Friars are often underrated in local history because they have left fewer records than monks, and hardly any of their buildings survived the Reform
Domesday Book, the most famous record in England’s national archive, and one of the oldest, has been available in printed form since 1783.
On census night, 30th March 1851, there were 4,262 residents, (2,113 male and 2,149 female), of whom just over half, 2,198, were born within 1 mile
