ABSTRACT
During the summer of 1983 a social survey of the visiting patterns of retired married couples living without others was carried out in four districts of England: Maidstone, Kent, Melton Mowbray, Oakham and two villages in Leicestershire; the Metropolitan District of Stockport; the London Borough of Merton. This paper presents a small selection of the preliminary descriptive results from the 432 completed questionnaires. As a first report at an early stage of the analysis and in the limited space available, the opportunity will be taken to explain some of the empirical questions that the survey has addressed and to identify early lines of investigation that are being pursued.
