Hidden House History

4. 19th Century Housing

Step 1 – Tithe Apportionment Survey

Tithes – a clerical tax of one tenth that the church received – had traditionally been levied on produce grown on land. By 1836 however, the industrial revolution had dramatically altered the economic pattern in Britain, and a survey was commissioned to fix payment rates to the church.

As a consequence, in parishes where tithes were still liable the remaining dues were commuted to fixed monetary payments – tithe rentcharges – and a series of maps and apportionment schedules drawn up to show which plots of land and property still paid tithes. Each plot of land was given its own assessment number, which you can look up in the accompanying tithe apportionment schedule.

As a consequence, in parishes where tithes were still liable the remaining dues were commuted to fixed monetary payments – tithe rentcharges – and a series of maps and apportionment schedules drawn up to show which plots of land and property still paid tithes. Each plot of land was given its own assessment number, which you can look up in the accompanying tithe apportionment schedule.

This lists the name of the landowner and occupier, along with the name and size of the field and a description of how it was cultivated. Many houses are also listed, particularly the more substantial ones. The records are available at The National Archives, with county archives holding at least one set of copies for their area.

Step 2 – Census Records

Since 1801, a decennial headcount of the population has been taken by central government, to gather statistics to assist in the running of the country

From 1841, the names of each householder were recorded, along with basic age and occupation data; and from 1851, even more detailed information was noted down, including the exact age, name, relationship to the head of the household, marital status, occupation and place of birth of each person. The country was divided into enumeration districts, each one containing a certain number of households; which means you should be able to find your house, and its occupants, if it was standing at the time a census was taken.

Many of the records are searchable online, but one drawback is that houses further back in time are often not assigned names or numbers, so you might have to search manually at your county record office or local study centre. Try to use local landmarks to help pinpoint your house – the fact that you live three doors down from an old pub, for example, can be a good way of pinpointing your house.

Step 3 – Rate Books

In many urban areas, rate books were created to raise local taxes for a variety of civic purposes, such as poor law relief, sewer construction and maintenance, and to fund the local council. Many were based on property ownership, and list owners and occasionally occupiers alike.

Although many rates date back to medieval times, those assessed primarily on property tend to survive in greater sequences from the mid nineteenth century onwards. They can be particularly useful when compared to other sources, such as census records, and are mostly stored in the relevant county record office or possibly in the local study centre nearest your house.

Step 4 – Valuation Office Survey

One of the best resources available to trace the history of your house is the 1910 Valuation Office Survey. This was an assessment of the rateable value of all land and property in England, Wales and Scotland conducted by the Inland Revenue, and generated a series of documents that you can use to trace the owner and occupier of your house c.1912, when the survey was actually carried out.

The records are now stored at The National Archives, Kew and combine maps – with each property marked on it, with its own unique ‘assessment number’ – and hand-written ‘field books’, in which you can look up your house under its assessment number and find out details about who owned it, who lived there, what it looked liked and how much it was worth, plus the dates of former sales. If your house was newly built, the map may still have pencilled street boundaries on it, or the Field Book might contain a construction date.

Don’t forget, you can always see what used to stand on your land by checking out the tithe apportionment records in Step 1.