Galashiels Households 1851-1881

In 1851 some 5.9 per cent of the Galashiels population in the Census returns were shown as lodgers or boarder, the number falling to 5 per cent in 1881 with twice as many boarders as lodgers (see Table 4); analysis indicates they were mostly incomers to the town and half employed in the woollen-textile mills. The guidance given to Census Enumerators that ‘boarders ate at the same table as the household’ but ‘lodgers provided for themselves’, must have presented enumerators standing on the doorstep with a considerable problem on how to list these individuals as part of a household. On that basis, Table 4 shows the number of boarders compared to lodgers in 1851 and 1881.

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Table 3

	1851	%	1881	%
Single persons	43	3.6	141	4.6
Married couples, no children	69	5.8	185	5.8
One parent with children	108	9.0	262	8.2
Married couples with children	434	36.4	1353	42.5
Households with resident relatives*	204	17.1	560	17.6
Households with resident boarders/lodgers*	159	13.3	453	14.2
Households with resident servants*	99	8.3	153	4.8
Complex households	75	6.3	75	2.3

Total number of households	1191	99.8	3182	100.0

In addition, in 1881 there were two households forming the Combination Poorhouse
with 22 and 26 occupants.

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		1851				1881
	Total	%	m	f	Total	%	m	f
Boarders	3			3	487	3.2	289	198
Lodgers	349	5.9	259	90	272	1.8	191	81
Servants	154	2.6	9	145	120	0.8	4	116
Kin : Blood relations	191	3.2	81	110	486	3.2	167	319
Kin : in-laws	72	1.2	41	31	209	1.4	92	117

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