The first census in Britain was carried out in 1801, and, with the exception of 1941, one has been taken every 10 years ever since. The information from the first few census returns was limited and included material such as the number of people, houses and families in each parish. 

Enumerators went round collecting the information and recorded this by hand on enumerators’ forms. These are very difficult to read and to help pupils make sense of the forms census data on this site has been put into a table which more or less replicates the sections of the form. People are listed by household by street, though house numbers are often not given. The design of the form carries messages about Victorian attitudes, particularly the importance of the family and of marriage. The right hand column has not been used here but, where a workhouse was covered, there were many entries.

Pupils can use tally charts to use data in various ways. E.g. how many people were born in Devon/how many outside. Comparing the results for the three sets of data on this site (1851, 1871, 1891) provides some indication of changes in mobility. Another interesting approach is to try to trace families across the three dates. It is difficult to find any continuity suggesting considerable movement of people, perhaps within the town. Pupils could also explore occupations, numbers of servants, numbers of visitors.