Updated 12 Oct 2004

WIRKSWORTH Parish Records 1600-1900

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Locating property


Here's a useful email from Mike Spencer. Thanks Mike

From: michael spencer
Subject: [DBY] Locating property from Census and before
Date: Mon, 11 Oct 2004 09:01:43 +0100
To: DERBYSGEN-L@rootsweb.com
Reply-To: mike@decc9.fsnet.co.uk

Hi Sharon and list,
The best way of locating where your family lived during the 1841-1851 Census periods is to look at the Tithe map for the area you are searching in.

The Tithe maps are held at DRO, and most places in Derbyshire are covered. A numbered map detailing properties and houses can be checked against the Tithe schedule which will list owner,occupier,type of property and acreage.

For earlier times the Enclosure map will show fields that have been enclosed at the time of the Enclosure for the village .It does not detail houses, though these may show up and the Award to the Enclosure may make reference to "the house of John Smith" adjoining a recently enclosed piece of land. Some areas are pre-Enclosure and will not give any clues other than a blanket "Mr Cuppleditchs or Agar Hoggs" land.

Other ways to locate houses or property on maps is to see if any Estate plans survive for the area. For this if you can find the major landowner, sometimes noted in Directories, then see if any Estate papers have been deposited. These can also show rentals paid, and if the series is long enough, when the person left and who came in after them.

One other piece of useful information, though not giving a plan at all are Manor Court Rolls, if they survive for your area. In Derbyshire there is not really a good collection, Matlock, Bonsall, Wirksworth and Duffield being just a few that do survive. They will record when someone dies and who moves in, usually a son, they are not all indexed and it can be a hard slog.

Finally two other records, Sale Catalogues and Title Deeds. Sale Catalogues covering many places in Derbyshire survive, detailing what property is for sale, they are not indexed as such ,but there are some major collections in DRO. They cover mainly 19th C and most will have a plan of the property for sale. It may record who the tenant is, and hopefully he will still be one ,when the owner has sold it on.

Title deeds are to be found in many collections, to numerous to mention, again it is impossible to list, you will simply have to wade through the catalogues to find out if your property you are looking for is mentioned. Please do not ask DRO to check on the availability of Title Deeds for your property.It will not be possible.That will also apply to Sale Catalogues.

mike
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Further to my earlier email regarding property, I checked some 240 Sale Catalogues from between 1847-1877 and of those only 17 gave the name of the property in the lists. Mainly Public Houses and farms in the Wirksworth Brasssington areas. That does not mean to say you can not find details about your property, it depends on how lucky you are, some catalogues are for furniture from certain houses, others concern house and pig styes, cottages, all manner of property.

So if you are in DRO look at the Sale Catalogue calendars,you may just find what you are looking for.

A few that are mentioned, Brightgate at Bonsall 1869

Bulls Head Crich 1855

Hole house Farm ,Wirksworth,Ashleyhay way. 1855

Foxlow House, Dowlow,Hartington c1877

Clipshead Farm ,Brassington 1877

mike
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Morning Sharon and the rest of the list.

The 2nd Edition OS 25" maps,(1899-1902 or thereabouts) formed the basis for the Finance Act of 1910 I believe. These maps held at DRO, and called Land Valuers Maps and have plots of land numbered in large colours. Once you know the number of the plots of land shown by these coloured numbers(not the field numbers) and the parish it is in, you then need to look at the schedule detailing ownership occupier,property acreage etc. These are also at DRO and most survive for the County. These are known as "the Domesday Books", because it was a modern survey covering presumably all England. The Domesday books can only be used with Land Valuers maps,not the maps as shown on the CD, for although the maps are the same ,the references are not. Remember, they are for around 1910.

mike

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