RESEARCH Tithe Records

Tithe Records

Tithes were payments in kind made to the Parish by the Parishioners and were basically taxes. Generally it was a percentage of the crops, animals or vegetables etc. that were produced by a person.

During the dissolution of the monasteries (1536-1541) by Henry VIII things changed and these tithes became payable to the new landowners who had inherited the land during this process.

As time progressed, these payments became made in money rather than kind. Enclosure of land, particularly towards the end of the 18th century, further changed the payment of tithes. Enclosure is where previously open land for common use of all became fenced off and assigned to individual owners, see The Land for more details.

There are two classes of records which may be useful

1. Enclosure Maps which range from the 18th to the 19th centuries -refer to theSchedule that goes with these maps which provides the key to all the numbers. 

2. Tithe Maps which date from the 1840's - refer to the schedule with this map.

Another similar source is the 1910 Valuation, this comes in two parts,

• the map where the property will have a red number handwritten on iit which refers to

• the Valuation Book that goes with that map and this should be in your local archive centre. This will give you some basic information about the owner and the property. 

You will have to visit Kew and using the same number you can refer to the main book which has full details, as these details were supplied by the owner they can be from a sparse description to a full inventory of the property. You can search the catalogue on line to find the book reference you need, the field books are referenced under IR58 and there are over 95 thousand volumes.