What are Tithe and Inclosure Maps?

The Eighteenth and Nineteenth centuries saw the formation of the English landscape as we see it today.  The main sources of information on these changes are maps documenting the details of Enclosure in the late 18th and early 19th century and the mid 19th century assessment of holdings during the survey of the Tithe Commissioners.  The Tithe Survey represented the first systematic mapping survey that covered most of England and Wales.  

Inclosure Maps

These maps and awards originated as a result of Parliamentary Acts of Inclosure, particularly those undertaken from the 18th century onwards.

The Acts set out procedures where, for example, medieval open fields were enclosed into newly laid out field parcels, they made provision for new roads which provided access to fields and documented who was responsible for boundaries.  In many cases Tithe payments were abandoned at this stage in favour of compensation to the Tithe-owner.

Where there is a Nineteenth century Inclosure map for a parish, there is not usually a Tithe map.  This is the case for much of the south-east of Worcestershire.  

The word inclosure:

From the Oxford English Dictionary:  
variant form of enclosure, being the statutory form in reference to inclosing of wastelands, common, etc..
Hollowell defines it as:
- the physical dividing up by hedges, fences or walls of the former open fields or wastes
- the legal process which authorised the division of the open fields and wastes and created farming in severalty
If researching inclosure/enclosure using the internet it is best to search using both versions of the word.  

References:
Oxford English Dictionary  http://dictionary.oed.com  
Hollowell, S.  2000  Enclosure Records for Historians  Philimore

Tithe Maps

These maps form part of the process undertaken by the Tithe Commutation Act of 1836. Most of the maps were completed in the 1840s.

The main task of this act, and the commissioners appointed as a result, was the replacement of Tithe payment in kind, with a system which calculated a monetary value for individual parcels or apportionments of land.  To achieve this the land of each parish had to be surveyed in order to establish the titheable value.  

Tithe Apportionments

The Tithe Apprtionment document gives information about the land owner, the tenant, the name or description of the land, the land use and the rent paid for every piece of land in the parish.

These documents are often stitched to the map and kept rolled up with the map, making them quite difficult to use.  

An Explanation of Tithes

Tithes were paid as one tenth part of all produce from a particular piece of land, they date back as far as the Eighth century and continued up until the Eighteenth and Nineteenth centuries.  The Tithe Commutation Act, passed in 1836 in order to stop disputes over payment of Tithes, substituted the payment in kind with a financial value based on a seven year average of the price of crops (wheat, barley and oats).

Tithe payments were made to the tithe-owner(s), which was often the Church, though lords of manors were also included.  After the Reformation land previously in the possession of the Church, and the tithes due on it,  was granted to lay owners, called Improprietors.

Local Agents, working for the Tithe Commissioners, surveyed the parish and produced three copies of each map, one for the diocesan registry, one for the parish and the Commisisoner's copy.  Not every parish has aTithe map.  Where the Tithes were commuted as part of an earlier Inclosure Act there is no Tithe map.  

Worcestershire Record Office holds surviving parish and diocesan copies, the Tithe Commissioners' copies are held at The National Archives in Kew.  

Further information about the Tithe Survey (and many other subjects) can be found on the National Archives web site in the research section where a Tithes Research Guide is available.