In the 19th century, the two settlements of Plymouth and East
Stonehouse grew and coalesced into one urban area. Natural population
increase and immigration both contributed to the rapid population
growth which gave impetus to the urban expansion.
Analysis of the unpublished census manuscripts for I85I and I87I
revealed clear patterns of distrihution indicating segregation
according to demographic, occupational and birthplace characteristics.
There was severe overcrowding, population density was higher than that
of mid-Victorian London and Liverpool, and the consequences for local public health and on the morphology of the urban area were
substantial. Deprivation and poverty occurred not only in the older,
cramped parts of Plymouth but also i n newly-built housing areas, such
was the demand for accommodation. This provided an impetus for
suburbanisation.
Mid-Victorian Plymouth was a thriving, cosmopolitan trading port
with a large fishing fleet and it was an important military and naval
base. The town also served southwest Devon and southeast Cornwall as
a market for local goods and produce. The local economy supported a
wide-ranging employment structure, responding to infrastructural
improvements, and provided a magnet for immigrants primarily from
rural Devon and Cornwall but also from many other parts of Britain and
from Ireland. Women formed a greater than average section of the
local population, the towns attracted country girls to work as
domestic servants and, also, many women were temporarily deserted as
their husbands' occupations took them away from home.
Principal component analyses show that, following a rapid phase of
population growth i n the 1840s and 1850s, the combined population of
Plymouth and Stonehouse entered a period of slower growth when
immigration gave way to natural increase. The later phase is
identified as a time of consolidation as immigrants settled and the
local economy prospered, the population became more integrated and
homogeneous
