Top Table of Contentsby David Alan Gatley
Staffordshire
University
For several years now I have been collaborating with other researchers at Queen's University, Belfast, and Queen Mary College, London, (1) in producing machine-readable versions of the nineteenth-century census abstracts (i.e. the Printed Census Volumes), vital registration statistics and the returns of the Poor Law Commissioners. These sources contain a considerable amount of material on the British Isles in the nineteenth century that has been largely neglected by researchers, both because they are difficult to obtain, being available in only a handful of libraries, and because they are difficult to manipulate. It is hoped that the publication of these sources in an easy to manipulate format will encourage their greater use and widen our understanding of nineteenth-century society. An Atlas of the changing social geography of the British Isles will also be published early in the new millennium to coincide with the bicentenary of the first national census held in Great Britain.(3)
Despite the large amount of information included in the various government statistics that are being computerised, they are, nevertheless, deficient in a number of important respects. They contain little information beyond simple population totals on most small towns and villages since the basic units used in the censuses for the presentation of much important data, such as occupations, birthplaces, ages and marital statuses of the population, were the County and the Registration District (or Poor Law Union). Similarly, no information is given on the history, geography, geology, and administration of places, or on their institutions, churches, schools, public buildings, etc.
To help to rectify these deficiencies, it was decided to include with the forthcoming SECOS 4 database of the nineteenth-century censuses the various Topographies of England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the Isle of Man compiled by Pigot and Slater in the 1830s and 1840s for their Trades Directories and for their other publications. These topographical descriptions relate specifically to the counties and larger towns and, in particular, to their physical geographies, climates, agricultures, industries and transport routes. In addition, their directories also include potted topographies of many smaller towns and villages, but, because of the limitations imposed by cost and time, only a limited number of these will be included with the SECOS 4 database.
To collect these topographies, I have visited a large number of public and university libraries in places as far apart as London and Edinburgh, and Exeter and Colchester, and, having done so, it seemed sensible to produce new editions of the various Topographies of Pigot and Slater as separate publications. The topographies will have an appeal to most people with an interest in nineteenth-century Britain and Ireland. Historians and historical geographers will find them useful insofar as they provide what were often first-hand accounts of places, their geographies, histories and institutions, as they were in the mid-nineteenth century. Family historians wanting to know more about the communities in which their ancestors lived will find much useful information in them, and school teachers struggling with the demands of the national curriculum will also find them a rich source of material. My own researches have revealed that Pigot's and Slater's Directories are now very difficult to obtain, the few surviving copies being, more often than not, in a very poor state of repair, and it is hoped, therefore, that my labours will help to preserve their work for future generations of scholars.
Readers may, however, ask why I decided upon reproducing the works of Pigot and Slater in preference to directories compiled by other firms, such as those produced by Holden and Underhill (4), by Kelly or by White. This was for three reasons. Firstly, Pigot's and Slater's directories contained precisely the material I required on the geologies and geographies of each county and on the economic and social conditions prevailing in the larger towns and cities. Secondly, their directories relate to the whole of the British Isles, with the exception of the Channel Islands. Finally, their directories relate to the 1830s and 1840s, and as such not only describe Britain at the start of Victoria's reign, but also reflect conditions at the time of the mid-nineteenth century censuses. Other trades directories relate to either earlier or later periods of time or do not give as complete a coverage of the whole of the British Isles. For example, the trades directories of Holden and Underhill relate to the period 1805-16 (see Norton, 1950: 40-1; Ffolliott and Begley, 1981: 79). Similarly, although Kelly began publishing directories in the 1840s, it was only in the late 1850s that he succeeded in publishing ones relating to the whole of England and Wales (see Norton, 1950: 61-3), and he does not appear to have produced any directories relating to Ireland in the period 1845 to 1894.(5)
In this, the second of three related publications, I reproduce Pigot's Topography of England and Wales in abridged form.
Finally, I would like to thank Manchester City Library, Birmingham City Library and the Guildhall Library, London, for their permission to reproduce this work; Diane Foster and Jackie Clewclow for typing it; Dennis Mills, Gareth Shaw, Tony Spybey, Virginia Crossman and Peter Franklin for their comments on earlier drafts of the manuscript; and George Iwaniak and Hugh Burt for their assistance with the maps.
The names of Pigot and Slater have long been synonymous with nineteenth-century trades directories, but what is sometimes forgotten is that they were also responsible for compiling a number of topographies of the British Isles. Although their topographies were collected primarily for inclusion in their trades directories, Pigot also published in 1840 a Pocket Topography of England, which we reproduce in abridged form here. Unfortunately, however, the Topography is deficient insofar as it does not include any references to Welsh counties (other than Monmouthshire which was then regarded as an English county) and the Channel Islands. To rectify this we include in the new Topography extracts from both Pigot's Trades Directory of 1835, that includes sections on both North and South Wales, and Kelly's Post Office Directory of 1855 that includes sections on the Channel Islands. At times extracts from other Trades Directories published by Pigot and Slater are also included in the new Topography. These relate primarily to Hertfordshire, the section of which in Pigot's Pocket Topography was badly torn, and Warwickshire, Birmingham and Cardiff, where recourse was made to later directories because of the growing importance of these places as both industrial and administrative centres.
Little is known about the early life of James Pigot, other than that he was born in Macclesfield in c.1769. Jane Norton (1950: 43-4) in her book on trades directories tells us that Pigot began his career in Manchester as an engraver, and subsequently turned his attention to the publication of trades directories. His directories, however, were far more than simple lists of traders and prominent individuals, insofar as they also included much useful material on each county and on its major towns and cities, in addition to potted sketches of smaller towns and villages. Pigot realised that his topographical descriptions of places within the British Isles were of value in themselves and this led him to produce several topographies as separate publications.
Isaac Slater, Pigot's business partner, maintained that Pigot had published his first trade directory in 1795 (Directory of Lancashire, 1882, title page and preface), but none are known to exist from this period. The earliest known directory of Pigot dates from 1811, when he published the first of his long series of Manchester directories from his establishment in Fountain Street (Norton, 1950: 43). After this date he began the first of his, and his successor's, five general surveys of the British Isles, with the publication in 1820 of his Commercial Directory of Scotland, Ireland, and the Four Northern Counties of England.
James Pigot died in 1843 at the age of 74, four years after relinquishing control of the company to Isaac Slater. Slater carried on Pigot's work, and his directories for the 1840s were little different in their format to those produced by Pigot a decade earlier. Competition from the other great publisher of nineteenth-century trades directories, Frederic Kelly, combined with the sheer complexity and cost of producing a national series of trades directories during a period of great economic change, led Slater to withdraw gradually from publishing volumes relating to the south of England and his company tended to concentrate more and more on publishing those relating to England's northern counties, and to Lancashire in particular. Isaac Slater died in 1883 at the age of 80.
Pigot's Pocket Topography was published in two volumes, each measuring 7.63 inches (194mm) by 4.75 inches (120mm). Volume One, covering the South of England, contains 502 pages and Volume Two, covering the North of England, 484 pages, not counting the preliminary pages. No dates are given on the preliminary pages of either volume showing the year or years in which they were published. However, in the London section to Volume One there is the following sentence:-
To sketch with fidelity a picture of London, as it appears in 1840, is nearly as difficult a task as for an artist to delineate the evolutions of the Aurora Borealis.
This quotation strongly suggests that Volume One of the Topography was written in 1840 and published later that year or possibly in the following year. Further evidence that Volume One was published at this time comes from the population figures cited in the county descriptions (of which more is said later), which relate to the 1831 Census rather than to that of 1841. We also know from Pigot's comments in the Preface to Volume One that it was published before Volume Two. Again, most of the county descriptions in the second volume cite the 1831 Census, except for Cheshire where the 1841 Census is cited. The 1841 Census was undertaken in June of that year and provisional population totals were published later in the same year. This clearly suggests that the second volume was not published until late in 1841 or, more likely, sometime in 1842.
In total, the two volumes contain approximately 740,000 words. The entries are arranged alphabetically according to county, with a coloured map prefacing each county. Each county's entry begins with a topographical description of it. The information included on each county is as follows:-
On average, approximately 1,700 words are devoted to each of the forty English counties. Rutland, the smallest county, has the fewest words devoted to it (c. 820) and Lancashire (Pigot's home county) has the most (c. 4,100).
After the descriptions of each county, its principal places(6) (cities, towns, parishes, townships, villages, hamlets, etc.) are listed and described in alphabetical order. The only exception to this rule is Middlesex, where London (the capital) is described immediately after the county description and other places are then listed alphabetically. The amount of space devoted to the towns and cities in each county varies considerably according to their populations. In Rutland, the smallest county, they have only c.1,650 words devoted to them. In Lancashire c.38,500 words, in Middlesex, (including London), c.40,200 and in Yorkshire (which was then divided into three ridings) c.64,800.
Larger towns have more space devoted to them than smaller ones, as one would expect. London, the capital, has by far the largest entry, with c.17,200 words, followed by Manchester and Salford (the former Pigot's home town), with c.5,350 words, Liverpool with c.3,900 and Birmingham with c.3,620. At the other extreme many smaller towns (such as Bootle in Cumberland) have fewer than 200 words devoted to them. The historic towns of Bath, Bristol, Norwich, Shrewsbury and York have between 1,900 and 2,300 words devoted to each of them, and Canterbury, the seat of the established church, just under 900 words.
The information given on each town varies according to its size. Large towns have the following information:-
Less information tended to be given on the smaller towns and cities, but the descriptions of a number of market towns (such as Colne in Lancashire and Dudley in Worcestershire) have tables appended to them showing the numbers of 'traders' engaged in particular pursuits.
Figure 1: Extract From Pigot's Topography
In this section we look at how the Topography evolved from the earlier works of Pigot. The Topography has clearly been compiled from entries that were originally intended for and published in his trade directories, and it is to a consideration of these that we must turn if we are to understand how the work evolved. Jane Norton (1950: 46) has shown us how Pigot and Slater undertook five general surveys of Great Britain and Ireland. Those contained in the Topography appear to come from their third general survey that was undertaken between 1831 and 1840. As an example of how the directories evolved we can look in closer detail at the county of Cheshire.
According to Jane Norton (1950: 45), Pigot's first directory to include references to Cheshire was published in 1814. This directory, however, merely gives descriptions of some 31 places in three northern counties of which only four (Chester, Congleton, Macclesfield and Stockport) were situated in Cheshire. In 1822, as part of his first general survey, Pigot's directory of Cheshire, 17 other English counties and Wales includes a c.480 word description of Cheshire itself and descriptions of fifteen places within the county to which (excluding trades directory information) approximately 4,500 words are devoted. The county description, however, merely describes the physical location of the county in terms of its neighbouring counties, its rivers and canals and countryside. Fewer than 80 words are devoted to its industry and these are mainly concerned with its dairy industry.
Immense quantities of cheese are made in this county, of the best quality; the yearly export of which, to London only, has been computed at 14,000 tons, and to Bristol and York 8,000 more. There are also great quantities sent to Scotland, Ireland, &c. &c. The other productions are corn, excellent salt, coal, iron ore, millstones, timber, &c. &c.
By the time of his 1828-9 Trades Directory, Pigot's county description numbers approximately 1,700 words. Cheshire's countryside and its rivers and canals are described in more detail and roughly 420 words are devoted to its industry. In total, 81 places in Cheshire are described in its topographical section, and - not including its trades directories - roughly 21,000 words are devoted to them. The places include a number of small villages such as Partington:-
.a small township and village, in the same parish and hundred as Altrincham, about four miles N.W. from that town. This township was anciently of the fee of the barony of Dunham Massey, and it is now vested in the Earl of Stamford. Partington hall is now occupied as a farm house. The only place of worship here is a meeting-house for dissenters. Partington is but of little consequence in the way of trade, and the only manufactory established in it is that for paper, by Messrs. James Greaves & Co. at Mill bank. The population is about 450.
Pigot's Directory of 1834, published as a part of his third general survey, devotes c.2,050 words to describing the county of Cheshire and additional sections are included on its ancient history, parliamentary representation, MPs and population in 1831. No fewer than 96 places are described in its topographical section and 25,000 words are devoted to them, again not counting trades directories.
In Pigot's Topography of the early 1840's, the county description of Cheshire totals some 3,000 words. The sections included in the county topography are basically the same as those in the 1834 Trades Directory, except that the origin of the county's name is discussed. The remaining sections are expanded, additional information is included on the county's industries and the section on its canals and rivers is expanded to include a description of its railways. However, only 66 places are included and only 10,400 words are devoted to them. A reading of the topographical descriptions of its places shows that most had been copied from his earlier works, although about one-third of the smaller places included in his 1834 Directory were omitted from his Topography, and most of the other entries were contracted and updated.
Casual reading of the rest of the Topography and of Pigot's directories for other counties suggests that the same procedure was followed for England as a whole. Namely, the county descriptions were updated and expanded, whilst the topographical descriptions of many smaller places included in his directories were omitted from his Topography, and longer entries to the more important places were updated, edited and contracted in length.
That less space was devoted to describing England's towns and cities in his Topography than in his directories is understandable when one considers the sheer numbers of places in England referenced in Pigot's various trades directories. Moreover, Pigot tells us in the Preface to his Topography that he aimed to produce a light-weight volume that was easy to carry around.
The Publishers of the POCKET TOPOGRAPHY, deemed it more convenient for travellers, to prevent the necessity of taking both volumes with them on a journey, to divide the Kingdom into two nearly equal portions, as to place the Northern and Midland Counties in one Volume; and the Southern, South-eastern, and South-western in the other.
It was mentioned earlier that Pigot's Topography did not include any of the Welsh counties with the exception of Monmouthshire, which was then widely regarded as an English county. To overcome this limitation, it was decided to include with this new edition of Pigot's Topography extracts from Pigot's National Commercial Directory of 1835, which covered some six English counties, Monmouthshire, and Wales. The format of this trades directory is broadly the same as those of Pigot's other directories from this period. Wales, however, is treated differently insofar as it is divided into two sections - North and South. Each section begins with a topographical description of the area covered, followed by topographical descriptions of each place arranged in alphabetical order. Roughly 1,800 words are devoted to the topographical descriptions of both North and South Wales, and the information given is the broadly the same as that included in Pigot's topographical descriptions of the English counties. North Wales covers the counties of Anglesey, Carnarvon, Denbigh, Flint, Merioneth and Montgomery. South Wales covers the remaining counties of Brecon (or Brecknock), Cardigan, Carmarthen, Glamorgan, Pembroke and Radnor. The North Wales section includes topographical descriptions of 47 distinct places running to c.17,500 words, and the South Wales section includes 48 places running to c.21,000 words.
One part of the British Isles that does not appear to have been surveyed by James Pigot and Isaac Slater is the Channel Islands. To overcome this limitation, we include with this topography the descriptions of these islands compiled by Frederic Kelly in 1852 for his Post Office Directory of the Channel Islands and Hampshire. In this work about 2,300 words are devoted to Jersey (the largest and most populous of the Islands), 2,700 to Guernsey, 800 to Sark, 400 to Alderney and 150 to Herm and Jethou. The information given on the Channel Islands is basically similar to that included in Pigot's and Slater's directories from this period. Sections are, however, included on their climate and on their prominent individuals.
No indication is given in Pigot's Topography as to how the work was compiled, but we know from his trades directories that the topographies were compiled by agents who visited the country and sought the assistance of local notables with knowledge of their districts. For example, in the address at the beginning of his 1835 Directory Pigot made the following acknowledgement:
. in this (the historic) department, the proprietors, as upon previous occasions, have thankfully to acknowledge the prompt and valuable assistance afforded to them, from many talented gentlemen, in furnishing to their Agents information, upon various subjects, from scarce documents, never before published, in connexion with the various places - and, which those, who have so obligingly interested themselves, will perceive has been made use of.
Unfortunately, no formal mention is made of who exactly these 'talented gentlemen' were who supplied the information to Pigot's agents, although occasional references are made to individuals in the topographical descriptions. For example, in the topographical description of Hull a reference is made to a Mr. Frost:-
Of the mercantile importance of Hull., Mr Frost has brought forward various proofs, founded upon the authority of pipe rolls, and other records; whence it appears that, in the extent of its commerce, Hull was at that time (the 15th century) inferior only to London, Boston, Southampton, Lincoln and Lynn.
No indication however, is given as to whether the agent was citing a conversation with Mr. Frost or a book or other publication that he had written.
It should, also be added that, whilst the topographical descriptions were compiled by agents, Pigot also appears to have made extensive use of various other source materials including the 1831 Census, which was used to obtain information on the populations of each place included in his topography.
We know from the preface of his work that the production costs of the topography were paid for by subscription.
The plan developed in the prospectus has been rigidly adhered to, except that it has been deemed expedient to publish the first Volume some time in advance of the second, instead of, as it was originally intended, completing the two simultaneously.
Under this system people paid money to Pigot to produce volumes and in return obtained both a share of the profits made from their sales as well as low-cost copies of the actual works.
However, it is highly unlikely that Pigot would have considered producing such a topography if he had not already undertaken the bulk of the research necessary for the production of his trades directories. This then poses the additional question as to why his trades directories included topographical descriptions. Trades directories themselves were originally produced for the benefit both of traders seeking to publicise their wares and services and of consumers seeking those wares and services. Why directories should also include descriptive topographical sections is a more difficult question to answer. However, Shaw and Tipper (1989: 31) have argued that, in general terms, they appear to have been regarded as being of considerable importance because: (a) as the nineteenth century progressed the descriptive accounts were extended in both scope and depth; and (b) some publishers employed experts to write them. Both of these points apply equally not only in general to the works of Pigot and Slater relating to the British Isles, but also, as we have seen, in particular to Pigot's work on Cheshire, which evolved from a descriptive account of four towns to something far more substantial.
Shaw and Tipper go on to suggest that the growing importance attached to the topographies reflected a growth in personal mobility that was occurring at the time with the development of both industry and the railways. This argument can also be employed to explain the changes made by Pigot to his topographical descriptions. In the Address to Pigot's 1834 Trades Directory relating to the Northern counties, we read that:-
The rapid and untiring step of science and manufactures has, within a comparatively short period, called into existence numerous places that previously were deemed, by the man of commerce, too insignificant to visit. Wild and unpeopled districts have become the site of large factories, and important trading establishments, dispensing employment to an industrious population - villages of a rude and scattered character have been transformed into compact towns; while the means of passing from place to place, over hitherto untrodden tracts, have been effected by all the methods of modern and improved communication.
The country's population was increasing rapidly, towns were growing and industry was expanding. By 1851 less than half of the employed population of England and Wales were working on the land, and by 1861 more than half of the population were living in 'urban' settlements with a population, 2,000 or more. Growth was particularly rapid in the North of England and on the coalfields.
Moreover, during the first half of the nineteenth century transport links improved in the British Isles with the development of improved roads, faster stage coach services and, after 1830, the railway network. Suffice it to say here that by 1840, just ten years after the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester railway, no less than 1,497 miles of railway track had been opened and another 1,000 miles were under construction or had been sanctioned by parliament (Mathias, 1983: 257). Many towns in the North of England were now within a few hours' travel of London, and Pigot was able to write (Vol. 2: 470), 'It is now possible to accomplish the journey from York to London and back in twenty-four hours! allowing an hour for the transaction of business'.
In this situation, traders and commercial travellers would have had a need to travel around the country, and would clearly have had a need for suitable topographies and directories. The information supplied on manufacturing, churches and charitable institutions in each place would have been of value to them, not only in helping them to identify potential customers for their wares, but also in giving them a general knowledge of the people and area with which they were dealing, and this, in turn, would have helped them to negotiate with local people.
This explains why Pigot included topographical descriptions in his various trades directories. But, the question remains of why he went on to produce a topography of England? It should be mentioned, however, that there must have been a demand for it, otherwise Pigot would not have been able to get people to subscribe for it. It is not clear where the demand came from, but three sources can be identified. Firstly, the topography would have had an appeal to commercial travellers. The volumes, as we have seen, contain a great deal of information on the industries and principal trades of each of the larger towns. It is true that they did not include trades directories showing the names of traders, but the pocket topography was compact and almost certainly cheaper to buy than a complete set of Pigot's trades directories. Moreover, as was mentioned earlier, commercial travellers would also have been interested in acquiring information about the places in which their clientele lived insofar as it would have been useful to them in negotiations.
Secondly, the topography would have a wide appeal to other members of the 'educated classes' going about their daily businesses. These would, for example, include school teachers, clergy, poor law officials and even those employing servants who might want to know something about the places from which their employees came.
Thirdly, on reading the topography, one does get the distinct impression that, in addition to being a commercial publication, it was also a guidebook aimed at tourists and holidaymakers. It included a number of references to early seaside and holiday resorts such as Blackpool.
BLACKPOOL, a village and chapelry, 4 miles S.W. of Poulton, in the parish of Bispham, is a bathing-place on the coast of the Irish Sea. The peat-coloured pool, which gives name to the place, is at the south end of Blackpool, near the house called Fox-hall, once the residence of the Tyldesleys, but now a farm-house. The firm and smooth sand renders bathing here very safe and agreeable. For the accommodation and recreation of the visitors and respectable inhabitants, there are the news and coffee rooms, a library and billiard-tables; at the hotels, during the season, assemblies are given. In 1821 an episcopal chapel was erected here subject to the parochial jurisdiction of Bispham.
Similarly the descriptive accounts of many places were written in a particularly 'romantic' fashion, in such a way as to wet the appetites of readers and possibly make them want to visit the places described. Thus in the section on Wiltshire we read:
. below the middle of the county begins that extensive tract, a great part of which bears the name of SALISBURY PLAIN - the most remarkable spot of the kind in England. Over these wilds, stretching beyond the limits of the eye, wander vast flocks of sheep, attended by their solitary shepherds; and ruins of Roman, Saxon, Danish and ancient British monuments are scattered throughout this district, among which the venerable and mystical Stonehenge rises distinguished to the view.
Similarly in the descriptive account of Birmingham we read.
Birmingham is not attractive for venerable ruins or grand cathedrals; but the traveller who delights in seeing the human race profitably employed, to their own and their country's advantage, will disregard the smoke which sometimes envelopes the town, and discern, through the veil, the bright beams of industry enlightening vast piles of riches. The air is naturally salubrious, - and notwithstanding its dense population, the noxious effluvia of various metallic trades, and above all, the continual smoke arising from the immense quantity of coal consumed, it has been affirmed to be one of the healthiest towns in England .
(italics added)
The suggestion that the Topography could have been published with, at least in part, the needs of tourists in mind, is not as strange as it might at first sound. This is not the place to discuss the history of England's leisure industry. Suffice it to say here that in the eighteenth century tourism had remained an essentially upper-class pursuit (see Pimlott, 1976), but by the early to middle nineteenth century the numbers able to afford to take an annual holiday increased. Improvements in transport lowered the cost of travel. As early as 1815 steamboats were carrying holiday-makers from London to Margate (Pimlott, 1976: 77), and by the 1830s pleasure boats were carrying tourists from Liverpool to the Isle of Man and the North Wales coast (Pimlott, 1976: 78). Some idea as to the extent of the tourist industry at this time comes from the 1841 Census Report, in which it is stated that on census day that year (Sunday 6th June) there were no less than 20,000 visitors in Brighton, 1,586 in Margate and 590 in Blackpool (cited in Pimlott, 1976: 77). Moreover, after 1830 the development of tourism was accelerated by the development of the railway network, which, as we have seen, grew rapidly in this period. Also associated with the railways was the growth of cheap day excursions that began in the North East of England in 1839 (Pimlott, 1976: 90).
Again, it should not be forgotten that Pigot's clientele was almost certainly drawn predominately from the middle and upper classes who were then the most likely to be able to afford to go away on holiday. Some idea as to the size of the middle class at this time comes from the 1841 Census for England and Wales, in which 176,919 people, mainly men, were enumerated as professionals and other 'educated' persons (Spackman, 1969: 174-5). Not all of these people would have been wealthy, by any means, but if to this figure we add 200,000 wives and dependants, we are left with a sizeable market for holidays in England and Wales numbering perhaps over 350,000. Finally, it should not be forgotten that Pigot's firm itself was located in Lancashire, which then had both a large and prosperous middle class and excellent communications with the rest of the country.
Unfortunately Pigot's Topography says very little about the common people, their housing, customs, etc. Whilst this is regrettable it is, nevertheless, understandable. The Topography as we have seen was compiled from entries originally collected for inclusion within trades directories. Such directories were compiled as both commercial and topographical publications aimed primarily at people in commerce, and possibly, to a limited extent, at tourists. Some idea as to the status of these individuals comes from an examination of the occupations of people listed in directories, who tended to be predominantly male and employed within the middle and upper classes, and as such they were clearly social biased. Relatively few people in low-status occupations are listed and the women listed tended be widows of the gentry and those who had inherited businesses on the deaths of their husbands. Moreover, levels of literacy were far lower than they are today: even in 1851, only 69% of bridegrooms and 55% of brides were able to sign their entries in marriage registers. In this situation, those wanting the publication would be from a different class and background, and it was their interests that were provided for by Pigot.
We move on to discuss briefly the accuracy of the Topography. This is a difficult matter, but a few general comments can be made. We saw earlier that local agents who visited the places they wrote about and interviewed local notables about each place compiled the work. As such, therefore, one might expect the physical descriptions of the places as they were, when the agents visited them, to be fairly accurate - that is the information relating to trades, manufactures, municipal government, churches, schools, etc. Moreover, it should not be forgotten that both Pigot and Slater produced their Trades Directories for commercial reasons. If their works were wildly inaccurate it is to be doubted if they would have been so successful. Unfortunately, however, the publication was compiled when the study of local history was very much in its infancy, and in consequence the historical accounts of the development of the country's towns and cities are likely to be subject to some degree of error.
Even with these shortcomings, however, as an account of conditions in England and Wales in the 1830s and 1840s the work is almost certainly accurate to a high degree, even if the historical accounts are somewhat lacking in correctness.
Sadly, lack of time and resources has meant that at this stage we are only able to produce an abridged version of the Topography. This edited edition is approximately 100,000 words, or some 15% of the original publication.
Included here are:-
The decision as to which of the larger and smaller towns to include has been based on the editor's subjective judgements, rather than on a random or well thought out selection procedure. Some towns - such as London, Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham - were felt to merit inclusion because of both their size and importance in this period. Cities such as Bristol and Norwich, (until c.1700 probably England's second and third largest cities) along with Lincoln, Chester and York were chosen because of their historical importance. Newcastle, Sheffield and Leeds are included as examples of industrial towns, and Margate and Aberystwyth figure because of their importance as leisure towns and watering places. Finally, several towns - such as Warrington, those which make up the Potteries, Bangor, Bath and Bradford-upon-Avon - are included simply because the editor has lived in them and they are thus places of which he has some local knowledge. Other editors would, no doubt, have made different choices, but nevertheless it is hoped that those towns that are included offer a reasonably fair and balanced sample of English and Welsh towns in the 1840s.