Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

This material formed the basis for Professor Townsend’s classic 1954-55 study which examined the growing perception that a breakdown in extended family networks was leaving old people isolated, and creating an increasing demand for residential care. Based primarily on interviews with a random sample of 203 people of pensionable age living in Bethnal Green, East London, the project demonstrated the important role that kinship networks, and relations within the extended family, played in the maintenance of community membership. This collection comprises PDF copies of Townsend's original papers, which are well-written, journalistic summaries of his face-to-face interviews, including his own observations and descriptions. 178 of the interview summaries are included in this collection (including kinship diagrams), several diaries, and 11 summaries of pilot interviews (made in 1954) with elderly people in Hampstead and Westminster.

Main Topics:

Old age; elderly people; family life; housing for the elderly; care of dependants; welfare services; community life; retirement; poverty; social isolation; loneliness.

Quota sample

Face-to-face interview

Diaries