The individual returns of every household in the 1921 Census were released in 2022 under the 100-year rule. It was the first census in the UK to ask about place of work and the name of the employer as well as occupation in addition to information about the age and marital status of every household member. Close to 38 million individuals completed the census in England and Wales. It was carried out on 19 June 1921, postponed from the usual census time of April due to industrial unrest. After the First World War, England and Wales was hit with a period of economic uncertainty, and by 1921 over two million people were unemployed leading to widespread industrial unrest. Coal miners led the charge.
In 1921 over a million people worked in the mines. Throughout the war, coal mines were nationalised but in 1921 control of the mines was due to return to the hands of the mine owners, who intended to cut miners’ wages. Miners rejected the proposed wage reduction and suggested that the Government should fix a levy on a ton of coal to raise a pool of money to provide all miners with a minimum wage regardless of how profitable the pit they worked in. The country’s largest union, the Miners’ Federation of Great Britain ordered a strike on 1 April 1921. The Triple Alliance, a coalition of miners, railwaymen and transport workers, created in 1914, announced a strike for 15 April, a date which became known as Black Friday 1921, but this was called off on 12 April. Nevertheless, miners who refused to accept the wage reductions were locked out of employment.
Amid the coal strikes and the threat of a general strike, the census programmed for 8 April was called off for the first time since the census began in 1841. The rescheduled date, 19 June, was announced on 4 May 1921 but by census day many miners were still on strike or locked out and no resolution had been found. Census returns show the continued effects of the miners’ strike with some miners reporting themselves as ‘out of work’ or ‘on strike’. Indeed, in the Norton Parish returns, 59 out of the 184 individuals classified as miners, described themselves as either ‘out of work’ or ‘on strike’. Many other miners, who did not add this description in their return, would also be unemployed at the time.
The 1921 Census indicates how Norton had drastically changed from the previous census in 1911. At the national level, the First World War and the outbreak of ‘Spanish’ Flu in 1918 had overwhelming effects on world population and that of the United Kingdom. Norton was not immune to the effects of the First World War; the war memorial on the wall of the Royal Hotel, erected in 1919, commemorates 17 casualties of WWI from Norton and surrounding villages. There is continuing debate as to where the ‘Spanish’ Flu pandemic, which lasted from 1918 to 1920, originated. Whatever its origins, it became known as the ‘Spanish’ pandemic because it was the Spanish press that first reported the outbreak amongst soldiers returning from the First World War. Unlike most of the European and American press, which was restricted in what it could publish, as a neutral country the Spanish press was not subject to the same reporting restrictions. The flu pandemic, which killed between 50 and 100 million people worldwide, killed more people than the First World War. It is estimated that some 228,000 people died in the UK. However, the absence of a Health Ministry meant that there was no national collation of deaths. In addition, flu was often not reported as a contributory cause of death when pneumonia, bronchitis, heart disease and tuberculosis were involved. It is known that the virus was disproportionately deadly to adults between the ages of 25 and 34, and to women in particular but the death of children drew most attention in the press.
It is difficult to assess the direct impact on small communities like Norton. An examination of the burial records shows that throughout the period leading up to the First World War, the number of deaths in Norton was less than 10 per annum. The number leapt to 16 in 1919 and 11 in 1920 before falling back to 7 in 1921 and 4 in 1922. An analysis of the deaths in 1919 shows that the vast majority of persons who died were over 65 years old [11 people; 6 male and 5 female]. Two were very young children, 3 and 4 months old; one was aged 14 years; one 18 years old and one 26 years old. Thus, only one of the sixteen deaths related to the most vulnerable 25-34 age group. In 1920, only 3 of the 11 deaths related to persons over 65 years old. Four were aged 45-60 years old, one was aged 17 years, one was 2 years old, one was 4 months and one 3 months. None came within the most vulnerable 25-34 age group.
Perhaps of most significance in the development of Norton was the opening of the colliery at Askern. With the sinking of Askern Colliery, miners arrived from as far afield as Wales, Cumbria and County Durham; in 1923 the workforce amounted to 1,380 employees [1,150 below ground and 230 on the surface]. By 1933, it had increased to 2,650 employees [2,300 below ground and 350 on the surface] (see Norton at the beginning of the 20th century). The impact of the opening of the pit in 1916 is clearly shown in the change in the population characteristics of Norton between 1911 and 1921. In 1911, there were 126 occupied houses in Norton with a population of 516 persons. By 1921, the number of occupied houses had risen to 236 with a population of 1142 persons; average family size had increased from 4 persons to 5 persons. Some families comprised more than 10 persons, accommodated in houses with only 2 or 3 bedrooms.
In 1911, there was no one living in Norton whose occupation was related to coal mining; the largest occupation was farming and related industries. In 1921, over 50% of the employed population of the village was employed in coal mining [184 workers out of 358 in total]. Whilst farming still employed a substantial number of workers [over 65 workers], other industries were also prominent, such as the brickworks in Askern. The Coalite works did not start up until 1929. Relatively few people travelled beyond Norton and Askern to work; some journeyed to Doncaster, either to work at the railway engine and carriage works or in shops and offices.
Whilst Kelly’s 1922 directory lists 12 farmers in Norton, 17 ‘Farmers’ are identified in the 1921 Census [compared with 24 in 1911].
Westfield Farm George Bramley
Cliff Hill Farm Henry Auty
Hall Farm Edmund Wild (Dairyman)
The Lilacs Alfred Hough
Manor House Edward Terry
Manor Farm Frank Lodge
Priory Farm Joshua Smith
The Priory John Milner
Wright’s Farm Herbert Asquith
Poplar Farm John Woodward
Vine House Farm Frederick Bryan (Dairyman)
Southfields Frank Moulson
Schoolboy Farm unoccupied
Hollies Farm unoccupied
East End Farm Edward Sanderson
Travellers’ Rest Farm William Saul (Small Farmer)
White House Farm Samuel Warriner
Ryder’s Farm William Laycock
Norton Common Farm John Kealey
A number of farms identified in the 1911 census are not shown as occupied in the 1921 census: for instance, Schoolboy Farm and the adjacent Hollies Farm. Schoolboy Farm (10 acres), described as a small-holding and tenanted by Charles Johnson, was purchased by Mr. W.N. Carter from Campsmount Estate in 1919 but, in 1921, Charles Johnson is recorded as occupying a property on High Street adjacent to North View, and described as a ‘grocer’. In 1921, in addition to the three pubs [inns] there were nine shops in the village: two butchers, the Post Office, the Co-op store, Waddington’s Cash Stores, three grocers [Hope’s, Charles Johnson’s and Annie Dickson’s] and a ‘sweet shop’ run by Annie Sawbridge at Greenside on West End Road. It is noticeable that three shops that would rise to prominence in the 1930s do not figure in the 1921 census: Allcock’s shop and Miss Child’s shop on Station Road and Kirkby’s at Fairfields. The West End Stores was not built until 1938 and Wardle’s shop would not open until after the Second World War.
The vast majority of the 100 or so new terraced houses built in the village were occupied by miners and their families who had come from other parts of the country, usually other mining areas. In 1911, more than half the population of the village had been born in the village or in the immediately surrounding villages, such as Stubbs Walden, Campsall, Little Smeaton and Womersley. Only 19 of the 126 families in the village originated from outside Yorkshire. By contrast, in 1921, less than 20% of the population had been born in Norton and surrounding villages; only 23 of the 236 families originated from the village itself. Miners and their families had been attracted principally from elsewhere in Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Staffordshire, County Durham, Lancashire and Wales, and a range of other counties from Kent in the south to Scotland in the north. Norton in 1921 was no longer simply a farming community with associated tradesmen but was a far more cosmopolitan community than it was prior to the First World War.
Norton would continue to grow and change throughout the 1920s and 1930s and by 1939 there would be some 375 occupied houses in the village with a population of over 1500 persons.
Douglas G Hope 