Bere Regis Village Website

Bere Regis 1891 Census


The 1891 Census for England was taken on the night of 5 April 1891.
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; whether they are employer or employee or neither; person's place of birth; whether deaf, dumb, blind, 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 5 April 1891 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.

If the head of the house was illiterate or had any problems completing the form the enumerator would complete as much as necessary.
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.


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, Rye Hill, Hollow Oak, Doddings Farm and dwellings, Cottages at Snaford, Bere Heath, Chamberlains and the Warren, Culeaze House, Lane End, Stockley and Philiols Farm Houses (& Cottages), the North Lodge through to Woodlands, Hyde House & Keepers Cottage in the Wood, Buddens Farm dwellings, the East Lodge on the Wareham Road, Bere Heath Farm (& Cottages)


Enumerator - Richard Bullen