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Abstract
This paper investigates and compares two villages; Strixton and Whiston in Northamptonshire. It looks at migration and any changes in occupational base of those communities between 1851 and 1891. Ravensteins’ research on migration led him to formulate his eleven ‘laws’ and publish a paper. The current paper investigates just four; his 1st, 2nd, 6th, and 7th. The outcomes are summarised as follows: 1st law, both villages support the law; 2nd law, neither village supports the law; 6th law, both villages support the law; 7th law, both villages support the first part of this law, but not the second. Strixton does support the second part of this law, Whiston does not. Differences between Strixton and Whiston are explained by the effects of Ravenstein’s laws, Earl Spencer’s enlightened policies and the shoe trade which all acted in Strixton’s favour. Whiston had little to offer and this is reflected in this study.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 Ernst Georg Ravenstein (1834–1913) was a German-English geographer and cartographer with an interest in migration, which he detailed in a paper read before the Statistical Society in England in 1885 and subsequently published in the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society.
2 E.G. Ravenstein, “The Laws of Migration,” Journal of the Royal Statistical Society 48, no. 2 (1885): 167–235.
3 D.B. Grigg, “E G Ravenstein and the laws of migration,” Journal of Historical Geography 3, no. 1 (1977): 41–54.
4 Shurer, K. in Pryce.
5 W.T.R. Pryce, ed. From Family History to Community History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press in association with The Open University, 1994).
6 M. White, Family Migration in Victorian Britain: The Case of Grantham and Scunthorpe, (1988) reproduced in The Open University DA301 course Offprints Booklet 3 (Milton Keynes: The Open University 1994).
7 Grigg, in M. Drake, ed. Time, Family and Community: Perspectives on Family and Community History. (Oxford Blackwell in association with The Open University, 1994).
8 National Census Enumerators Books of Strixton, Northamptonshire, 1851 – HO 107/1743; Strixton, Northamptonshire, 1861 – RG 9/951; Strixton, Northamptonshire, 1871 – RG 10/497; Strixton, Northamptonshire, 1881 – RG 11/1567; Strixton, Northamptonshire, 1891 – RG 12/1209; Whiston, Northamptonshire, 1851 – HO 107/1738; Whiston, Northamptonshire, 1861 – RG 9/930; Census of Whiston, Northamptonshire, 1871 – RG 10/1477; Whiston, Northamptonshire, 1881 – RG 11/1540; Whiston, Northamptonshire, 1891 – RG 12/1191.
9 See Drake in J. Golby, Communities and Families (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press in association with The Open University, 1994).
10 Anderson, M. in Pryce.
11 Drake in Golby.
12 M. Briggs and P. Jordan, Economic History of England (London: University Tutorial Press, 1964).
13 P. Mathias, The First Industrial Nation (London: Methuen and Co. Ltd, 1983).
14 M.S.T. Parker and D.J. Reid, British Revolution 1750 to 1970, A Social and Economic History (London: Blandford Press Ltd., 1972).
15 W.D. Taylor, Mastering Economic and Social History (London: Macmillan Educational Press, 1988).
16 J. Caird, English Agriculture in 1850-51, 2nd ed. (London: Frank Cass & Co., 1968).
17 Strixton Wills; William Walker 1761, Thomas Walker 1795, Thomas Walker 1817, George Walker 1833. (All wills at Northamptonshire Record Office, referenced by name and date.).
18 In Parker and Reid.
19 A. Bates, Directory of Stage Coach Services 1836 (Newton Abbot: David and Charles Books, 1969).
20 In Golby.
21 In Briggs and Jordan.
22 In Baigent, P.J.G. Westerham, Kent: domestic servant mobility in the nineteenth century. Local Population Studies Society, Newsletter 22, 1998; In J.A. Sheppard, “Out-Migration 1821-1851 from a Wealdon parish: Chiddingly,” Local Population Studies, 1997, no. 59 (1997): 13–25.
23 Grigg, in Drake.
24 In Pryce.
25 S. Spencer, The Migration Debate (Bristol: The Policy Press, 2011); H. De Haas, “A Theory of Migration: The Aspirations-Capability Framework,” Comparative Migration Studies 9 (2021): 8.
26 F. Castelli, Drivers of Migration: Why Do People Move? Journal of Travel Medicine 25 (2018): 1; L. Ou-Salah, L.V. Praag, and G. Verschraegan, “The Role of Environmental Factors and Other Migration Drivers from the Perspective of Moroccan and Congolese Migrants in Belgium,” Comparative Migration Studies 10 (2022): 36; D. Mandic, “What is the Force of Forced Migration? Diagnosis and Critique of a Conceptual Relativization. Theory and Society 51, no. 1 (2021) 60–90.
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Fred O’Dell
Mr Fred O’Dell studied Family and Community History with the Open University and holds a Masters Degree in Library and Information Science. He is an Associate Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He has written on; library use in the NHS, Dr Gosset’s icterometer, early Northamptonshire neonatal paediatrics, invention of the lithotrite, smallpox vaccination in Northampton, and William Harvey.