Population Growth in the 19th & 20th Centuries

As we approached the Census in 2001 we thought it would be interesting to look back at Walkington's population growth over the previous 130 years. In the 1871 Census there were 659 people in Walkington. In 1935 the population was estimated to be about 1,350, by 1981 it had grown to 1,853, reaching 2,481 by 2001. The most recent estimate, in 2010, was that there were 2410 residents.

Some fascinating snippets of information can be gleaned by examining the Census records from 1871, 1881 and 1891:
      

•  Between 1871 and 1881 Main Street became the now-familiar East End and West End.
• In 1871, Samuel Lythe was an Apprentice Bricklayer aged 18. By 1881 he had progressed to being a 'Bricklayer Master employing 3 men'. By 1891 he was a 'Bricklayer and Builder' and he and his wife Mary had 3 sons, Sydney, Ernest and Harold, and 3 daughters, Elizabeth, Bertha and Florence. The family business now known as E.Lythe, Builder which was founded in 1872 is still to be found at 1 Kirk Lane in the village.
• George Boynton was the blacksmith throughout the 1871 to 1891 period. His shop was eventually incorporated into the Ferguson Fawsitt Arms as the cocktail bar.
• The East Riding Asylum was under construction on Beverley Road in 1871. It was being built on Broadgate Farm on a site of just over 412 acres purchased in 1865 for £26,500. In 1869, once it was decided to build the asylum on 62 acres, the remainder was sold for £25,100, so recovering most of the original cost of the land. William Porteous a bricklayer was resident, together with his family and two other bricklayers. The building work was completed in 1871 at a cost of £43,085 16s 7d and opened on Wednesday 25th October with 105 patients transferred from the Clifton Asylum in York. The last patients left Broadgate Hospital on 12th April 1989.
• In 1881 there were 4 families of Railway workers from around the country living in Walkington, almost certainly working on the Hull, Barnsley and West Riding line which ran through Little Weighton and under the Wolds. They are thought to have lived at the bottom of Northgate. (See the 1920's history section, part 6)