Oakford, Devon

Oakford is a village and civil parish in the Mid Devon district of Devon, England. It is located three miles south west of Bampton and eight miles north north west of Tiverton. Oakford is located near the river Exe.In 1870, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Oakford like this:"OAKFORD, a village and a parish in Tiverton district, Devon. The village stands on a bold acclivity, adjacent to a tributary of the river Exe, 2 miles S of the boundary with Somerset, 3 W S W of Bampton, and 6½ N N W of Tiverton r. station; is large and straggling; and has a post-office under Tiverton. The parish comprises 5, 464acres."PopulationIt had a population of 358 according to the 2011 census with 185 being Males and 173 being Female.Oakford population graph 1881-2011The 1831 census provides information, down to parish-level, on the occupations of males aged over 20 using nine categories. Here we reorganise this information to provide a crude measure of social status, based more on contemporary ideas than on modern definitions of social class: "middling sorts" combines small farmers not employing labourers with both masters and skilled workers in urban manufacturing and handicrafts.According to the 2011 census, 32% of those who are economically active in Oakford are self-employed; this is nearly twice the district statistics and over 3 times higher than the country's average.