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| Bradford | Spencer-Stanhope family of Horsforth, Calverley and Eccleshill; Wilson of Eshton Hall; Tempest of Tong; Ferrand of Bingley; Francis Sharp Powell of Horton Hall |
| Calderdale | Lister family of Shibden Hall, including the journals of Anne Lister; Stansfeld of Sowerby; Armytage of Kirklees Hall, Brighouse; Sunderland of Hipperholme |
| Kirklees | Ramsden family of Byram and Longley; Beaumont of Whitley; Thornhill of Fixby |
| Leeds | records of Fountains Abbey, Studley Royal, Ripley Castle, Nostell Priory; Temple Newsam, Newby Hall and Harewood House |
| Wakefield | Smyth family of Heath, Pilkington of Chevet |
Please contact us for further information about family and estate archives for your local area.
Enclosure Awards and Maps
Enclosure awards and maps relate to the enclosing of common land. Acts of Parliament were passed for each township which wished to enclose its common land. They date mainly to the later 18th and early 19th century. Officials then drew up an enclosure award showing the enclosed lands and listing which local people received them. Most awards have maps to accompany them. Enclosure maps vary in the amount of information they provide; some show the whole of the township, others only show the lands actually being enclosed.
Tithe Awards and Maps
Tithes were payments made to the local clergyman. Originally these payments were ‘in kind’ but from the 17th century onwards they were converted into money payments. Tithe awards (also known as tithe apportionments) date from the 1830s and 1840s. They were drawn up after the Tithe Commutation Act of 1836 made this conversion to money payments a much easier process. Tithe maps show the land in each parish or township divided into numbered plots. The accompanying awards give details of the owner, occupier, field name, state of cultivation, acreage and tithe value of each plot.
Ordnance Survey Maps
In June 1791, the Government ordered its defence ministry – the Board of Ordnance – to begin a survey of England's exposed southern coasts. In 1801 The first one-inch map was published and by the early 1820s a third of England and Wales had been mapped.
From 1840 the areas of England and Scotland that were not covered by the one-inch maps were surveyed at a scale of six inches to one mile, because it had been found that the one-inch map was unsuitable for calculating tithes and building new railways.
In 1841 the offices of the Ordnance Survey were burnt down, but most of the records survived. After the fire new offices were acquired in Southampton. By 1863 a scale of six inches to the mile had been approved for mountain and moor land and a scale of twenty-five inches to the mile had been approved for rural areas. For built up areas some plans were on a scale of as much as ten feet to the mile.By 1895 the twenty-five inch survey was complete.
In the 1930s the 1:25,000 scale was launched and in the early 1970s the one inch scale was finally faded out in favour of the 1:50,000 scale.
During the 18th and 19th centuries turnpike trusts were set up to build and maintain main roads. Tolls were charged for the use of the roads. Turnpike trust records include minute books, maps, details of toll charges, and sometimes tollhouse keepers’ daybooks. Most turnpike records for West Yorkshire are held at our Wakefield office.
Our Wakefield office also holds a set of plans showing the properties acquired for the building of roads, canals and railways within the West Riding of Yorkshire, as well as the archives of the British Waterways regional office which are currently being catalogued as part of the British Waterways Virtual Archive Project. Further canal and railway archives for West Yorkshire are held at the National Archives (Public Record Office) in London.
Poll Tax Returns
The Poll Tax was first levied in 1377. It was paid by all the population, except beggars and children under 14, at a rate of fourpence a head. It was levied again in 1379 and 1381, but proved very unpopular and was not reimposed after the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381. The next general poll tax was levied in 1513, and it was imposed again six times between 1641 and 1698. The medieval returns in particular are a useful source of information about village populations at an early date. The records of the tax are held at the National Archives (Public Record Office) in London.
Hearth Tax Returns
Hearth tax was levied from 1662 until 1689. The parish constable compiled lists of householders and the number of hearths in each house. The tax was levied on all houses worth £1 a year or more, and was paid by the occupier not the landlord. There were many exceptions, including people receiving poor relief (the equivalent of being on benefits), those not paying parish rates, charities, and industrial premises (except smiths’ forges and bakers’ ovens).
The original returns are at the
http://www.pro.gov.uk/catalogues/leaflets.htm
However, many of the returns have been printed and are available in local libraries and West Yorkshire Archive Service offices. There are two versions of the 1672 West Riding return – the version at the National Archives (Public Record Office) appears to have been copied from a volume held at our Wakefield office and available on microfiche in Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees and Leeds.
Window Tax
Window tax replaced heath tax in 1696. Each household paid a basic two shillings, and houses with between ten and twenty windows paid a further eight shillings. These figures were revised in 1747, and in 1825 houses with fewer than eight windows were exempted. However, householders cut their payments by blocking up non-essential windows. The tax was finally abolished in 1851. The records of this tax are held at the National Archives (Public Record Office).
Land Tax
An Act of 1780 meant that records of the land tax had to be kept in each county, so that they could be used to check whether people were entitled to vote in general elections or not. The records list the owner and occupier of the property, and its taxation value. The records stopped being used for electoral purposes in 1832, when electoral registers were introduced. The land tax returns for the West Riding are held at our Wakefield office.
Further information on the land tax is available in the published Search Guide to the English Land Tax, which is based on the West Riding returns.
The census is a key source for the local historian. The first census was taken in 1801 and every ten years thereafter (except 1941). But the names and personal details of individuals were not preserved until 1841. The 1841 census is not as reliable as the later ones. The census lists names, ages, occupations and addresses, and from 1851, place of birth and the relationship of each person to the head of the household. You cannot look at the census returns until they are 100 years old. Have a look at
Where can I get a copy of a census return and what will it tell me?