The 1891 Census
By the time of the 1891 census on the night of April 5th, the 'centre' of the village around Oatlands Drive and including St Mary's Road, Victoria Road, Anderson & Vale Roads and Oatlands Chase had all become fairly well established and settled and many of the larger houses had changed hands, either through sale or, more often, by inheritance upon the death of the original owners. Many of the 'working class' families of the village who came in early on in its development - often to be involved in the actual building - were now seeing their grandchildren being born in Oatlands.
The Boys School had been built in St Mary's Road (and handed over to the school board) and the original school had become the Girls and Infants School. The village had become a fairly self-contained community for most things and had firmly established its own identity that was quite separate from Walton or Weybridge - and it remains so today.
1891 Census - Transcribed Schedules - MS-Excel Download (allow Macros when asked)
The 1841 Census
The 1841 census covering Oatlands do not exist – they are officially listed as “lost” within the National Archives collections catalogue.
At the time of the 1841 census (the night of the 7th of June) Oatlands was, for all practical purposes, simply the Oatlands Estate - owned at this time by Edward Hughes Ball Hughes, although he had already gone to France to escape his creditors. Although it would have revealed the names, ages and occupations of those people employed by the estate and those renting property from it, and enabled us to trace people who remained in Oatlands into the later censuses, the 1841 censuses for Walton and Weybridge are, sadly, unavailable as a source of information.
There is always a hope that it may come to light at some point in the future if a "local" copy exists hidden away somewhere - but, frankly, it is very unlikely...
The 1861 Census
The 1861 Census was taken on the night of April 7th and recorded all persons present within a particular household that night.
Although the enumerator still tended to meander a bit - though considerably less that ten years previously - physically locating buildings is made easier by the fact that there are many more 'known landmarks' from which to obtain clues.
Now, some fifteen years after the estate was broken up and sold, the 'shape' of the village is beginning to become clearly defined in terms of the class structure and the different types of housing that they occupied - this was a pattern that lasted, for the best part of the next one hundred years and was still clearly evident until the 'building boom' of the late 1960s and early 1970s changed it forever.
Oatlands appears within both the Weybridge and Walton on Thames censuses as it was still not yet a separate registration district and was defined by the boundary between the two parishes as far as the census was concerned..
1861 Census - Transcribed Schedules - Not Yet Available
1861 Census - Transcribed Schedules - Not Yet Available
The 1951 Census
The 1851 Census is the first one available that covers Oatlands and took place only 5 years after the Oatlands Estate was broken up for sale by public auction.
It was taken on the night of 30th March and should have recorded all persons present within a particular household that night. As any family historian knows this was not always the case but it is the best we have and we work within its limitations and occasional omissions.
One of the problems with this census as far as Oatlands is concerned is that the enumerator seems to have meandered about rather than following the edict of 'up one side of the road and down the other' - given the relative low number of occupied houses, or other buildings within Oatlands at the time, this is completely understandable, but it does make trying to physically locate a house or other building 'onto the map' considerably more difficult.
Oatlands at this time appears within both the Weybridge and Walton on Thames censuses as it was not yet a separate registration district and that further complicates the issue – particularly as many of the roads named in the census no longer exist and Oatlands has no named roads whatsoever…
1851 Census - Instructions to Householder - MS-Word Download
1851 Census - Transcribed Schedules - Not Yet Available
1851 Census - Transcribed Schedules - Not Yet Available
The 1871 Census
The 1871 Census was taken on the night of April 2nd and recorded all persons present within a particular household that night.
By this time the village had taken on the shape that we have today with the exception of the area between the railway line and an imaginary line that ran east and west from about half way up St Mary's Road (which was still called Ball's Road at this time) and extended from Oatlands Chase to Queens Road.
This area was known as America and this name is usually attributed to a remark by the actress and author Fanny Kemble but it seems likely that her usage of it was in relation to the original meaning of the word as 'new world' or 'recently discovered' - as of course Oatlands was when the estate ceased to be the enclosed area it had always been.
Oatlands had now got its church – and had become a parish in 1869 - and this was one of the few buildings within the area of America. The fact that there was now a 'Parish of St Mary Oatlands' meant that, for the first time. the village appears in the census as a distinct area which makes life considerably easier when looking at the information.
1871 Census - Transcribed Schedules - Not Yet Available
1871 Census - Transcribed Schedules - Not Yet Available