Different Types Of Maps

Tithe Maps

In England, a ‘tithe’ was paid to the church from early medieval times. The tithe itself was a tenth of the produce of the land – hay, wool, corn and the like. A third of the tithe (known as the ‘small tithe’) went to the vicar or deputy who served the church, and the remainder (known as the ‘great tithe’) went to the rector or the religious house that ruled the church. The tithe was meant to pay for the living of the parish priest.

After the dissolution of the monasteries, the rights to tithes passed into private hands. When lands were enclosed, tithe owners were often given allotments of land in compensation. Tithe owners (including churches) might also agree to exchange a payment in kind for a cash payment – this was known as commutation.

In 1836, the Tithe Commutation Act converted the tithe from a payment in kind to a ‘rent charge’. The actual amount of the rent charge varied; it depended on the way the land was cultivated and the price of corn. The Tithe Commission was set up in London and sent assistant commissioners to implement the act in England and Wales; this was done between 1836 and about 1850.

In order to work out the award, the commissioners had to commission surveys of the land, meet with the landowners and tithe owners, and draw up a provisional agreement of the charge; if there was disagreement, the commissioners would have to arbitrate and work out an award. Once the agreement or award was confirmed, one copy was kept in the parish chest, one was given to the bishop of the diocese, and one remained with the Tithe Commission. As part of the survey work, tithe maps were made.

What Information They Contain

The scale of the maps was between 12 and 25 inches to the mile, and the maps cover the whole parish. They show:

• Boundaries (including early medieval parish boundaries; tithe-free monastic land and areas not yet enclosed; also field boundaries with hedges, fences, stiles and gates)

• Buildings (inhabited ones such as farmhouses and cottages are red and other structures are marked in grey)

• Place names.

• And possibly also, depending on who made the map

• Roads, turnpikes and tollhouses

• Rivers, ponds and other bodies of water

• Railway lines

• Mills, factories, quarries, chalk pits and mines

• Woodlands

• Icehouses, dovecotes and lighthouses.

There was a full written schedule (or ‘apportionment’) with each map, describing the land, and field names were sometimes included. The schedule was arranged in alphabetic order of the landowner, and tenants are listed alphabetically underneath the landowner‘s name. Institutes (such as a turnpike trust, a chapel trustee and the parish) are listed at the end of the schedule. The apportionments generally show:

• Summary information of the parish – total area, name of tithe owner(s), acreage of titheable and non-titheable lands (and information about lands that were exempt from tithes)
• Name of landowner (first and surname)
• Name of occupier (first and surname – may be ‘himself if the occupier is also the landowner; and in some cases the very tantalising comment ‘and others’ – particularly for tenants)
• Plot number (you can match this to the map)
• Name and description of land and premises (this includes fields names, which are not shown on Ordnance Survey maps)
• State of cultivation (e.g. arable, pasture, rough grazing, marshland, timber, orchard, garden, hop field, market garden, meadow, coppice, paddock; however the type of crop isn’t always shown, nor the type of livestock)
• Extent of land (in acres, roods and perches – there were 40 perches in a rood, and 4 roods in an acre)
• Amount of rent charge payable
• Remarks (e.g. if the plots became ‘altered apportionments’, usually when a railway was built)
• Summary of schedule listing the landowners in alphabetical order, occupiers (in order of amount of land held), total of rent charge from each owner to each tithe owner.