POPULATION CHANGES SINCE 1800
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The first official census was in 1801, when Somerset had a population of 273,577 out of a total figure of nearly 9 millions for England and Wales. Since then, at intervals of ten years, except for 1941 when Britain was at war, a census has been taken and the detailed figures published for cities, towns and parishes in every county. Thus it is possible to study population changes and to attempt an investigation of their causes. Between 180l and 1901 Somerset's population increased by nearly half as much again to 434,945, but the national increase was 3½ times the 1801 figure to 32½ millions. Similarly in the present century Somerset's population has increased to nearly 600,000, not much more than double the 1801 figure, while in the country as a whole the increase was to almost 6 times the original figure.

Somerset is a large county, and with more than a million acres ranks 7th in area among the counties of England, but (at present) only 20th in population. The wide variety of geological formations gives the county corresponding differences in soil fertility and agricultural pattern as well as providing some mineral resources. Agriculture has always been the principal industry of Somerset and nearly three quarters of the land is still used for agriculture, the remaining part being rough pasture and high moorland. Only about one twentieth is occupied by towns and villages. Closely connected with agriculture, the woollen cloth industry, which depended in part on the wool from flocks of sheep in all parts of the county, was for centuries carried on in the villages and small towns. Before the official census began, estimates of population were based on figures from the church registers of baptisms, marriages and deaths, or on the numbers of men who could be mustered for service in emergencies. These put Somerset high among the more densely populated counties of England. When the cloth industry declined towards the end of the eighteenth century, Somerset had no large or important industrial undertakings to replace it. So there are no great industrial cities or towns, though a number of small local industries have been developed in the towns and larger villages.

Since 1801 it has been possible to examine more closely the population changes which have taken place within the county. It must be noted, however, that there are some difficulties and census figures have to be used with caution. In 1841 and 1921 the census was taken in June, so the figures for holiday resorts were increased by a number of visitors. County boundaries have been changed on several occasions and in 1895, for example, the parishes of Goathill, Poyntington, Sandford Orcas, Seaborough and Trent were transferred to Dorset while Wambrook and Churchstanton were added to Somerset. Parishes near the expanding city of Bristol have been brought within its boundaries, including parts of Bedminster, Long Ashton, Whitchurch, Brislington, Dundry and Portishead. Since it became a county borough, Bath has taken over parts of Claverton, Englishcombe, Twerton. Monkton and South Stoke. Sudden increases in the population of a village may be due to the arrival of workers constructing a new canal or railway, or to the opening of a new boarding school or hospital. The transfer of the prison from Ilchester caused a decline in population there after 1841, and helped to increase that of Taunton.

The most striking change since 1801 has been in the coastal areas where, at first through improved communication by rail and, in this century, by motor car, seaside towns have developed as holiday resorts as well as attracting new residents in retirement or commuting daily to Bristol, Taunton or other towns. Here are some examples of the changes:

1801 1851 1901 1961
Burnham-on-Sea 653 1701 4922 9848
Clevedon 334 1905 5900 10,658
Minehead 1168 1542 2782 7671
Weston-super-Mare 138 4034 18.275 43938

The other towns remain comparatively small, except Bath, which was included in the early population statistics for the county but became a County Borough in 1888 and is afterwards recorded separately. Its growth from 27,686 in 1801 to 31,215 in 1901 and to over 80,000 in 1961, shows that, though many people are concerned with the healing spa and its associated hospitals, the city also caters for visitors to its Roman remains and Georgian architecture as well as to its shops. Civil Service Departments, sent to Bath for safety during the war, have remained. Schools and a new University together with some industry have made the city's development very different from that of the other towns of Somerset. Taunton, the capital, was in 1801 a market town with a rapidly declining cloth industry and a population of 5794. It became a canal and railway junction in the early nineteenth century, and then the administrative centre of the county. A corn and cattle market for a wide area, with some small industries, including the manufacture of optical instruments, shirts and silk thread, as well as several large boarding schools and some government offices, helped to bring the population to more than 35,000 in 1961.

Only two other towns, Bridgwater and Yeovil, can be compared in size with Taunton. Both are ancient market towns which have increased from about 3000 inhabitants in 1801 to around 25,000 in 1961. Bridgwater, with a declining cloth industry and a small port that gradually fell out of use, took advantage of the railway to develop its brick and tile industry and to attract new ones such as British Cellophane. Yeovil, with glove making as a local industry, developed milk, butter and cheese factories to supply London by rail. An early venture in the manufacture of oil engines has developed into an important aircraft factory.

Frome, on the eastern boundary of the county, in 1801 was the largest town after Bath with a population of 8748 and was still busy with the flourishing cloth industry. Using Mendip coal for steam power to replace the numerous water mills, it increased in size to a maximum of 12,411 people in 1821. Though it maintained the gradually declining cloth industry until the 1960s and was able in its place to introduce printing, light engineering and the manufacture of plastics, the town has remained with a population of about 11,000 for more than a century. The only other town in Somerset where the cloth industry has continued successfully is Wellington where the population has grown steadily from 4033 in 1801 to nearly double that figure in 1961, and other small industries have been developed. Crewkerne, a market town and the centre of a small group of villages producing flax for making sail canvas and webbing for harness, still continues these old specialised crafts with modern materials, but there has been little permanent growth in population. In spite of its position on a mainline railway and a trunk road, the gradual increase which took place from 2576 in 1801 to 5172 in 1901 has been followed by a decline to 4215 in 1961.

Map of Population in 1861
Map of Population in 1961
Those villages in the remoter parts of the county whose whole existence was bound up with the prosperity of agriculture felt the impact of the great agricultural depressions following the 1870s and the period between the two World Wars, and as the diagram shows, suffered a severe decline in population. A few, like some of the villages which came for a time into the period of exploitation of the iron mines on the Brendon Hills, had a brief experience of prosperity. There were population increases, including a total of over 700 miners, in 10 villages, among which Withiel Florey, for example, gained 61 in 1861, 110 in 1871 and a further 30 in 1881 but the 1891 figures show a decline of nearly 150 when the mines had closed down. One quite remarkable change came with the enclosure of Exmoor Forest, when a completely new settlement was established and became the largest parish in Somerset with its own church built in 1856. No population is recorded until 1821 when 113 people had settled there. The numbers rose to a maximum of 339 in 1871 but have since gradually declined to 231 in 1961. Many of these people were immigrants from other parts of the country, and some were shepherds from Scotland skilled in the management of breeds of mountain sheep new to Somerset.
Examples of Rural Depopulation
Another contrast shows how one large village could adapt successfully an old craft to modern industrial conditions and increase in size, whilst another declined to only half its previous population. The village of Street with 540 inhabitants in 1801 had trebled in size by 1851 and in 1901 had a population of 3997. Largely through the enterprise of a single firm of shoe manufacturers who had converted an old domestic industry using local materials into a firm with worldwide trade connections, the population had increased to 6666 in 1961. On the other hand, the small town of Wiveliscombe, whose prosperity depended almost entirely on the local cattle, sheep and corn market, had a population of 2571 in 1801. This increased to 2861 in 1851, but declined to 2214 in 1901 and to only 1218 in 1961.

There are now clear signs that the motor car and modern roads and motorways are making a considerable impact on the growth of small towns and villages. This was first apparent in the neighbourhood of Bath and Bristol, where, for example, Keynsham increased from 1591 to 3152 between 1801 and 1901, but since 1931 has almost trebled in size from 5317 to 15,152 in 1961. With rapid and convenient transport, many more people are seeking the attractive areas of the Somerset countryside for their homes, though the Planning Authority is making every effort to see that its character and quality are preserved.