In his pioneer study of Colyton Dr Wrigley carried out a series of tests which were intended to confirm the practice of birth control within marriage. Several of these have been applied to the three reconstituted north Arden parishes, and although the samples obtainable were often too small to be regarded as anything more than indicative, it may nevertheless be useful to compare the results with the figures published by Dr Wrigley.

1. At Colyton separate analyses of age-specific marital fertility for women marrying under and over 30 showed that in the ‘family limitation’ period 1647–1719 the latter had higher rates for all age groups (Table Vila). Dr Wrigley inferred that this was because they had ‘less reason to seek to restrict the number of their children’ by the practice of birth control. He did not, however, provide comparable figures for 1560–1646 or 1720–69.

In Arden communities the contrast in the fertility of older women according to whether they had married early or late is found during all periods (Table Vllb). If anything, it is slightly less marked for the 1600–24 generation, which is the one exhibiting the most emphatic concave marital fertility curve (p. 24).