How to use Croydon Electoral Registers

Transcription

1 Museum of Croydon galleries research activities How to use Croydon Electoral Registers Electoral registers only list people who are entitled and registered to vote Can I photocopy a register? Visitors must not make copies of any electoral registers less than 10 years old. However, visitors can make notes. Visitors can photocopy the electoral register if it is 10 or more years old. Where are the electoral registers? You need to ask a member of staff for the current register and recent years which are held at the front desk in the filing cabinet. For each of these registers there is a street index and each ward is bound separately. All polling districts within a ward are kept together. You can also use the older registers which are in the main part of the Research Room. When I ask for the current register, which one do you get out? We get out the register which includes the month we are in. The registers run from 1 December to the September of the following year. There are no updates for October and November each year. If the current month is October or November we get out the register dated [last year] [current year]. We also get out Notices of Alteration that go with that register to make the register as up to date as possible for you. Notices of Alteration are printed monthly, usually between January and September and show the people who have left or joined the register. Example 1: If you came in on Tuesday 25 November 2014 asking for the current electoral register, we got out the register labelled plus the notices of alteration for that year (there were none for February and March that year, so it would be April September 2014). Example 2: If you came in on Wednesday 24 March 2015 asking for the current electoral register, we got out the register labelled plus the notices of alteration for January, February and March Alternatively, you can contact Croydon Electoral Services on or electoral.services@croydon.gov.uk or address: Electoral Services, The Town Hall, Katharine Street, Croydon CR9 1DE.

2 What are the different sorts of electoral registers and where are they held? Before 1883: Croydon was part of Surrey at this time (until 1883 when Croydon became a separate borough). Online access: You can access the Surrey Electoral Registers for at Please contact the Museum of Croydon if you would like to book a computer to access this website during your visit : in person: if you would like to ask to see the Surrey registers that include Croydon voters of that time, you can contact Surrey History Centre, 130 Goldsworth Road, Woking, Surrey GU21 6ND shs@surreycc.gov.uk : In 1883, Croydon became a separate borough, with its own Council, and from then until 1918 the Museum of Croydon holds annual Registers of local government electors (called 'Burgess Rolls') present: In 1885 Croydon also became a Parliamentary Borough, with its own Member of Parliament. The Museum of Croydon holds annual registers of parliamentary electors from 1885 to the present, with the exception of the years and , when no elections were held. We do not hold a register for 1950 nor For your interest: registers of parliamentary electors were the creation of the 1832 Representation of the People (or 'Reform') Act (2 Will.1V C.45) onwards: the local and parliamentary registers were combined from 1918 onwards so there has been a single register for both local and parliamentary elections since then. Parochial Registers list people able to vote in parish council elections, under the 1894 Local Government Act (in effect, all local government and parliamentary electors). Coulsdon and Purley Before 1931: Electoral registers for the former Urban District of Coulsdon and Purley before 1931 are held at Surrey History Centre to 1965: Coulsdon and Purley are included in the East Surrey electoral registers that the Museum of Croydon hold onwards: In 1965 Coulsdon and Purley became part of the London Borough of Croydon and are included with the Croydon electoral Registers from that date. As a result, please be aware it is particularly difficult to trace entries for a particular address over a number of years in this part of Croydon. You can find more information about Coulsdon & Purley at the Vision of Britain website This page shows the boundary of the

3 Urban District Council of Coulsdon & Purley overlaid over a selection of maps: How can I find someone in a register? Since 1883 Croydon electoral registers have been divided up into voting areas called wards. The number of wards, and their boundaries, have changed many times since then. In registers between 1883 and 1889 voters were listed in straight alphabetical order within each ward. If you are searching for a person by name, you will need to look through each ward in the register unless you know which ward the person was living in. For registers of 1889 and onwards, entries in wards are listed alphabetically by address and within that, by house number. Odd and even numbers are usually listed separately. The house numbers are on the right of the person s name. The numbers do not always follow on in order so do look through the whole section for that road. There are street indexes on the Research Room shelves to help you find out what ward each address is in. Please see list of indexes below. Once you have found the road you are looking for in an index, write down the ward reference next to it (it is usually 2 or 3 letters). Some roads can have houses in more than one ward if the ward boundary cuts the road. For some registers, there are two or three volumes for one year. Within the volumes, the wards are alphabetical, so if you reference is BG then it is going to be in part 1. Who was/is allowed to vote? 1883 onwards: The local government electorate (i.e. those who voted in the Borough Council elections) included men and women who had occupied rateable property in the borough for one year, paid rates, and lived within seven miles of the borough onwards: Croydon parliamentary electorate (i.e. those who voted for Members of Parliament) included all male owners and tenants (aged 21 or over) of dwelling houses, and lodgers paying at least 10 per year who had lived at the same address for 12 months or more. The Representation of the People Act 1918 was an Act of Parliament passed to reform the electoral system in the United Kingdom. It is sometimes known as the Fourth Reform Act. This act was the first to include practically all men in the political system and began the inclusion of women in voting for Members of Parliament. This resulted in:

4 In 1918 all men aged 21 or over who were normally living in the constituency were able to vote. In 1918 all women aged 30 or over who were local government voters, or were the wives of local government voters, were given the ability to vote in parliamentary elections (the parliamentary franchise ) for the first time onwards: All women (as well as men who were already able to do this) aged 21 or over were finally able to vote in parliamentary elections in onwards: The qualification age for men and women was lowered to 18 in 1969 by the Registration of the People Act (Eliz.11 c.15) but effectively not until How do I join or leave the electoral register? The electoral register is updated monthly except when the annual canvass is going on. The Canvass is the time when the Electoral Registration Officers contact the people in Croydon to update the register and takes place between October and November each year. At other times, it takes around 4 weeks after your application to join or leave the register for it to appear in a Notice of Alteration. You can do this by visiting You can view the following registers in the Research Room If you cannot find the register you need, please ask a member of staff for help. Some registers are fragile and are kept separately Spring; Autumn; and Electoral Register for 1919 in one complete volume; Absent Voters Lists for Spring and Autumn 1920 Spring; Autumn 1921 Spring 1922 Autumn 1923 Spring; Autumn Spring (in four volumes); Autumn 1925 Spring; Autumn 1926 Spring; Autumn 1927 Autumn All in one volume 1929 Spring 1930 Autumn ; , 1951, Croydon registers , East Surrey registers 1965/current - Croydon Electoral Registers (with the new London Borough boundary)

5 You can use the following indexes in the Research Room Croydon 1901, 1902, 1903 and 1912 (2 copies), 1917 (2 copies), 1923, 1926, 1929 (3 copies), 1931, 1933, 1935, 1936, 1939, 1945, 1947, 1949, 1951, 1965, 1968 (please ask a member of staff to use this index as it is very fragile), 1970, 1973, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982 (2 copies), 1983, 1984 (2 copies), 1985, 1987 and East Surrey 1933, 1939, 1945, 1948, 1953, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1959 and The following registers are not held in the Research Room You can ask to see these registers either in person during our opening hours, by ing us at researchroom@croydon.gov.uk or by calling us on Burgess Roll 1883/4 - Burgess Roll Burgess Roll 1884/5 - Burgess Roll 1885/6 - Parliamentary Register Burgess Roll Burgess Roll; parliamentary Register; Burgess Roll and parliamentary Register combined; occupiers' list (in same volume as Burgess Roll and parliamentary Register combined) 1887/8 - Burgess Roll Parliamentary Register 1888/9 - Burgess Roll Parliamentary Register Parliamentary Register Parliamentary Register 1891/2 - Burgess Roll 1892/3 - Burgess Roll Parliamentary Register Parliamentary Register; Burgess Roll 1894/5 - Parochial Register Burgess Roll; Parliamentary Register Burgess Roll 1896/7 - Parochial Register; Burgess Roll Parliamentary Register 1897/8 - Burgess Roll Parliamentary Register

6 Parliamentary Register; Burgess Roll 1899/ Burgess Roll 1900/01 - Parochial Register Parliamentary Register; Burgess Roll 1901/2 - Burgess Roll; Parochial Register Parliamentary Register 1902/3 - Parochial Register; Burgess Roll Parliamentary Register 1903/4 - Burgess Roll; Parochial Register Parliamentary Register 1904/5 - Parochial Register; Burgess Roll Parliamentary Roll 1905/6 - Burgess Roll; Parochial Register Parliamentary Register; Parochial Register 1906/7 - Burgess Roll Parliamentary Register; Parochial Register 1907/8 - Burgess Roll Parliamentary Register; Parochial Register 1908/9 - Burgess Roll Parliamentary Register; Parochial Register 1909/10 - Burgess Roll Parliamentary Register; Parochial Register 1910/11 - Burgess Roll Parliamentary Register; Parochial Register 1911/12 - Burgess Roll Parochial Register; Parliamentary Register 1912/13 - Burgess Roll Parliamentary Register; Parochial Register 1913/14 - Burgess Roll Parliamentary Register; Parochial Register 1914/15 - Burgess Roll Parliamentary Register; Parochial Register Electoral Register; Electoral Register for Croydon North; Electoral Register for Autumn 1918