Bere Regis Village Website

Bere Regis 1881 Census


The 1881 British Isles Census was taken on the night of 3 April 1881.
The following information was requested:

Name of street, avenue road, etc.; house number or name; whether or not the house was inhabited; number of rooms occupied if less than five; name of each person that had spent the night in that household; relationship of person enumerated to the head of the family; each person's marital status; age at last birthday (sex is indicated by which column the age is recorded in); each person's occupation; person's place of birth; whether deaf and dumb, blind, imbecile or idiot, or lunatic.

Enumeration forms were distributed to all households a couple of days before census night and the complete forms were collected the next day.
All responses were to reflect the individual's status as of 3 April 1881 for all individuals who had spent the night in the house. People who were traveling or living abroad were enumerated at the location where they spent the night on census night.
All of the details from the individual forms were later sorted and copied into enumerators' books, which are the records we can view images of today.
The original householders schedules from 1841 to 1901 were destroyed.

Census records are divided into groups by county, then by parish, and in many cases, such as in Bere Regis, by Enumeration districts as well. An enumeration district was considered to be roughly equivalent to the area that a census worker or "enumerator" could cover in one day.

Our village was split into 2 Enumeration districts.
They are outlined below

The files are all included in one VERY LARGE PDF file

Enumeration District A

Covers main streets of Bere Regis, with Chaffreys Cottage, Court Farm, Mrs Scutts House, Mr Scutts Buildings, Shitterton, Bere Down and Roke Down Cottages, Roke Farm (& Cottages), Bere Mill, Woodburyhill, Woodmans and Rupas Cottages in Bere Wood


Enumerator - William Bullen


Enumeration District B

Covers Southbrook Cottages, Rye Hill Farm (& Cottages), Hollow Oak Farm (& Cottages), Doddings Farm (& Cottages), Brick Kiln, Jenkins, Snaford and Bere Heath Cottages, Joiners Cottage, School, Chamberlains Mill Farm (& Cottages), Culeaze Farm, Lane End Cottages, Stockley Farm, Philiols Farm (& Cottages), Hyde House Farm (& Cottages adjoining), Buddens Farm (& Cottages) and the Lodge on Wareham Road


Enumerator - John Hallett