataset from 1891 onwards).
i_ab_wm Integer number. Total of indoor able-bodied women (computed as i_ab_wm_h+i_ab_wm_d) (all years)
i_ab_a Integer number. Total number of able-bodied adults on indoor relief. (July 1907-11 and Jan 1911 transcription. All other years computed as i_ab_men+i_ab_wm if available).
i_vag Integer number. Indoor vagrants (all years).
in_tot Integer number. Total of indoor paupers (all years)
o_ab_m_s Integer number. Outdoor able-bodied men relieved because of sickness, etc (in dataset from 1891 onwards).
o_ab_m_o Integer number. Outdoor able-bodied men relieved for other causes (in dataset from 1891 onwards).
o_ab_men Integer number. Outdoor able-bodied men relieved (computed as o_ab_m_s+o_ab_m_o) (all years).
o_ab_w_v Integer number. Outdoor able-bodied wives (only in dataset from 1907 onwards).
o_ab_w_i Integer number. Outdoor able-bodied widows (only in dataset from 1907 onwards).
o_ab_w_o Integer number. Outdoor able-bodied women other than wives and widows (only in dataset from 1907 onwards).
o_ab_wm Integer number. Total of outdoor able-bodied women (directly input up to 1906, computed as o_ab_w_v+o_ab_w_i+o_ab_w_o from 1907 onwards) (all years).
o_ab_a Integer number. Total number of able-bodied adults on outdoor relief (computed from o_ab_men+o_ab_wm if available) (all years)
out_tot Integer number. Total of outdoor paupers (all years)
lunatics Integer number. Lunatics in County and Borough Asylums, Registered Hospitals and Licensed Houses. [NB only in dataset for Julys in the 1900s; was not transcribed from January reports for the 1900s.]
dup Integer number. Number duplicated in both indoor and outdoor total (total=in_tot+out_tot-dup). (Not in dataset for years after 1900).
total Integer number. For years up to 1900, the listed total number of paupers relieved; thereafter, the sum of in_tot+out_tot. NB this is not the same as the listed total number of paupers relieved as the latter was adjusted for double counting using dup. (all years)
notes Text string (max.len.=1004). Comments; rarely used, and generally explains why data are absent.
rec_num Integer number. Unique number identifying row in table.
source Text string (max.len.=28). Used as a means of helping to identify which location the data was gathered from.

Additional Notes:

Unions included in the selective transcription

The initial selective transcription covered under a fifth of all unions, but included about half the total population because of the emphasis on large urban unions. The following towns in England and Wales have at least 80 entries in the 'wages' table and were selected for inclusion in an extended transcription (Stoke-on-Trent does not meet this criterion, but was included to ensure that this major conurbation was represented):

County:

Unions included:

'The Metropolis', input as London. All unions.
Sussex Brighton
Southampton Portsea Island (or Portsmouth)
Southampton
Berkshire Reading
Northamptonshire Northampton
Suffolk Ipswich
Devon Plymouth
Gloucestershire Bristol
Gloucester
Staffordshire Stoke-on-Trent
Wolverhampton
Walsall
Worcestershire Worcester
Warwickshire Birmingham
Coventry
Leicestershire Leicester
Nottinghamshire Nottingham
Derbyshire Derby
Cheshire Birkenhead
Lancashire

All unions

West Riding Huddersfield
Halifax
Bradford
Leeds
Barnsley
Sheffield
East Riding York
Kingston-on-Hull
North Riding Middlesbrough (or Guisborough before Middlesborough was created).
Durham

All unions

Northumberland Newcastle-on-Tyne
Monmouthshire Newport
Glamorganshire Cardiff
Swansea