DOCUMENTS OF OWNERSHIP AND OCCUPATION

Title deeds of property (freehold or leasehold)

Freehold property is when person A sells to person B. Between the 16th and 19th century there were two forms of conveyancing:

• Bargain and sale – where the owner of the property agrees to sell the property to the buyer at a set price
• Lease and release – where the owner leases the property to another person for a year, and then the day after the end of the lease there is a ‘release’, so the lessor (the owner) gives up the right to recover the property from the lessee (the person who leases the property but wants to buy it). Once the release was made, it was effectively the same as an ordinary bargain and sale.

There are also leaseholds, where the owner of the property (landlord) rents the property to someone else (tenant). Most leases were for:

• A year
• A term of years (usually 7 years or a multiple of 7 years)
• A term of lives (usually 3).

What information they contain

Freehold conveyances will show:

• The date
• The names of the seller and buyer
• The consideration (price paid)
• A clause defining the type of conveyance (bargain and sale or lease and release, as described above)
• A description of the property.

Leases will show:

• The date
• The names of the owner and lessee
• A description of the property (often along the lines of ‘hath sett to farm’ or ‘hath to farm let’)
• The period of lease
• The annual rent
• Any ‘reservations’ to the landlord (often rights to woods or minerals on the land)
• Any ‘covenants’ (special conditions).

Deeds should give a short description of the property and its location; they will also give the names of former owners and occupiers. If there are abstracts of title, they may contain extracts from earlier deeds that have been lost. If there is an enfranchisement deed, this shows that the building once belonged to a manor (i.e. was copyhold) so there may be records of the building in the manor court rolls and books. Deeds tend to be kept in bundles so you should find a series of deeds for the same property in that bundle in an archive, but bundles often broken up and sold.

Where to find them

If it is your house, you may have the deeds, or the deeds may be held by your mortgage company – check with your solicitor to see what is available.

Potential difficulties

Deeds tend to contain a lot of legal terms, so you need to have a working knowledge of property law – note that they are often in Latin until the 16th century. Getting hold of the deeds themselves can be a problem, as they are often not indexed in record offices. When you do find them, they will need careful handling; they may be hard to unfold without damaging, so there will be a ‘title’ written on the back – that is, on the outside of the folded document – to identify it. The further back the deeds go, the harder you may find it to read the handwriting, so always work backwards.

Census returns

Census returns can help you see who occupied the building. Work backwards from the 1901 census, and cross-reference the information you find against the other evidence you have. See Chapter 3, page 48.

You also need to be aware that if a property was unoccupied on census night, it will not be listed in the census; also that census returns name the occupier rather than the owner of the property, in which case the information might not tie up with the deeds.

Hearth tax assessments

See Chapter 3, page 55.

Land tax assessments

See Chapter 3, page 55.

MAPS AND IMAGES

As well as checking photographs and sketches (see above), it is also worth checking maps of different dates (see Chapter 7 for a fuller discussion of maps). You may be able to work out roughly when the building was first built, from when it first appears on a map; and, depending on the scale of the map, you might also be able to see whether the building changed in size and shape between maps of different dates, which will help you pin down alteration dates. Owner/occupier names are shown on some maps.

If the building existed before 1939 you should be able to find it on an Ordnance Survey map; if it existed before the first Ordnance Survey map for the area was made, you may find it on a tithe map; and you may also find its occupants in the census returns and rate books (see Chapter 3).

The most important thing with maps is to start with the latest Ordnance Survey map and work backwards. Note that the property may be shown on old county maps (for example, in Norfolk you would look at Bryant or Greenwood), but any drawings tend to be of large properties only. Your local records office will be able to give you advice on sources of other maps.

Ordnance Survey maps

They are available at the National Archives and county record offices. See Chapter 7, page 123.

Tithe maps

Under the Tithes Commutation Act of 1836, about three quarters of the parishes and towns in England and Wales were surveyed during the 1840s and tithe maps of the areas were produced, together with schedules listing every field and plot of land. See Chapter 7, page 118, for more information. The National Archives hold copies of each map and schedule; they are also available at county record offices and diocesan record offices.

Valuation maps

The map may contain a detailed plan of the building 1910–15. Not all record offices hold copies of every single map in the area; although they are likely to have the valuation field books, without the map you won’t know which building the plot number refers to. See Chapter 7, page 125.

Enclosure award maps

See Chapter 7, page 122.

Architectural drawings

Your county record office may have some collections of architects’ drawings (particularly if they go along with building control plans and planning applications). There is also a collection of architects’ drawings in the National Archive – see series NG 6 for workhouses, hospitals, museums, libraries, and town halls.

CHANGES TO THE BUILDING

Sales particulars

Many record offices contain catalogues of house sales/auctions; you may also see sales particulars listed in local newspapers. However, unless you know the date (within a couple of months) of the sale, you will end up searching a lot of documents with no guarantee that you will come across the information that you’re looking for.

What information they contain

These include:

• The auctioneer’s name
• Date, time and place of auction
• Who instructed the sale (e.g. the personal representatives of the late Mr Smith)
• Details of the main building, its construction and any machinery and outbuildings included, as well as a description of the land and its extent (in acres, roods and perches)
• Detailed description of a house, for example, on 14 June 1907 a sale of a mill complex at Beccles listed ‘a Capital Brick, Plaster and Tiled Dwelling-House’ and described the rooms as ‘Dining Room, Drawing Room, Kitchen, two Pantries, Office and Five Bedrooms’, as well as a garden and orchard.

Where to find them

As well as the sources mentioned above, if the building is sufficiently large, there may also be an advertisement in national newspapers, such as those in The Times; you can search the database of The Times 1785-1985 online.

Building control plans and planning applications

Since the late 1800s, local authorities have had to approve new buildings and major alterations to existing buildings. To give approval, they need to see planning applications and this also has to be passed by the building control consultancy. Your county record office may have some collections of architects’ drawings.

What information they contain

Planning applications often have architectural drawings and supporting papers for any application for alterations or new buildings.

Where to find them

Plans are held at your county record office, local building control or planning departments. However, note that few plans survive for buildings built before the late 19th century.

Road order maps and deposited plans

See Chapter 7, page 130.