ABSTRACT
IN Victorian St. Helens, as in other towns, there was always plenty of business for the undertaker and even more for anyone who sold cradles. An elderly inhabitant who died in 1866 had seen 23 of his grandchildren and 13 of his great grandchildren die during his lifetime ; but these represented only a quarter of the total born and he still had 61 grandchildren and 37 great-grandchildren to tease him in his old age. 1 This particular family was mentioned in the local press at the time as being one of extraordinary size but there is no doubt that many others were not much smaller. The birth-rate at St. Helens was particularly high ; in the census year of 1871 it stood at 47.52 per 1,000 and it never fell below 40 until 1885, when a slight downward trend set in. By 1900 it had fallen to 37.3 These totals were far above the average for the country as a whole and considerably higher than those for either Liverpool or London where, in the early 1870s, the birth-rate stood at about 38 and 35 respectively. 2
