A Surrey-wide database of tithe records is available to use in the search room at Surrey History Centre.
The database covers 109 tithe districts and contains records of around 83,000 land parcels, 15,000 people and 700 named blocks of land such as farms. It is very flexible and allows users to search all the records for the county quickly and simply and print just what they need.
For example a user could:
- List all the tithe districts that mention a particular person, showing whether they were landowners or occupiers or both. For example, the Earl of Onslow was a landowner in 12 districts.
- Find out what land a particular person owned or occupied. For example, William Baker owned 12 parcels of land in Abinger totalling nearly 24 acres.
- Summarise the acreage of land owned by an individual, broken down by tithe district. For example, various members of the Onslow family owned around 7,900 acres across the county, the largest holdings being in Guildford, Pyrford, and Send & Ripley.
- Analyse how land was used – arable, meadow, pasture etc. For example, 20 percent of Abinger was woodland compared to only 10 percent in nearby Ewhurst.
- Search for farms and find their owners, occupiers and acreage.
- Look for land with industrial associations, such as brick fields or clay pits.
- Find out how much 'rent charge' was being paid to different tithe owners or paid by different landowners. For example, in around 1845 Felix Ladbroke was entitled to receive tithes of over £890 from landowners in Lingfield.
For ease of analysis, all search results can be sorted according to the user's preferences before printing.
A list of the tithe districts included in the database can be found on Surrey tithe records CDs and DVDs.
The tithe records for the individual tithe districts are also available in the search room, and include high resolution coloured digital images of the tithe maps and detailed transcriptions of the apportionment schedules (lists of land parcels). You can order Surrey tithe records CDs and DVDs for individual tithe districts from Surrey History Centre or from the Surrey Heritage online shop.
The database is provided courtesy of Surrey Archaeological Society member David Young and Surrey History Centre.
