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One uncomplicated road, known to us as Duck Lake is recorded in the first Census quite unequivocally as Duck Paddle and provides a useful social snapshot from that time. The enumerator, trudged along with his schedule sheets (women were not allowed as enumerators until 1891) and contemporary equivalent of a clipboard complete with inkwell : this was the pre-fountain pen era and though the quality of the schedules returned is very variable, they are mostly completed with a fine steel nibbed pen in copperplate lettering. Unless the course of the brook has altered significantly (and there is some evidence that along Old End it has) he would have found all his calls to be on the West side of the road.
There is no mention of Old End as a separate road but Stoney (sic) Lane occurs as a separate entry of three houses. This suggests that it bisected 1841 Duck Paddle just as today it divides Duck Lake from Old End. The enumerator found and recorded 30 houses as occupied and four as unoccupied. He would almost certainly have worked “door-to-door” but we have no way of being certain from which end he started. One clue may be the order of the sheets as completed. Duck Paddle follows upon Measham Road, the enumerator then proceeding to survey Over Street. The location of this road invites some educated guesswork since there are seven different entries of groups of houses named Over Street within the whole Appleby census. Assumptions must be made with proper regard to accuracy. No doubt exists though in that there were 49 different families living within the 30 occupied houses. The families are all named within strictly laid down rules. These defined that every householder either renting or owning a property must declare the names of all those under his roof on the night of June 6, family, boarders and lodgers.
We can see that twenty of the houses must have accommodated more than one family, so boarders and lodgers were obviously a fact of life along Duck Paddle. This was plainly the norm nationally as the census enforced separate definitions : a boarder lived with the householder’s family and shared the table, whereas a lodger was deemed to occupy a separate “household”, albeit under the same roof. Residents were ascribed as having a Profession, a Trade, an Employment, or as being of Independent Means, gradations respecting the social “orders” of the day - these were very early Victorian days and Marx and definitions by class had yet to appear. But ignoring that for a moment, Duck Paddle presents as a hive of activity. Four householders are listed as Farmers and eleven as Agricultural Labourers. A Wheelwright and a Blacksmith would have found work to hand whilst two different Bricklayers may be evidence of expansion of the village. If the Sawyer plied his trade from home as many tradesmen did, it is interesting to conjecture if any trace of the sawpit remains. Everyday needs would have been catered for by a Butcher, a Grocer, two Tailors (one with an apprentice) a Potter and a Hawker. If a Shoemaker, Joiner or Painter was wanted, they were all just round the corner, in Stoney Lane. Neither did Duck Paddle ignore the fashion conscious villager : there was a 20 year old Straw Bonnet Maker and not one, but two Stay Makers at different addresses. One woman is described simply as Charwoman and two others as Poor Widow. More fortunate were four Independents. An inference might be drawn from the fact that two of these appear to have lived next door to each other plus that the adjacent entry for Stoney Lane also records another Independent. Was this the “monied” end of Duck Paddle? Of the six residents listed as Servants, four female and two male, perhaps predictably, three females and one male lived in with three different Independent households. The quartering of 142 Duck Paddle residents within households also reveals surprises and confirms expectations. The eight Spencers also housed a Johnson, whilst just along the road four Saddingtons shared a roof with a Tipper and a Dymond. But pride of place must surely go to the Smiths, nine of them sharing with six Marshalls. Sixteen houses, just over half the total are recorded as being of single occupancy, judging by name of householder.
For those students wanting to make a more thorough social analysis, there is much to sift through in relative ages - they range from a 70 year old man (ie someone born in 1771) to a two month old baby girl - marriages with people “from off” (detectable by looking at the “Where Born” columns), and, a little more speculatively, who had moved into or out of the village possibly following employment patterns. Lovers of grave stones may seek correlations. Family history interest is typified by Mr Joe Hoerdemaker a Dutch national who has corresponded concerning his Smith ancestry, one of whom is to be found to have lived (possibly in cramped conditions !) in Duck Paddle.
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