Numbers of schools, and of scholars, from the 1851 Census of Education

Table ID:

EDU_1851_GB     (1247524)

Contents:

Numbers of schools, and of scholars, from the 1851 Census of Education

Approx. number of rows:

19,405

Table type:

Raw Data

Documentation Author:

Humphrey Southall

Geography:

Reporting units are identified by:
   Registration District
   Registration District Number

Chronology:

The data are for the single year 1851.

Sources:

1. The data for England and Wales were transcribed from: Census of Great Britain, 1851. Education. England and Wales. Report and Tables. (BPP 1852-53 XC [C. 1692], 1-.).
2. The Scottish data were transcribed from: Religious Worship and Education. Scotland. Report and Tables BPP 1854 LIX, 247-. A substantial number of Scottish counties were simply missing, but were added by Humphrey Southall in February 2016.

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Notes:

1. This was a separate census of schools, carried out at the same time as the Census of Population. Most of the detailed information concerns who operated and funded the schools, notably religious groups. Information on the characteristics of the pupils is limited to gender, and there is no information on their ages. In general, the data concern the numbers of pupils 'belonging to' each school, i.e. appearing on its register, but for Scotland the number actually attending on the census date is also given.
2. This is a complex table, with many rows for each reporting area. The values of 'class' and 'detail' specify what category of schools the numerical data relate to, and include several levels of totals, which assists with checking. The following values of 'class' appear at the start of each area's tabulation, without a qualifying value of 'detail':
   • DAY SCHOOLS
   • PUBLIC DAY SCHOOLS
   • PRIVATE DAY SCHOOLS
   • CLASS I SUPPORTED BY GENERAL OR LOCAL TAXATION
   • CLASS II SUPPORTED BY ENDOWMENTS
   • CLASS III SUPPORTED BY RELIGIOUS BODIES
   • CLASS IV OTHER PUBLIC SCHOOLS
   Day Schools are divided into Public and Private, then Classes I to IV are subdivision of public day schools. This block of seven initial rows which always appears is then followed by a set of rows which gives additional detail of each class of day school, as held here in the 'detail' column, but the particular detailed categories listed vary between areas. There is then a second main category, like DAY SCHOOLS, which appears for every area:
   • SUNDAY SCHOOLS (or SABBATH SCHOOLS in Scotland)
   That is again followed by a detailed breakdown, by religious denomination, with names such as 'CHURCH OF ENGLAND' and 'BAPTISTS' appearing in 'detail'; the value of 'class' is 'SUNDAY SCHOOLS' in all cases.

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Checking:

1. The numbers of male and female scholars were checked against the total number of scholars, for both scholars 'belonging to' schools and the Scottish data on actual attendance. Some printing errors in the original report were corrected by using the totals for categories of schools in other columns as well as the row totals.
2. Numbers of schools could not be checked by the above method, so all possible multi-row check sums were computed; for example, comparing the total number of Day Schools with the sum of Public and Private Day Schools.
3. Once the above methods had been used to identify and correct as many errors as possible, only one set of errors remained: For Macclesfield RegD, Cheshire, the total numbers of scholars in Sunday Schools operated by Unitarians, Wesleyan Methodists, Methodist New Connexion and Primitive Methodists differed substantially from the sum of male and female scholars. The data are correctly transcribed, and there are no inconsistencies in the column totals, so this could not be corrected.
4. The geographical units have been cross-checked against the GBHGIS administrative unit gazetteer to ensure that all units are correctly identified. Each unit has a unique unit ID assigned to it and this can be used to cross-reference against other datasets.

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Columns within table:

Column	Type	Contents
division	Text string (max.len.=34).	Registration Division. Data from the separate Scottish Census of Education has this value set to 'SCOTLAND'.
cnty_name	Text string (max.len.=44).	Name of Registration County or Scottish County.
reg_num	Text string (max.len.=8).	Number of Registration District; empty for Scottish data. NB sometimes includes a letter suffix.
reg_dist	Text string (max.len.=64).	Name of Registration District; empty for Scottish data.
nation_unit	Integer number.	ID number from the AUO identifying England, Wales or Scotland.
cnty_unit	Integer number.	ID number from the AUO identifying Registration County or Scottish County.
g_unit	Integer number.	ID number from the AUO identifying the current reporting unit, i.e. the Registration District or Scottish County (NB for Scottish counties county_unit and g_unit are identical.
class	Text string (max.len.=54).	General category of school.
detail	Text string (max.len.=74).	Additional detail on type of school. Usage depends on the value of 'class', but in most cases this is the name of a religious denomination.
schools	Integer number.	Number of schools in the category.
scholars	Integer number.	Total number of scholars belonging to the schools in the category.
males	Integer number.	Number of male scholars belonging to the schools in the category.
females	Integer number.	Number of female scholars belonging to the schools in the category.
scholar_a	Integer number.	Total number of scholars attending schools in the category on census day. These data are listed for Scotland only.
male_a	Integer number.	Number of male scholars attending schools in the category on census day. These data are listed for Scotland only.
female_a	Integer number.	Number of female scholars attending schools in the category on census day. These data are listed for Scotland only.
rec_num	Integer number.	Unique number identifying row in table.