making sense of the census

Our daughter turned 13 this month, I was the same age in 1991 and I clearly remember my father sitting down to complete our family’s census return that year. He explained to me that they happen every ten years and that they are really important. I’ve always carried that with me and I actually get a thrill out of completing our census form. I understand that the government needs information about the current demographic of our country’s population to plan for future development and provision of services, but for me the real beauty of the census is that it helps to unlock the past... 

When we moved to Halsbeer Farm (five years ago on 21st March) I was initially too busy to give much thought to the previous inhabitants of the farmstead. I knew from the previous owners that there may have been a Domesday manor on the site and that the current house was believed to date from the 1600s but beyond that I had no idea about its history and that of its former occupants. As with most research these days I started googling not just Halsbeer but also its alternative spellings of Halsbeare, Halsbear and Halsbere. I started turning up some interesting things and soon got into census records via Find My Past.

They really do open up a window on family and farm life in the past. The history of a house becomes a lot more real when you have names for its former inhabitants. The records cover a seventy year period from 1841 (considered the year of the first ‘modern’ census’) up until 1911 (the most recent census that is publicly available). Sometimes a bit of detective work is required to interpret the relationships but for me that is part of the fun. It’s like solving a mystery, each new discovery is a piece in the puzzle...

1841





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1851











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1861






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1871








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1891

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​1901





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1911

14 people were in residence at Halsbeer - the master of the house was James Frost (41) with his wife Mary, aged 32. At that time they had eight children ranging in age from under 1 to 12. There were three men/boys who were presumably farmhands - James Cording, aged 20, Henry Winter (19) and John Winter (14), likely his brother. In addition a fifteen year old girl, Ann Carnell, probably a maid.

The 1851 census gives a number rather than a name for the house so I can’t be 100% sure it is Halsbeer but it seems likely. There is an entry for James Frost (farmer of 70 acres) employing three labourers, among them James Cording. Seven of the children are still there, namely  Edmund (now 19), Anna (16), James (16), Susanna (14, a scholar, interesting this is of particular note), Elizabeth (11), Thomas (10) and Rebecca (4). James' wife Mary is not recorded on this  census, perhaps she was away visiting or perhaps the Marys in 1841 and 1861 are different people. Their ages don't exactly tally but that is apparently not unusual in old census records.

Mary Frost (58) was now head of the household, a widow and farmer of 135 acres employing two men and three boys. Two of her sons, Edmund and Thomas, were still at home as was her daughter Rebecca who was 14 and a dairymaid. Four servants are listed, Sarah Radford (13), John Selick (17), William Ayers (16) and George Hall, only 11, the age my son will turn in July this year.

Edmund was now master of the house, at this time spelt ‘Halsbear’. He was 39 and as yet unmarried. With him lived Mary Thring, 42, a widow listed as a housekeeper but also as his sister. Also listed are Philip White, nephew aged 10, and three servants, Henry Radford (16), Albert Baker (15) and Jane Crewyse (13). A Philip White was born in 1861 at Sandfield Farm, a stone’s throw from Halsbeer Farm, to Philip and Elizabeth (perhaps another of Edmund’s sisters?). 

Henry Broom was master of the house. This took a little understanding and I was helped by the gravestones in the churchyard of St Mary’s Kentisbeare. Edmund Frost did eventually marry a woman called Louisa Hill Payne in December 1871, however he sadly died in 1876 at only 44 years of age. Louisa re-married and her new spouse was Henry Broom. With them at Halsbeer in 1881 were Louisa’s son James from her first marriage and two servants Esau Rugg (17) and Georgina Doble (15). Tragically Louisa died in 1886 aged only 41 and is buried with Edmund near the side door of the church. 

Henry re-married and in 1891 lived at ‘Halsbere’ with his new wife Caroline, Emma Parne (assistant domestic, 17) and Henry Rugg (13).

Henry (59) was a widower again and lived at Halsbeer with John Crews, a servant and widower aged 78. (Could he perhaps be related to the Jane Crewyse of the census 30 years prior?) At this time a John Grandfield was at neighbouring Mortimer’s Farm with his wife and son Samuel. They were to open the next chapter in the occupants of Halsbeer Farm when Samuel moved to Halsbeer (around 1902).

Ten people were in residence: Samuel Grandfield (39, head of the household, pictured below), Annie his wife (32), their children John (8), Samuel Owen (6), Phyllis Mary (5), Herbert Richard (4) and Sydney Hugh (1). They had three servants - George Potter (20, a horseman), Henry John Dunn (17, cattleman) and Alice Maud Northcott (also 17, general domestic servant). Samuel and family resided at Halsbeer until at least 1939 when Samuel died. He is buried in St Mary's Kentisbeare with his first wife Annie who sadly died in 1914 after the birth of their sixth child Frederick Henry.

A house is so much more than just bricks and mortar, or in our case cobb and thatch. It is all the people who have gone before; who built it, altered it, who lived and breathed in it, were born in it and died in it. I will enjoy filling in my census on Sunday. I like to think that future amateur historians might one day want to research who lived in our house in this century. We are but one family in a long line of guardians of Halsbeer. We may not be locals, having relocated from Surrey five years ago, but we love the house, Blackborough and Kentisbeare and are grateful for those who have gone before and those who live here still. It is the family that makes a house a home and the community that makes villages lovely places to live. And we love being able to share this historic homestead with our guests too.

For more about Halsbeer Farm's history and that of its inhabitants visit our Halsbeer history webpage. If you are a descendant of or have any information about any of the former occupants of the farm I would love to hear from you. At some point I would very much like to organise a family history day for descendants of those who lived here in the past to come and visit. Do please let me know if you are interested.