Recorded Population of the Village:-

1821 Bures St Mary (837)
1831 Bures Hamlet (563) Bures St Mary (996)
1844 Bures Hamlet (516) Bures St Mary (984)
1874 Bures Hamlet (604) Bures St Mary (910)
1890 Bures Hamlet (500) Bures St Mary (906)
1991 Bures Hamlet (713 ) Bures St Mary (840)
1999 Bures Hamlet (743 ) Bures St Mary (850)

In the nineteenth century, Bures was a very busy, thriving industrial village, farming being by far and away the commonest occupation of its inhabitants. Ancillary to its farming interests came the blacksmiths and wheelwrights and many others including tanning and malting.

The entry for John Garrad in the 1851 Census reads: 28 men employed in malting, 23 men employed in farming, 8 men employed in brickmaking, & 9 men employed in tanning. Some of John Garrad's men must have lived outside Bures, being recorded elsewhere in the census; he was not the only employer of men working in Bures in the malting industry, and the tannery after 1851 was leased out to other employers.
We do not have an 1828 account of the occupations of the people of Bures but ten years later a Tithe Apportionment lists the following employers:

Five separate Maltings
One Tanyard
One Wheelwright's shop
Three Blacksmith's shops
One Brickyard

Also a short distance downstream of the bridge there were the Granary and Wharf, dealing with water borne traffic carried on Stour barges.

This map should be used in conjunction with the document to be downloaded below.

Reference is made to buildings in the village which are represented by the map numbers.

This document was written 30yrs+ ago and should be seen through the eyes of the author during that period and not today.

Download the History of Bures 1830 - 1914