Study title

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The aim of this study was to produce a computer atlas of agriculture in England and Wales circa 1840. The tithe surveys were made following the Tithe Commutation Act of 1836 which ended tithe payments to the Church. It was the largest survey of land use, ownership and occupation since the Domesday survey of 1086 and was not equalled again until 1910. It provides information on land use, the condition of rural and urbanising England in the mid-nineteenth century, rural landscape, settlement patterns, roads and enclosure.
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Data was obtained from parish-township documents compiled under the terms of the Tithe Commutation Act, 1836. In particular, reports on tithe agreements in 6,740 tithe files (PRO Class IR 18) contain data on land use, the acreage and yields of crops and the stocking of grassland at parish/township level. All these numerical data were transcribed and are included in this dataset. In addition, the reports on tithe agreements contain general descriptions of local soils and farming practices written by assistant tithe commisssioners and local agents in the course of commutation proceedings. Furthermore, the bulk of the remaining 7,989 tithe files contain minutes of local commutation meetings with evidence on farming, tithe history, condition of the clergy, enclosures, boundaries, etc. All the 14829 tithe files were subject-indexed by applying numerical codes to some 250 subject headings. These provide both an index to the general contents of papers in each title file, and also presence/absence data on a number of phenomena/activities.