“The 1891 Census for England was taken on the night of 5 April 1891. All responses were to reflect the individual’s status as of 5 April 1891 for all individuals who had spent the night in the house. People who were traveling or living abroad were enumerated at the location where they spent the night on census night. The 1891 census has several more questions than are found on earlier census returns including questions employment status and the number of rooms occupied in the house if less than five”.a, b
The absence of Samuel’s wife Sarah Oates in the 1881 census of Great Horton raises an interesting question to pursue. The 1881 census records show Sarah living at 8 Northumberland Street in the hamlet of Poulton, within the township/district of Poulton Barre and Torrisholme. In 1881 Sarah (54) is listed as head of the house, a lodging house keeper and born near Bradford, Yorkshire, and living with her daughter Emma Oates (21), a dressmaker also born near Bradford, Yorkshire.
A decade later in 1891, Emma Oates lived at 2 Edwards Street, only a short walk from 8 Northumberland Street (Google maps estimates the distance as 200 meters or 0.1 miles, 2 minutes walking time). Northumberland Street runs between the train station and the foreshore promenade, a significant thoroughfare for the throngs of tourists who arrived by train to stay in the terraced lodging houses and enjoy the multitude of entertainments in the rapidly developing and bustling holiday destination of Morecambe.
Maps of the time show the two names Poulton and Morecambe overlapping to some degree, Poulton originally being a small fishing village on the coast west of Lancaster, and Morecambe being the name of the bay. The two names functioned also as regional or district names: one map of 1890 shows Morecambe harbour, with three increasingly spaced and scaled regional names: Morecambe, Poulton and Torrisholme, and Morecambe. Census records of the time also show overlapping usage.
At the time of Adnah’s wedding in 1879 his residence was listed as Morecambe.
The 1881 census, when Sarah Oates and daughter Emma Oates lived in Northumberland St, indicates that address as within the Hamlet of Poulton, the Township of ‘Poulton Barr & Torrisholme (part of)’, the Urban Sanitation District of ‘Poulton Barr & Torrisholme’.
The 1891 census, when Emma Oates and nephew Arthur William Oates lived about two hundred metres away in Edwards Street, indicates this as within the Hamlet of Poulton, the civil parish of ‘Poulton Barr & Torrisholme’, the Urban Sanitary District of Morecombe, and the Parliamentary Borough of Lancaster.
In the present day both addresses are part of Morecambe, Lancaster.
Historic images of Morecambe show a seaside holiday destination with wide promenades, grand hotels and multi-storied brick terraces along the water-front, and a multitude of entertainments for the flocks of holiday makers who arrived by train.
The distance from Great Horton to the coast at Poulton would appear quite a distance to a farmer, miner or weaver who had lived their life in the hamlets around Bradford, but the impact on mobility of the railway opened up new possibilities on distant horizons. Average rail speeds in Britain around this time were 40-50 miles per hour, so the trip from Bradford to Morecambe might have taken between one and two hours depending on the number of stops at stations along the way.
The historical census records indicate that some time after 1871 Sarah Oates, Adnah Oates and Emma Oates each moved from Horton to the coast near Lancaster. Adnah returned in 1879 to marry Emily (nee Wilson), and Emma remained on the west coast until at least 1891 when her nephew Arthur William was staying with her.
Where Adnah lived during his time in the Morecambe district remains an interesting uncertainty, as do the reasons why Sarah and Emma moved to Poulton, where Sarah died, and where Emma went after 1891 (perhaps she married and her surname changed?).