Hello All, The 1861 Census Index for Guildford, Surrey shows that almost 50% of the people living and working in Guildford were not people not born in Guildford. There were even more people that came to Guildford from Sussex than from Hampshire, they came from all of the home counties, Kent, Berkshire, Wiltshire, and other places. There was a lot of work for them, the River Wey had warehouse along its bank, building work, the town was growing, there was also a printing works, books etc. Winchester was one of the first libraries to open under the 1850, Act with Reading Rooms. Books were becoming popular, people could borrow a book from the library for one penny, this gave the printing works plenty of work. Regards Barbara Lewis Mallyon Basingstoke, Hants, UK BarbaraMallyon@lewmal.co.uk
Hi Barbara, I was interested in your reference to Libraries. Do you have stats on the literacy rate in the Victorian era? Many of my family's marriage certificate were still being signed with a mark. Was there a difference between the literacy rate in rural areas and urban areas? David ----- Original Message ----- From: "Barbara Mallyon" <BarbaraMallyon@lewmal.co.uk> To: <HAMPSHIRE-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, August 20, 2005 10:10 AM Subject: [Ham] Hampshire Strays > Hello All, > > The 1861 Census Index for Guildford, Surrey shows that almost 50% of the > people living and working in Guildford were not people not born in > Guildford. There were even more people that came to Guildford from Sussex > than from Hampshire, they came from all of the home counties, Kent, > Berkshire, Wiltshire, and other places. > > There was a lot of work for them, the River Wey had warehouse along its > bank, building work, the town was growing, there was also a printing works, > books etc. > > Winchester was one of the first libraries to open under the 1850, Act with > Reading Rooms. Books were becoming popular, people could borrow a book from > the library for one penny, this gave the printing works plenty of work. > > Regards > > Barbara Lewis Mallyon > Basingstoke, Hants, UK > BarbaraMallyon@lewmal.co.uk > > > > > ==== HAMPSHIRE Mailing List ==== > Treat others as you wish to be treated yourselves, with respect > Visit the knightroots website at www.knightroots.co.uk >