ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on migration patterns and networks in the nineteenth century among a specific occupational group: the stone workers of the Isle of Purbeck, in the southern English county of Dorset. It describes various aspects of the economy of nineteenth-century Dorset and the Isle of Purbeck in particular. The chapter presents an analyses of in-migration to and out-migration from the Isle of Purbeck, focusing on the period between 1841 and 1881, by applying well-established methods to data from the census enumerators' books (CEBs) and parish registers. The second areas the Isle of Purbeck will concern us and, within that area, the stone workers. By the nineteenth century, the stone trade was largely confined to three parishes: Langton Matravers, Swanage and Worth Matravers. The chapter analyses the reported birthplaces in the 1881 census of those members of stone-workers' and agricultural workers' families in Langton Matravers who were born outside the Isle of Purbeck.
