For many centuries, people in England and Wales were subject to the payment of tithes – a system by which you gave 10% of your income or produce (such as livestock or crops – known as payment in kind) to the church.

In 1836, Parliament introduced the Tithe Commutation Act, with the aim of replacing all remaining tithes paid in kind into their monetary equivalent. But in order to do this, they needed to know who owed what. So, over the next twenty years, they undertook a vast land survey of the majority of England and Wales to record who owned and occupied each plot of land and what they paid, producing an extremely detailed set of maps and accompanying ‘apportionment’ books which are invaluable for house history research.

For houses built after the 1840s, the tithe survey records can tell you what existed before your house and who owned and occupied it. In 1844, plot 252 in Brockley, upon which now sits a Victorian villa, 17 Crescent Way, was then a thriving market garden (seen above occupied by Edward Hawk), one of several in the area that served the City.

For houses built before the tithe survey, tithe records can be very useful as a way of tracing ownership back beyond the census. The ownership information found in Tithe records for Little Gillies in Cornwall (shown here on the tithe map) gave me the clue I needed to trace ownership of the cottage back into the 1700s through a succession of wills.

The original tithe records can be found at The National Archives. In many cases, two copies were also made, many of which have found their way to county archives.