Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
The obelisk, the pheasantry and the black-
smith
BOCONNOC, CORNWALL, 1838
When Queen Victoria came to the throne in 1837 a revolution was in progress. For ten centur-
ies clergymen had been supported by the biblical tenth of farm produce, but in 1836 a mod-
ernising government passed an Act to change payment in pigs, eggs or corn to more conveni-
ent money charges. The result was this map, and nearly 12,000 other tithe maps of parishes in
England and Wales. Mostly manuscript, they are often the earliest large-scale maps of these
places, made before printed Ordnance Survey maps came into widespread use. Indeed, the
Tithe Survey might have become the first national mapping to a consistent scale and stand-
ard, and a set of conventional signs was drawn up to this end. However, the cost deterred the
government from commissioning such a survey and the burden of providing tithe maps fell
upon landowners. This meant that the resulting maps vary widely in style, scale, size, accur-
acy and amount of detail.
