North Nibley One-Place Study

This study is, at the same time, a work in progress and the culmination of three decades of research into the parish of North Nibley, Gloucestershire.

The starting point was a module I took in Local and Family History through the Open University. For the final assignment, I wrote a cohort analysis of the parish, attempting to replicate that carried out in Colyton by Jean Robin, who perhaps put the aims of the study most elegantly .

‘The object of this study has been to follow the life courses of the 633-strong cohort of 0-9 year-olds listed in the 1851 census for Colyton through 40 years to 1891, or until their earlier disappearance through death or migration’1

I have been dealing with a smaller group of 292 individuals, and my starting point was the census of 1841. At the time, only the 1851 and 1881 censuses were available online, and the latest census to have been published was that of 1891. The exponential growth of available resources, and the publication of further censuses, have meant that, although my study has long been completed, I have continually been adding information and extending my longitudinal analysis.

Along the way, I have added information not directly related to ‘my’ cohort, pertaining to the 19th Century in the parish.

In conclusion, at the end of 30 years, I have a large amount of information, which I am in the progress of organising and decanting into a website. Unfortunately, instead of allowing itself to be neatly organised, it behaves like an unruly batch of sourdough bread – refusing to be tamed and showing a propensity to just keep on growing. Until then, I am registering this study, so that I can be contacted if anyone would like to discuss this with me further.

1 From childhood to middle age: cohort analysis in Colyton, 1851-1891. Jean Robin, Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure Working Paper Series No.1.’