This chapter covers:

• the different sorts of maps and illustrations that can be used for tracing the history of a property.

It’s always a good idea to work backwards from the present day, looking first at the 1910–15 valuation (or Domesday) maps, then the Ordnance Survey maps, tithe maps and enclosure maps, so you can work back from known landmarks.

Working backwards in this way can also help you to pin a rough date on your property – i.e. it’s likely to have been built somewhere between the earliest map that shows your house and the next earliest map that doesn’t show your house. Be careful when you’re using maps, though; your house may be built on the site of an earlier property, so you’ll need to confirm the details with other records (such as title deeds) to make sure you’re looking at the same property. And, just to make things awkward, not all maps show all buildings.

One of the important things to think about with maps is who made it and what the purpose of the map was. The valuation maps of 1910–15 are very accurate because the survey was made for the purposes of taxation.

1910–15 VALUATION MAPS (DOMESDAY)

Under the Finance Act 1910, all properties in England and Wales were surveyed and valued. The idea was to levy a tax when the property was sold; the tax was 20% of the difference between the value of the land at the ‘Domesday’ survey and the value when the land was sold. Although the tax was repealed in 1920 (and there were exemptions anyway – on farmland which hadn’t increased its agricultural value, or on land less than 50 acres) the records produced are very useful now to house historians.

As part of the survey, all landowners had to fill in a form, and there was a fine of £50 for not returning it (equivalent to nearly £3,400 in today’s money – this gives an idea of the importance the government placed on the survey). The records from this survey are known as the Lloyd George ‘Domesday’ books, and there are two parts to the information:

• the record maps themselves;
• the field/valuation books.

Each property surveyed was called a ‘hereditament’.

The valuation books and maps are kept in local record offices, and the field books are kept in the National Archives in Kew (in series IR58). The working maps are also in the National Archives. They’re split by region:

• London is IR121;
• South East is IR124;
• Wessex is IR125;
• Central is IR126;
• Anglia is IR127;
• Western is IR128;
• West Midland is IR129;
• East Midland is IR130;
• Welsh is IR131;
• Liverpool is IR132;
• Manchester is IR133;
• Yorkshire is IR134;
• Northern is IR135.

Within each region there are up to 22 districts.

Not all records survive; some were destroyed during the Second World War.

Record maps

The record maps are based on Ordnance Survey maps, which were the largest scale and most recent edition available. The most common scale used was the 25-inch maps (25 inches to the mile), although even larger scales were used for towns. Two sets of maps are used:

• Working plans – these were used during the survey and contain notes about rights of way and ownership of property. The hereditament number was marked in red ink and the boundaries have a colour wash, usually red or green. The boundaries of income tax parishes are marked in yellow.
• Record sheet plans – these were marked up with the boundaries and reference numbers of the hereditaments and were kept in district valuation offices,

You’ll need to check the map first to get the hereditament number of the property; without that, you’re working pretty much in the dark. However, if you know the owners’ and occupiers’ names you may still be able to trace the property in the valuation books if the map isn’t available.

To get the map reference relating to your property, you’ll need to check on a map grid (available at your local record office) to see which series of maps are concerned. Every part of England and Wales has been given a reference on a grid; for example, the part of Norfolk containing Attleborough is covered by grid reference 85. You then convert that number to Roman numerals (so in our example it’s LXXXV).

That grid area is then divided into 16 smaller rectangles, numbered from 1 to 16: to get the number for the map area you want, you count the rectangles from left to right, row by row, i.e.:

1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8
9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16

In the example above, Attleborough town centre was covered by square number 11, so I ordered the map reference LXXXV/11.

Frustratingly, the local record office’s copy of the map hadn’t survived, although the valuation book was available. Finding the hereditament number for Mill House might have meant a trip to the National Archives in Kew. You can search the catalogues in the National Archives online at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/search.asp, so I was able to confirm that the reference for the field book was IR 58/15499 and the reference for the map was IR 127/9/672. The online catalogue showed that the map and the field books were held at Kew, so if I needed to I could order the documents before going to visit the archives.

Luckily, I was saved the trip to London because I already knew the owner’s and occupier’s names from other records (the deeds, the rate book and a sale catalogue), so I was able to look at the valuation book in my local record office and find the relevant record.

Field books

The field book records the details of the hereditament; the amount of details given varies between books, but could include:

• Full street address.
• Interior and exterior description: number and use of rooms, state of repair, date it was built and materials used, whether it has electricity or running water, and possibly a detailed plan of the building; may also describe gardens, outbuildings, outdoor sanitary arrangements (known as ECs or earth closets) and chicken runs. Industrial properties (mills, factories, shops and offices), schools and stations may be described in great detail, including cellars, fire escapes and storage areas.
• Name of owner.
• Name of occupier.
• Date of previous sales.
• Valuation figures.
• Schedule of neighbouring lands owned.
• Rents.
• Who paid rates, taxes and insurance.
• Who was liable for repairs.

At the end of a parish, public buildings and common land (such as parks and historic sites) are grouped together.

The earlier assessments tend to be much more detailed than the later ones, basically because the project fell behind schedule and then corners were cut to finish the assessments on time.

Valuation books

The valuation books (known as Domesday Books) were records of the hereditaments made from the field books; they don’t contain the descriptions or plans of land and property, but can be useful in finding the hereditament number when the map hasn’t survived (as happened in the case of my research). They’re listed in parish order within income tax parishes. They list the owner, occupier, usage and extent of each hereditament in the parish, together with the hereditament number and map reference number.

From the field book I was able to see that the valuation was carried out between January and April 1913. Hereditament number 139 is very simply described as ‘House and Garden in Mill Yard’; the occupier is William M. Gathergood and the owner is Anna Wright of Woodbridge. This tallied with the other documents I had.

The valuer estimated the extent of the land as 1275 square yards; the original gross value of the property was estimated at £361, of which £272 relates to the buildings. The property was described as having seven fruit trees (from my childhood I can remember that one was an apple tree – my father fixed a swing to one of the boughs) and flower borders.

ORDNANCE SURVEY MAPS

The Ordnance Survey was established in 1791; its function was to produce maps of Kent, Surrey and Sussex to help the military commanders prepare to repel French invaders. The first official map was produced in 1801.

After the war with France ended in 1815 the Board of Ordnance continued and expanded the maps to cover the rest of the country. Although Christopher and John Greenwood also started publishing 1-inch county maps in the 1820s, they abandoned the project when the Ordnance Survey project developed.

There were several editions of the Ordnance Survey maps:

• Old Series (which was completed in 1870). These were 1-inch maps (i.e. the scale was 1 inch to the mile) and the maps are basically a survey of the land.
• Second edition (also known as the ‘New Series’, which was started in 1870). These had three different scales:
  • 1 inch (i.e. one inch to the mile);
  • 6 inches (i.e. six inches to the mile);
  • 25 inches (i.e. extremely detailed, 25 inches to the mile – this tends to be for London and the larger towns). The 25-inch map shows railway lines, the shape and size of buildings, boundaries of fields and acreage sizes; it may also give house names, show the garden layout (including ponds), the number of seats in churches, the position of pillar boxes, lamp posts and horse troughs, and the width of pavements.

• Third edition (revised versions of the 6-inch and 25-inch maps) for some areas in 1900 and 1920.
• Fourth edition (for some areas) just before World War Two.

Most libraries and record offices have copies of the 1-inch maps through to the 25-inch maps. There are excellent collections at the National Archives and the British Library. There may also be some earlier maps online, depending on your county’s archive. For example, Norfolk has digitised copies of various maps (including aerial photography) at www.historic-maps.norfolk.gov.uk/ and East Sussex has pre-1813 maps at www.envf.port.ac.uk/geo/research/historical/webmap/sussexmap/sussex.html.

Note that the maps might show the existence of larger individual large properties, but smaller houses are not necessarily shown.

Mill House is shown on both the Old Series (1838) and the Second Edition (1883) Ordnance Survey map covering Attleborough.

This ties in with both the census returns (see pages 135–8) and the information in the street directories (see Appendix 3), which show that the mill had more or less ceased to function from around 1850. This is shortly after the railway came to the town and a new mill was built near the railway so the reason for the mill’s decline are obvious. The stables were, however, used until at least 1912, when the tenant of the house is described in a trade directory as a ‘jobmaster’ for the stables. The buildings were still there, albeit derelict, when my family moved to Mill House in 1969.

TITHE APPORTIONMENTS AND 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, fruit 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 payment in cash. If cash was paid instead of produce, this was known as commutation.

In 1836 the Tithe Commutation Act converted the tithe from a payment in kind to a ‘rent charge’, which was paid to the local church. 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; the implementation was made between 1836 and about 1850. In order to work out the award, the commissioners had to commission surveys of the land, then meet with the landowners and tithe owners and draw up a provisional agreement of the rent charge. If there was any 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. 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: on colour maps, inhabited buildings such as farmhouses and cottages are marked in red and other structures are marked in grey, on a monochrome map the inhabited buildings are shaded fully and the uninhabited buildings are cross-hatched;
• place names;
• compass bearings – note that north isn’t necessarily at the top of the page.

Other features that may be shown on the map, depending on who made it, are:

• roads, turnpikes and toll houses;
• rivers, ponds and other bodies of water;
• railway lines;
• mills, factories, quarries, chalk pits and mines;
• woodlands;
• ice houses, dovecotes and lighthouses.

Note that the tithe map isn’t necessarily an accurate survey of the area in the way that the 1910 survey and Ordnance Survey maps are. The purpose of the tithe maps was to show the boundaries of areas owing tithes, so sometimes buildings have been missed off maps completely (see below for the example of Mill House).

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 the following.

• 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 where tenants are concerned.
• Plot number: you can match this to the map.
• Name and description of land and premises: this includes field 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’, which usually happened when a railway was built.
• Summary of schedule listing the landowners in alphabetical order, occupiers in order of amount of land held, and total of rent charge from each owner to each tithe owner.

There is a complete set of tithe maps at the National Archives in section IR30 and apportionments in IR29; you should also find the diocesan and/or parish copy of the maps at your local record office. All of the Welsh apportionments and most of the English ones are in microform. There is also some correspondence and copies of reports in series IR18.

Although they survive for almost all parishes, the maps vary in size, scale and accuracy – some give only the basics whereas others are much more detailed. Some of the maps are 14 feet square – they come in a roll, so you’ll need to book a map table at the record office to look at them and also use weights to hold them open. Any amendments will be shown on a linen-backed Ordnance Survey map (usually the 6-inch format).

The apportionment books are usually rolled up inside the tithe map (along with the amendments) and again you’ll need to use weights to hold the pages open. The parcel numbers of the land are not arranged numerically in the schedule, so you’ll have to look through the book to find the exact plot you want.

The maps and apportionments are too large to copy on an A3 photocopier; as the books are bound and fairly fragile, you won’t be able to copy them on a plan-printer either. Alternatives are photographing the books/map (though this depends on your record office’s policies) or transcribing the details of the map onto a photocopy of a 6-inch Ordnance Survey map.

Most of the maps and apportionments date from the 1840s, so you should be able to cross-refer the information with census returns and possibly also with street directories.

The diocesan copy of the tithe map for Attleborough is in the Norfolk Record Office. Because it’s a diocesan copy, the reference for the original map and apportionment is in series DN/TA (which stands for Diocesan Tithe Assessment). The document number in this case is 84.

Mill House is shown on plot 213, which is described as an ‘orchard’ and ‘pasture’ belonging to William Stannard Cockell. The area is described as 1 rood and 38 perches; next door, plot 212 is a paddock of 2 roods and 25 perches. The occupier of the land is ‘John Mann and others’, and it’s described as ‘cottages, Mill Yard and Garden’; the land is described as arable, with an area of 5 roods and 21 perches.

In the above section we can see plot 213 quite clearly. The tithe map dates from 1838, the same date as the first Ordnance Survey map, although the detail of the buildings shown is quite different. This is because the tithe surveyors were more interested in boundaries than in actual buildings, and the Ordnance Survey cartographers were trying to make as accurate a record of the land and buildings as possible.

The W-shaped building at the front of the map is shaded red (occupied), and the two square-ish buildings are shaded grey (uninhabited).

It’s possible that the top left-hand building on plot 213 represents the stable complex. The house doesn’t appear at all and I would expect it to appear roughly by the number 3 of ‘213’ – in the present day there’s a narrow unpaved lane that runs along the top boundary of plot 212. The right-hand building is ‘unoccupied’; there’s a possibility this is the mill, but there isn’t enough supporting detail for us to be sure.

ENCLOSURE MAPS AND AWARDS

Until the eighteenth century cultivation of land was based on the ‘open field’ system, where people had strips in each field and rights over common pasture and woodlands – ‘common’ land was actually owned privately, but people had ‘rights of common’ so they could let their animals graze over it.

Enclosure took place when these open fields and commons were converted to individual plots of private land, often with a fence or hedge put round it to separate it from a neighbour’s land. The first agreements were made privately, between a landowner and tenants. Later they were subject to an Act of Parliament.

Sometimes common land was divided between freeholders in a manor, and sometimes arable land was rearranged so that farmers who had several strips of land in different large open fields would be given a single larger piece of land instead (equivalent to the same amount of land as the smaller pieces added together). These plots were called ‘allotments’ and they ranged in size from a small parcel to several hundred acres.

From the 1780s onwards a map of the land was included in an enclosure award.

The clerk of the peace collected the awards before 1792. After that, the awards had to be included (‘enrolled’) in records of the quarter sessions. There were also notifications in the local newspapers.

The Enclosure Commission was established in 1845. After then a central government department held a copy of all enclosure awards. The enclosure procedure also changed. Instead of needing an individual Act of Parliament for each enclosure, people simply applied to the Commission. The Commission assessed all the applications once a year and, if they were successful, they were actioned together.

There is no set format for enclosure awards, but they usually consist of a map and a schedule. The detail given on the maps is variable; it may show a map of the entire parish with its existing layout, and the proposals for enclosure superimposed on it. Sometimes it shows land ownership, roads, footpaths and boundaries. It may show who owned land, who bought it and how the land was affected by enclosure. The scale of the map is usually between 5 and 8 chains to the inch (39.6m to 63.36m to the centimetre), though occasionally smaller or larger scales are shown.

The number on each plot of land matches the number on the schedule, which will give:

• the landowner’s name;
• the extent of holdings;
• the nature of tenure (freehold or copyhold).

The schedule may also list rights of way and say who was responsible for maintaining boundaries.

Local record offices usually have copies of the enclosure awards. Some awards after 1845 are held in the National Archives, series MAF1. There is also correspondence about enclosures (including information about disputes) in series MAF25.

Not all parishes have enclosure maps. The maps may not cover the entire parish – and note that ‘enclosure’ is also spelt ‘inclosure’ in some areas (such as Norfolk), so bear that in mind when looking up the records – particularly in an online catalogue.

For Attleborough the Inclosure Award dates from 1812. The map of 1815 is somewhat faded, but a certified copy of it was made by a draughtsman in 1930, at a scale of 1 inch to 8 chains. I was delighted to discover that this version of the map contained an inset detail of Attleborough town, at a scale of 1 inch to 3 chains. This map gave much more detail about who owned the land and how much land was in each parcel. This map shows clearly that the occupier of the land (equivalent to plots 212 and 213 on the tithe map) is Jonathan Cooper; the land is bounded by the street known as Levell Street or High Street on the left (as you look at the map), Connaught Plain in the middle (the triangular area) and Exchange Street heading up to the right-hand corner.

Again, the map doesn’t actually show the house or the mill – which is strange, as other sources show that the house and mill existed there in at least 1804. The site of Mill House is roughly where the N of ‘Jonathan’ finishes; the larger rectangular dark-shaded (uninhabited) building above the light-shaded W-shaped building is the stable block.

ROAD ORDER MAPS

If roads or footpaths were closed (‘stopped up’) or diverted as part of an Enclosure Act, there may be a road order map available, which will give details such as the name of the road or path affected, and may even show field names. Even though the Enclosure Act was the reason the road orders were made in these sort of cases, the road order map and its supporting documents will usually be separate from the Enclosure Act. The map may not be particularly detailed where buildings or rivers are concerned, as its primary function was to show footpaths and roads. A comparison of the areas shown in 6.7 above and 6.8 below, dated within two years of each other, illustrates just how much the surveyor ignored on one of these plans.

The supporting documentation will go through every single road and footpath on the map (they’re often numbered rather than named) and will state exactly where they are and which direction they go in. The road order may also refer to the land surrounding the path and who owned it.

The road order map for Attleborough is entitled ‘Stoppage of Highways and Footways, relative to Inclosures Act of 52 Geo. III’ in other words, the 52nd year of George III’s reign, or somewhere between 25 October 1811 and 24 October 1812. This map clearly shows ‘Mill Field’ and ‘Mill Piece’. According to the supporting documentation, Mill Piece was owned by Stephen Nobbs Stevens (whose name is mentioned in a newspaper advertisement for the mill in 1804), and Mill Field was owned by William Stannard Cockell (who was listed as the owner of plot 589 – equating to the Mill Field – on the tithe map shown in 6.6 above).

One problem with this type of plan is that they’re folded into neat parcels – and if they haven’t been opened for the best part of 200 years you’ll have to peer into the creases (which are rather obvious on the picture below) as the documents are too fragile to be flattened out completely. You may also find that a seal has stuck two parts of a piece of parchment together, so you might not be able to read the document in its entirety. If you’re in this position, talk to the archive specialist – it goes without saying that you can’t just rip the seal from the parchment!

TOWN PLANS

Town plans tend to be produced from late 1500s and show the layout of the streets, including street names. Many more were produced in the nineteenth century as towns expanded. They were paid for by subscription, so whether one exists in your area really depends on whether enough people wanted a map and paid for it. Copies are likely to be in local record offices. There are also collections at the British Library and some in the London Metropolitan Archives.

There is no set format for town plans. Obviously, from the name, they are plans of a town. Street names will be marked, as well as local public buildings such as churches, workhouses, almshouses and hospitals, town halls, castles, gaols and lunatic asylums. The maps may show the buildings in great detail, they may also list subscribers’ names.

Although there is a plan of Attleborough dating from the early 1800s, it is specific to one person’s landholdings and doesn’t show much of the town itself.

OTHER MAPS

Early maps tend to be funded by subscription from wealthy patrons. In Norfolk we’re lucky to have two such maps covering the county: Faden’s Map of 1797 and Bryant’s Map of 1826.

In the section from Faden’s map (6.9), there is a mill shown at Fettle Bridge Common (an area later known as Dodd’s Road – named after the long-standing miller, Thomas Dodd), and a mill in the town centre (which was the mill near Mill House). The mill is shown slightly to the north of its actual position, due to the lettering on the map – it should be smack in the middle of the H in ‘Attleborough’.

There is the possibility that this map shows the site of an earlier mill – the one connected with Mill House was built in 1804. Was the 1804 mill built on the site of the earlier one, or did it replace it? And what happened to the original mill? When was it demolished?

There is also a slightly more detailed map of the county by Bryant, dating from 1826. The mill in the town centre is shown there, as well as Dodd’s Mill and a third mill on Rivett’s Lane, shown as ‘World’s End Lane’ on the map in 6.9.

USING MAPS

You need to be aware of copyright law, especially if you’re considering publishing your material. If a map was first published up to 50 years ago, it is still in copyright. You may be able to copy one A4 segment for your personal use, but check with the library or archive staff first. You may need to sign a copyright declaration form and have your photocopy stamped.

Some maps may be too large or fragile to be copied on an A3 or plan copier – particularly older maps. You may be able to photograph the maps – check with archive staff – or a facsimile or digitised version may be available. Tracing is another possibility, though you’ll need to use clear plastic film between the map and the tracing paper to avoid damaging the map.

In all cases, if you’re looking to publish any section of a map always check with the archive staff. They will advise you if copyright permission is needed and how to get it. If it’s a matter of taking photographs, you will need to complete a permissions form and you may need a photograph permit to go with the form. Your local record office staff will be able to advise you about the procedures and guidelines in your area. The archive staff may also be able to suggest other sources to help you in your research, and if there is more than one edition of a map they will be able to tell you which is the one most likely to suit your needs.

SKETCHES

Sketches of the property may exist. For example, in Norwich the artist Henry Ninham made sketches of many buildings in the city, including the gates in the city wall which no longer exist. If your building is particularly interesting from an artist’s point of view there may well be a sketch of it by a local artist and it’s worth asking your local record office, museum or archive if they have any sketches on record.

PHOTOGRAPHS

There are many books of old photographs covering various towns and counties; your property may be shown there. However, if you want to use the photograph for publication, you’ll need permission to use it. The best way to obtain permission is to contact the publisher and ask who holds the copyright.

Your county library may also hold a collection of photographs. Some may also be available online or in a digital format. For example, Norfolk County Council has a searchable picture library called Picture Norfolk, and you can purchase copies of the photographs.

If your building was involved in any particular event, such as a fire, flood, or was lived in by someone who hit the headlines, your local newspaper may have archive photographs or engravings/woodcuts of the event, kept in a private library. There is normally a charge to access a newspaper’s photographic archives and you may also be able to purchase a copy of photographs. However, note that if you wish to use them for publication you’ll need permission from the copyright holder.

English Heritage also has a large collection of photographs. There are searchable databases of them at their websites Images of England: www.imagesofengland.org.uk/ and Viewfinder: http://viewfinder.english-heritage.org.uk. Again, as with newspaper photographs, you’ll need permission from the copyright holder if you wish to publish the photographs.

Unfortunately, I could find no trace of Mill House or the mill in sketches or old photographs of the town.