[Phoenix]

I have batted this back at enquirers plenty of times, telling them to read the enumeration district description, note the main streets, side streets, pubs, compare it with trade directories, look at maps etc.

Usually, you can follow the enumerator round.

Today, I have been trying to pinpoint a local farm. In the 1840s, it was pretty isolated, the next building on the census a mile away in the valley. By 1851, the railway had brought neighbours a whole half mile closer. By 1861, large villas were starting to appear. In 1871 it is described as a cottage and in 1881 it has been rebuilt in a different parish. Thereafter it has a new lease of life, long term tenants, lots of very obvious employees, and more properties creeping up the hill towards it.

Rural Surrey is poor farming land, the villages tended to be small. Looking at the "neighbours" they were probably people you only saw in church or at the market.

Has anyone else done this sort of exercise? It has completely turned my notions upside down, as the neighbours came from north, west, south and very much further south. (A large physical barrier cuts off those neighbours to the east!)