| Word |
Meaning |
| Act of Parliament |
An Act of Parliament is a piece of law made by the government. |
| agriculture |
Farming of all types and all the jobs which support farming. |
| asylum |
In the Nineteenth Century, an asylum was a type of hospital for the mentally ill. A lot of people who were considered too badly behaved to stay in a workhouse were sent to the asylum. |
| Boroughs |
A town or urban constituency (area) that sent a member to Parliament and held a court to deal with Civil and some criminal matters. Many Boroughs had the right to level a tax at the town market. |
| cartoon |
A humourous drawing, often a political expression. |
| caricature |
A drawing which exaggerates or distorts a person's features. |
| cartography |
The science or art of making maps. A 'cartographer' is some one who makes maps. |
| census |
A census is carried out by the government every ten years. Every household in the country answers questions about the number of people living there, the jobs they do, their ages and other pieces of information. |
| collier |
Someone who worked in a coal mine. |
| Children's Employment Commission |
The Children's Employment Commission was set up by the government in 1842. It looked at how children were treated in the mines and mills and other jobs. |
| data |
Information, usually numbers rather than written documents and sources. The census is a piece of data. |
| economy |
The economy is the system of money, jobs and goods. |
| enclosure |
The splitting up of land from a system where there were common lands or open field systems to private owners.
Enclosure Award Maps record the parts of Parishes which were reorganised as a result of Enclosure. These maps were deposited with the Clerk of the Peace for the County. |
| engraving |
An engraving is formed by cutting into wood or metal. An impression is then made from the engraved surface onto paper. |
| enumerator |
A person responsible for collecting all the census returns for a particular area. |
| estate maps |
Maps recording a landed property usually with a large house on it. |
| factories |
Places where goods and items are made in large amounts. Before the Industrial Revolution, things had been produced in small batches, often in people's own houses. This was known as the cottage industry. The development of factories, especially for producing cotton, was an important feature of the Industrial Revolution. |
| furlong |
A distance of 220 yards, or just over 200 metres. |
| girdle |
A leather strap which miners, often children, wore round their waist. The strap was attached to a container full of coal which they would then pull along through the mines. |
| hundreds |
A unit of English local government, intermediate between village and shire, which was used into the Nineteenth century.
Originally, the term probably referred to a group of 100 hides. One hide was the unit of land which could be ploughed in a year by one ploughman with a team of oxen. |
| household |
A group of people living together in one house. |
| Huguenots |
A group of immigrants who came to Britain in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth centuries to escape religious persecution. They were members of the French Reformed church which was established by John Calvin in 1555. |
| Industrial Revolution |
The period of the Nineteenth Century when mining, industry and factories increased quickly. The Industrial Revolution was driven by the development of steam power. Historians generally believe that the Industrial Revolution began in Shropshire, which had large quantities of both coal and iron. It then spread rapidly to other parts of the country. |
| industry |
The making of goods and products. During the Industrial Revolution, instead of lots of small places making goods (cottage industry), goods were produced in large quantities in factories. |
| labourer |
Someone who works, usually doing physical, manual jobs such as mining or building. |
| mining |
Digging coal, ores and other useful minerals from the ground.
Mining can take place on the surface (known as open-cast mining) or in shafts deep underground (known as deep mining) |
| Napoleonic |
Relating to the time of Napoleon Bonaparte, who was emperor of France between 1804-15. |
| Nineteenth Century |
The years 1800 to 1900. Sometimes the term Victorian Period is used instead. |
| Ordnance Survey |
The gradual mapping of Britain at a scale of 1" (One inch) to a mile. The survey was established in 1791. |
| Overseer |
The person in charge of giving Poor Relief in a Parish. |
| parish |
An area of a county. Originally, a Parish was a religious area, the amount one Pastor could cover.
Today, a parish is a small area of local government. |
| Parliamentary Commissioners |
A member of parliament who is given a particular task, for example being a member of the Children's Employment Commission of 1842. |
| pauper |
A poor person. |
| Poor Law Amendment Act |
This Act was passed in 1834. Before the Act, people were given Poor Relief in the form of money sent directly to them. After the Act, people were encouraged to find employment before asking for aid. Any help they were given usually meant being put in a Workhouse. These were hard places, so people often preferred to stay in poverty rather than asking for charity. |
| Poor Relief |
Help and assistance given to a poor person. It might have been money or clothes, but after the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 it often meant sending a person to a workhouse. |
| population |
The number of people in a particular area. |
| portrait |
A picture of a person showing the face. |
| scroll |
A roll of parchment for writing a document. |
| smelting |
Metal ores such as iron ore and lead ore are found in rocks in the ground. Smelting is the process of extracting the metal from the ore. |
| steam power |
Driving machinery such as mills and engines through steam. The use of steam power in factories helped the Industrial Revolution happen. |
| subscriber |
To set one's name to a paper in return for a promise to give something, such as a sum of money, in return. |
| survey |
To work out the size and position of a piece of land or building by taking measurements and by using geometry and trigonometry. |
| tithe |
A tax of one-tenth, especially a tenth part of the annual produce of land or labour.
Tithe maps were produced between 1838 and 1854. |
| Tithe Commutation Act |
This was an act of Parliament which meant that tithes could be exchanged for a rent charge. Commissioners were appointed to make fair land charges with the inhabitants. |
| topographical |
A way of representing natural and man made features on maps or charts, for example showing heights and the physical nature of the land. |
| turnpike |
A road, under the control of a trust. In return for maintaining the road the trust could collect money by levying a toll on those who used the road. |
| Victorian Period |
Queen Victoria reigned from 1837 to 1901. Any event happening between these years is known as happening in the Victorian Period. However, the word is sometimes used to refer to an event happening at any time in the Nineteenth Century. |
| welfare |
Aid and help given, usually by the government, to people in need. Welfare in Victorian Times was usually called Poor Relief. |
| Workhouse |
A large building which was set up to house poor people. Read more about the workhouse on Victorian crime and detection: The Workhouse |
| Wrockwardine Wood |
An area to the east of Wellington, in Shropshire. It was part of the larger Wrockwardine Parish until it was made a parish in its own right in 1834. |
