Tithe Commission and Successors: Tithe Maps

IR 30

1775-1936

These tithe maps were drawn to act as a graphic index to the tithe apportionments in IR 29, and together form what was termed the Tithe Survey, following the Tithe Commutation Act 1836. The maps were separated for storage reasons, because they are usually larger than the apportionments.

The maps show tithe areas, which were usually fields, but might also be houses with gardens, and other types of land parcel. The maps may also show buildings, street layouts, industrial and landscape features, roads and railways, rivers and other water features.

The descriptions give the mapmaker's name where known, and note where the map only shows tithable parts ie not the whole tithe district. Where a map is 'first class' ie considered legal evidence for all matters shown, this is noted; otherwise 'second class' status is assumed, which applied to the majority of tithe maps. Dates of individual tithe maps are given; most were drawn between 1837 and 1845, but earlier maps were sometimes re-used (the earliest dates to 1775).

Where the area to be mapped was small, it may have been drawn on the apportionment; this is noted in the description of each map to which this applies. Information about the presence of later altered apportionment maps has been added for the first thirteen counties (up to and including Gloucestershire) and for a few maps thereafter where this information was available. These date from a period shortly after the original maps, showing changes such as railway construction; and are found at intervals up to and including 1936.

A few of the maps in this series are in fact corn rent conversion maps, dating from between 1862 and 1936; they record conversion of existing corn rents generated by the enclosure process into tithe rentcharge.

A major project in 2011-2012 provided fuller descriptions of the tithe maps. The National Archives gratefully acknowledges permission for use of data from Professor Roger Kain's and Dr Richard Oliver's Exeter University research on the tithe surveys in the 1990s, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, the Economic and Social Research Council and the British Academy. For more information about these maps, see their publication

The tithe maps are arranged by counties, firstly for England and then for Wales, named as they were at the beginning of Queen Victoria’s reign: Hampshire was listed as Southampton; Monmouthshire was at that point counted as an English rather than a Welsh county. Within each county, parishes are listed alphabetically. Parish names are those given on the tithe documents, with a modern place name in square brackets, where the name has changed.

Tithe files which contain correspondence of the Tithe Commission concerned with proceedings for the commutation of tithes are in: IR 18

Some original tithe maps, all unfit for production, are in: IR 77

Original apportionments are in:

IR 29

Public Record(s)

• Board of Agriculture, Land Commission, 1889-1903
• Copyhold, Inclosure and Tithe Commission, 1851-1882
• Home Office, Land Commission, 1882-1889
• Tithe Commission, 1836-1851

11830 flat sheets and rolls

Available on microfiche for parishes in English counties from Bedfordshire up to and including Middlesex; otherwise in original form

Available in microform only unless otherwise stated

Topics

Railways

Tithes

Maps and plans

Construction industries