Economic success. Settled residents. More babies.

Introduction

Victorian Bournemouth (57) traces the town’s civic identity in part to its growing residential population. A repeated production of children by residents suggested a disinclination to migrate since Bournemouth offered them economic success. This growing portion of the population contributed to the town’s civic identity. Further analysis establishes a continuous, strong association between the town and its own citizens over their lifetimes. 

Victorian Bournemouth (57): background

Residents as the core of civic identity

In Early and Late Modern English history, the civic identity and culture of rural settlements consisted of its oldest, continuous residents and what they could remember. This included what they had heard from their grandparents and so on. Such people will have had sufficient satisfaction with their birthplace to remain when others often left. Earlier, analysis showed how, although constant migration occurred within rural areas, many of the local-born residents remained. Although new people might modify a settlement’s identity, its consistency depended on the generations of local-born residents. As a rural greenfield site, Bournemouth, by definition, had no civic identity because it lacked such residents, apart perhaps from the Barrow brothers born there in the late 1820s. According to the census, however, local-born babies soon appeared at the resort. The rate of their appearance and retention indicates residential satisfaction and, hence, the beginnings of Bournemouth’s civic identity.

Measurement

In lieu of parish registers, census information about birthplaces needs care in its usage. For example, variations for the same individual might occur during his or her life. Furthermore, as Bournemouth grew, it expanded its coverage of the area, subsuming settlements hitherto distinct. Hence, somebody may give Moordown as their birthplace in younger years, but later, as the resort expanded, may substitute the name Bournemouth. Also, Bournemouth’s listings omitted local-born emigrants, requiring a wider search of the entire national census database. In addition, transcription and reporting mistakes may occur for an individual. Nevertheless, for the period 1825-1871 extraction has created databases for those born and living in Bournemouth as well as those born there but living elsewhere. The figures derived offer most value in following trend patterns as they developed over time. Precise differences in the figures have insufficient robustness for use except in relation to the overall pattern.

Victorian Bournemouth (57): analysis of continuous residents

More and more babies

Those people listing Bournemouth as their birthplace increased at a steady rate during the early and second periods of the settlement’s history. A handful claimed birth there during the 1820s, as in the case of the Barrow brothers mentioned earlier. Each decade thereafter, the numbers for those born and living in the resort multiplied at growing rates. The 1850s doubled the number born in the 1840s, the 1860s tripled over the previous decade, while the 1870s quadrupled. This rate does not vary between the two databases (remaining, and emigrant indigenous born). During this period, however, the proportion of subsequent emigrants may have declined, suggesting that more parents experienced sufficient satisfaction to continue as residents. Indeed, analysis of the households (as distinct from the individuals) containing Bournemouth’s local-born people also quadrupled in the 1860s. A growing core of continuous residents contributed to the resort’s developing civic identity.

Social and economic analysis

According to the 1871 census, the geographic dispersion of local-born population fell on both sides of Bournemouth’s river as well as moving eastwards into Springbourne. Oxford Road, for example, had many households containing such children. The building industry provided a key source of employment during the town’s early period, but, during its second phase, retail became an important part of the economy. Analysing households containing multiple local-born children provides an index of economic success or satisfaction. Children often came at biannual intervals. Thus, for a family to include two local-born children indicates that the parents experienced sufficient economic satisfaction to stay at least four years. This practice at Bournemouth reflects the above pattern of economic development. It applied most to retailer fathers, though those working in the building trade followed close behind. Thus, the resort’s growing identity depended on the people lying at the centre of its economy.

Victorian Bournemouth (57): continuing residential association

Class of ’71

An additional analysis attempted to track the future lives of those registered as born in Bournemouth during 1869-1871. Of course, for 1871, this referred only to those born by April. This identified almost two hundred individuals. Tracking aimed to identify their location in 1911, 1939, as well as their place and date of death. Many gaps in the record occurred for a variety of reasons: infant deaths, name changes at marriage, vanishings; transcription problems. This database used a range of fields permitting different types of analysis. For example, analysis shows that almost 60% of the individuals born at Bournemouth 1869-1871 (first third of latter) had no older siblings originating elsewhere. In addition, a fifth of individuals had older siblings all born in Bournemouth. Hence, in many families, the children would have experienced no other civic identity than Bournemouth’s. More and more families continued to grow in their starting place.

Continuing Bournemouth association

The evidence suggests that perhaps around half of these Bournemouth-born maintained a continuous association. Of those identified and alive, about 45% lived in Bournemouth at the 1911 census, 52% of those identified as alive in 1939. Some, but not all, never left. On the other hand, some left but returned, evidence of an element of attraction exerted by the town. The rest scattered elsewhere in the country or abroad, through emigration or military service. For example, George Vivian, born in Bournemouth became a bomber with the Royal Horse Artillery, but died in the Boer War. His parents, Alfred, a coachman, and Annie, both Dorset emigrants nevertheless remained in Bournemouth for decades. Alfred did not pass away until forty years after losing George. Many others, like Alfred and Annie, had come to Bournemouth, found a continuous living, produced a family, and stayed. Their continued presence contributed to Bournemouth’s civic identity.

Takeaway

Victorian Bournemouth (57) has used a formula of continuous local-born procreation as an indicator of economic success and residential satisfaction. This process contributes to a place’s civic identity. It seemed to increase during Victorian Bournemouth’s early and second periods.

References

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