The Censuses

Regular national censuses have taken place every ten years since 1801, most recently in 2011; other partial censuses have been made on some of the intervening fifth anniversaries but, as far as we know, these have never covered Oatlands. The first four censuses (1801–1831) were mainly statistical - that is, mainly headcounts that contained virtually no personal information – and therefore the 1841 Census was the first to intentionally record names of all individuals in a household or institution.

Unfortunately, the 1841 Censuses that would have covered Oatlands are among those that are officially listed as “Lost” within the national records collections.

The most recent census that is available for viewing is the 1911 Census as these, and many other documents remain closed to the public for a period of 100 years from their creation.

In 1920 the “Census Act 1920” was passed, which has provided the legal framework for conducting all censuses in Great Britain (Scotland, England, and Wales) since. The primary legislation for Northern Ireland was introduced in 1969. Before the legislation, it was necessary to have a separate act of parliament for each census. Britain was also responsible for initiating and coordinating censuses in many of its colonies.

Because of World War II, there was no census in 1941. However, following the passage into law (on 5 September 1939) of the National Registration Act 1939 a population count was carried out on 29 September 1939. The resulting National Register was later used to develop the NHS Central Register.

Censuses were taken on 26 April 1931 in Great Britain but the returns for England and Wales were destroyed by fire (in an accident and not after bombing) during the Second World War.

On 24 April 1966, the UK trialled an alternative method of enumeration - long form/short form. Every household was given a short form to complete, while a sample of the population was given a long form to collect more detail. The short form was used for the population count and to collect basic information such as usual address, sex, age and relationships to other household members. This was the first and only time that a five-yearly census was carried out in the UK.