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Sheila Fewings (for class attended at PRO in 2000) |
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Crib Sheet - Field Books - Valuation 1910 -1914
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Basic Steps (Try a house/farm first in a village that you know!)1. Get yourself orientated before starting by seeing where village lies in relation to others & nearest large towns in the county of interest – in a modern atlas. (It might help later!) 2. Map Room PRO – need a “pager” obtained from ‘inner sanctum’ in map room – for ordering maps (& field books eventually). 3. Look for location (approx) of your village in large retangular blue “Tithe” books (on/in cabinet … on left as you enter room - 2vols – counties alphabetically arranged) 4. Note BIG no. of block of squares where your village is approx. 5. Count minor squares in that block – starting top corner left & across to right, till you reach small square with the village in. 6. Convert BIG no. to Roman Numbers. End up with e.g. LXIII/15 (Biddenden- Kent) 7. Look at ‘books’ on shelves (further to the left from the entrance door). Find Class Lists IR121 & IR124-135 (yellow or pink!) 8. Ferret around to find one you want! (London IR121 – then e.g. “Wales” IR131, “South East Region” covering Brighton to Canterbury for example IR124) 9. Now find your Roman number! Do not assume that village you want will be in the district area that you suppose - Biddenden e.g. is very near Maidstone & far from Canterbury i.e. IR121/2 or IR124/3 Maidstone – it was not in – it was in IR124/5 East Kent or Canterbury!) N.B. the Roman numerals do not necessarily go in order – they jump about – keep searching! If your village is near a county border you might need to look in the adjacent county for your Roman Number! 10. When you have found Roman No. – go to left hand column for map sheet reference. Hooray, you can now order via computer terminal - far side of the room, e.g. IR128/8 267 (part of Devonport!) 11. *Map is brought to table for you. Find ‘area’ of property of interest & note which “hundred” of red (hereditament) numbers it comes in. You do not want the exact number. 12. *Retreat back to same shelves for class IR58 (pink or yellow!). Find IR 58 that at least covers your “county”, e.g. Devonport was in ‘Devon’ & under Devonport - I found that red nos. 6042-6074 (the road I was interested in) equated to IR58/66200 Field Book – ordered! Good Luck! Notes. Large Towns – need to ‘help’ yourself by using the large books (blue) of maps under the shelves. E.g. Devonport was in DEVON 5. Find the road – magnifying glass useful. Decide whether you need NW, NE, SW or SE part of square! You can order 3 at a time so don’t worry too much – go for it! Other Indexes – helpful - on shelves near IR58. Mystery – the maps seem to arrive by magic – so keep looking to see what is out on the tables! *If you access the hereditament nos. ex Valuation Book – you can go straight to steps 11 & 12! |
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