A MIDDLE-CLASS COMMUNITY? SOCIAL STRUCTURE IN VICTORIAN ROUNDHAY, LEEDS, 1851-1891

Abstract

This study examines the social structure of Roundhay, four miles north of Leeds, a rural township that developed as a suburb of the city in the second half of the I9th century. Although there is much current interest in the middle classes and in the physical development of the Victorian suburbs, the role of the middle class in creating the mechanisms of suburban community life has been little explored. In this article, personal papers, house sale details and the census have been analysed in order to reveal the household structure and occupational status of Victorian Roundhay. Servant holding (often used as an indicator of middle-class status) and the availability of transport in creating a suburb have also been analysed. The research reveals that this ‘middle-class suburb’ was not just lived in by the middle classes, but was also home to members of other social groups such as servants, tradespeople and pre-existing farming families. There were a number of very different types of ‘middle-class’ suburb and Victorian Roundhay was just one variety - an exclusive upper middle-class enclave.