Tithes date back to Saxon times and were required to pay parish priests. They consisted of one tenth of certain items produced by the residents of a parish. Thus if a farmer had 100 lambs born, ten of them had to go to the priest and the same applied to bushels of wheat and so on. The priest was often a monk for the nearest monastry, which built huge tithe barns to store the goods.

 

As time went by it became easier for the priest to accept the value of the commodities and money changed hands. This began to applied throughout the land, but by the 19th century this system had become so unevenly applied that parliament passed the Tithe Commutation Act of 1836 which laid down that tithes should be based on the value of certain cereals and would be related to the size of the various areas of cultivation available to a particular resident.

 

This involved a survey of each parish in the country and the production of a huge map showing the various holdings accompanied by a details list of the owners, occupiers, field names, areas etc.   This was known as the Apportionment and is a fascinating picture of the state of the parish in 1842.

 

    The local copy of the map had deteriorated to such an extent that it was destroyed.  Our apportionment has recently come to hand but according to rules governing tithe documents is also to be deposited at the Exeter Record Office.

 

In order that local people can view copies of these documents in comfort, the Parish Project Group has produce an atlas which provides copies of the map in 20 pages, the apportionment, arranged in numerical order of properties, with indexes and introductory notes.  This will be of particular interest to people who are now landowners, even to a small extent (all the cottages then in the village are included for example).

 

The atlas, which includes a computerised copy on disk, can be borrowed from Peter Javes (telephone 559283) and may be held for a period of one month, after which it must be returned complete, for the next person on the waiting list. There will be no charge for this service, but small donations to the Group would always be welcome!

 

Now available online CLICK HERE