Langham Village History Group Langham village population continued to increase throughout the 19^th century differing from a more general view that village population in the UK decreased during this period.  What evidence or thoughts have we to show why Langham should buck the trend. Population in the UK increased rapidly during the latter part of 18^th century and during the 19^th century. This population growth did not occur without causing considerable anxiety, with many being concerned that such a rapid rise would soon lead to food shortages and starvation.  These concerns in the end proved to be groundless but led the government to implement its first modern census in 1801 and each subsequent ten years to the present day, with the exception of 1941 during WWII. The early censuses did return some information but it was not until 1841 that we see individual data per household, this change was due to the way the data was collected.  Each household was given a document which they were legally required to complete on census night.  Successive census required more detail to be given and this information was usually collected by local people. We are fortunate to have this data available, for the period 1795 to 1901 and in the graph below it shows the upward trend in Langham throughout most of century. During this period more and more people moved from agricultural employment to earning their living from industrial work located in urban conurbation's.  Much of the workforce changed to manufacturing goods during the Victorian period rather than providing services on farms or in domestic service as had been more normal in the Georgian period. The national figures for 1851 show that approximately 40% of the workforce was now involved in some form of manufacturing, whilst 25% were in services and 22% in agriculture.  The figures for Langham at the same census were 18.4% Skilled Trade or Manufacturing process, 12% in Services and 52% in agriculture.  In fact it is likely that  much of the skilled trade/manufacturing and the services were linked very closely to agriculture as would be those employed in retail.  It would be fair to say that the majority of the Langham population would still be tied very closely to agriculture as the main form of employment. With the coming of the railway to Oakham in 1848/1870, those with money found that it was possible to commute to London and other major cities and towns with comparative ease. Certainly many chose Langham to set up their hunting boxes which brought in influencial guests and large numbers of resident staff to support them, not just at weekends or for the season but often permanently. The census data records an increasing number being born not in Langham or Rutland but Middlesex, and many other counties. This influx certainly helped to keep the village vibrant and growing when in many other villages people were departing for towns and cities, a reversal of the national trend. This ingress helped the local trades people, businesses and young people to stay within the parish. The census data shows that from the turn of the century through 1881 and most likely to the start of the world war in 1914, that the village maintained a life very much based on agriculture where life styles and occupations had changed very little for three hundred years. As an indicator of such a rural and law abiding life the 1841 census shows that London had one police officer for every 360 people, Rutland had one for every 7,000 people. Move pointer over the above graph to see population figures for period 1801 <> 2001