Population Growth in the 19th & 20th Centuries
As we approached the census in 2001, I thought it would be interesting to look back at Walkington's population growth over the last 130 years. In the 1871 census there were 659 people in Walkington and by 1981 this had almost tripled to 1,853. There is a file containing
Census data for 1871, 1881 and 1891.
Census returns
Data from the census returns for 1871 and 1891 was reviewed for study by Year 5 at Walkington School in about 1999 and more recently (January 2005) I accessed the 1881 Census data and started to include some information from there as well. The 2001 census showed the population to be 2,517.
Walkington of the past
I have summarised some of the snippets of information about Walkington that I found fascinating:
In 1871, Samuel Lythe was an Apprentice Bricklayer aged 18 and in 1881 he had progressed to being a 'Bricklayer Master employing 3 men'. By 1891, he was a 'Bricklayer and Builder' and he and his wife Mary had 3 sons, Sidney, Ernest and Harold and 3 daughters, Elizabeth, Bertha and Florence. E. Lythe, Builder founded in 1872 is now at 1 Kirk Lane in Walkington.
The East Riding Asylum was under construction on Beverley Road in 1871. It was being built on Broadgate Farm on a site of just over 412 acres purchased in 1865 for £26,500. In 1869, once it was decided to build the Asylum on 62 acres, the remainder was sold for £25,100 so recovering most of the original cost of the land. William Porteous a bricklayer was resident, together with his family and two other bricklayers. The building work was completed in 1871 at a cost of £43,085 16s 7d and opened on Wednesday October 25 with 105 patients transferred from the Clifton Asylum in York. The last patients left Broadgate Hospital on April 12 1989.
In 1881 there were four families of Railway workers from around the country living in Walkington, almost certainly working on the Hull, Barnsley and West Riding line which ran through Little Weighton and under the Wolds. They are thought to have lived at the bottom of Northgate. See the 1920's history section(Part 6).