Not at home on census night - what happens? (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Sunday, June 15, 2014, 13:14 (3815 days ago) @ janethowell

Hi Janet,
I think I'm right in saying that colliers etc wouldn't generally do night shifts except in times of dire need eg the World Wars. The hours underground varied depending on the era, and the regulations which varied thro Victorian times, the farther you go back in time the longer the working day. Also depended on the required output for the mine, dictated by general economic conditions; no EU enforced coal "mountains" then, if they couldn't sell/shift it then the owners wouldn't mine it, hence shorter or no shifts. If there was a shift pattern generally they would work days only, albeit maybe split into "early" (mornings) and "late" (afternoons).
This site is good for learning abt mining in general
http://www.cmhrc.co.uk/site/home/

Hence most miners were back home on the evening the Census was taken. I've seen cases of people appearing twice on a Census, ie their home and their workplace, usually when the forms were filled out by the home owner themselves not trained officials. However some census officials were clearly far more efficent/carefull than others, so errors could and did occur. If a mine or any other industry was working a nightshift then a census should have been taken there eg large iron and steel works were worked continuously as the blast furnaces had to be kept hot, so demanding a night shift.

Do you have a specific case or problem you'e trying to solve ?. If you can give specific dates ie which Census, then we can give better answers.