Hartford Civic Society

"Cherish the Past - Protect the Future"

Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of the census data is an analysis of how people made their living - their trades and professions.

In the case of Hartford it shows the influence of the local salt trade, the railway and the River Weaver together with a clear view of how different society was then - particularly the number of people employed as domestic servants (31% of the working population). It is also interesting to note that there were at least 72 people directly involved with the care or use of horses.

In the 1881 census there were 1455 people in Hartford on the night of the census (including 10 visitors) - of these 208 were shown as wives, 372 were scholars, 116 infants and 24 adults without an occupation (usually part of the extended family - old widowed parents or young dependents over school age) - although obviously some wives would have worked with their husbands e.g. publican's wife.

It should be borne in mind that the village boundaries were not exactly the same as they are today.

Here is a breakdown of those people's occupations where it was stated in the census - it was common practice to give a wife the same occupation as her husband and so these have been omitted from the figures.