The population

The Domesday Book is often suggested as the first census of Britain, but it was essentially a record of the holdings, e.g. land and livestock, of landowners, how much of each type of holding and what it was worth for taxation purposes. The number of households is given for each place, but the population is not given. Henley, although part of the Binfield Hundred, was not even mentioned, so its population at that time is unknown.

Without a national census the population of Britain was not known with any certainty and from time to time this became a concern to the government of the time. In 1753 Thomas Potter introduced a bill for a National Census. This was approved by the Commons, but rejected by the Lords and it was not until 1801 that the first national census was undertaken.

In the period immediately prior to 1801, support for a National Census renewed. The population was unknown and the size of the working population as a proportion of the whole was a matter for speculation. Some thought that the population was declining with the risk that armed forces of sufficient size could not be maintained. Others thought that the population was growing, but at an unknown rate whilst the number of agricultural workers was also unknown and there were concerns that food production would be inadequate to feed the larger population with consequent food shortages and unrest. Certainly the government wished to avoid the radical social and political upheaval that had led to the French Revolution.

John Rickman (See also wiki entry). had written a paper entitled 'Thoughts on the Utility and Facility of a general enumeration of the People of the British Empire' which came to the attention of Charles Abbot, subsequently Speaker of the House of Commons, who appointed Rickman as his Private Secretary. Rickman wrote a further paper 'On ascertaining the population' and is credited with drafting the 1800 Census Act, the full title of which was 'An Act for taking an Account of the Population of Great Britain, and of the Increase or Diminution thereof', presented by Charles Abbot, which became law in December 1800.

Rickman was in charge of preparations for the 1801 census and the production of statistical reports. By modern standards, the whole census operation was completed in a remarkably short time. In England and Wales, census day was 10 March 1801 and the first abstracts were printed and laid before Parliament on 31 December that same year. The total population of England and Wales was 8.87 million, plus just under half a million military personal, seamen and convicts who were not included in figures for the census itself.

The Population of Henley

The population in 1801 of the town of Henley upon Thames was declared as 2948 and of Rotherfield Greys parish, 677. These figures and for subsequent censuses to 1871 can be found on the British History Online website.

In 1841 Henley was divided into five enumeration districts plus the Henley Union Workhouse and Rotherfield Greys into two. Only the easterly of these two Rotherfield Greys districts, adjoining the town of Henley at Friday Street, bounded by the river Thames to the east and extending to "the Club Houses and Nicholas Farm" in the west has been transcribed and included in the Henley Census database. The population of Henley town for the years 1841 to 1871 given by the British History Online website and the Henley Census database are as follows:

These small differences clearly result from human error, probably the omission of a census entry in the construction of the database. In one case it is known that the hand written enumerator's book contained two copies of one schedule. This schedule was included in the database once only. Any difference between data abstracted from the database and the statistics produced at the time is likely to be insignificant compared to the errors expected from the census procedure as a whole. Attempts will be made to resolve these small differences when time allows

Population of the Henley area defined by all the enumeration districts included in the database

The population of Henley town and the adjoining district of Rotherfield Greys included in the database are shown in a table and as a graph below.

Overall the population grew, but increasingly so from 1881 to 1901. The population of the town increased initially and then declined This decline was more than compensated for by an increase in the population of the adjoining district in the parish of Rotherfield Greys which continued to grow substantially, necessitating the division of a single enumeration district for 1841 into two for 1891 and three for 1901.

The Henley enumeration districts remained essentially unchanged until 1901 when there was a substantial reorganisation. The following graphs show how the population of these enumeration districts changed between 1841 and 1891.

Population of Enumeration Districts

Market Place (N), West Hill...

Bell Street, New Street to Wharf House ...

Hart Street, Waterside, Friday Street (N), Duke Street ...

Market Place(S), Gravel Hill(S). Badgemore ...

Northfield End, Fair Mile, Assendon ...

Henley Union Workhouse ...

Population of main streets of the old town, including courts leading thereout

New Street, including:

New Street, Red Cross Yard, New Street Yard, Champion Court, Horse and Groom Yard

Hart Street, including:

Hart Street

Friday Street, including:

Friday Street, Friday Street Court

Bell Street, including:

Bell Street

Duke Street, including:

Duke Street

Market Place, including:

Market Place

Gravel Hill, including:

Gravel Hill, Havelock Terrace

West Hill, including:

West Street, West Hill, Adwell Square, Adwell Place, Short Hill, West Street, Reform Court, Albion Place, Smith's Row, Hodge's Row, Strange's Row, Frewin's Row, Frewin's Cottages

Population of streets:

To see how the population of streets changed, select one or more streets from the list. Pressing "SHIFT" with a click will select a block of streets. Pressing "CONTROL" with a click will add a single street to the selected streets. When selection is complete, click the "Extract data" button. This will present data for the combined population of the selected streets. This allows Courts off the main streets and sometimes recorded separately from the main street to be combined to give a consistent basis for comparison.