West Lavington Poor Rate Survey

Now why do we have this elderly looking book- it dates from 1840 – about West Lavington? The answer is simple. Back at the time this book was produced the parish of West Lavington contained areas later transferred into Market Lavington. The main area was the one called Fiddington.

This book contains information about who owned what and who lived where in Fiddington.

Here’s a sample.

A sample list of plots and properties

This section is all lumped together because it all belonged to one person and was occupied by one person. We can see the size of each plot and the total and the estimated rental value and rateable value are given. Across the double spread page we get the people concerned.

This tells us that this area was owned by William Davis and occupied by John Hayward at that time.

But just where is it all? Along with the book there is a map of the tithing of Fiddington and each plot is numbered. Our map has been annotated by an earlier owner so has the names of each plot pencilled on. So here we see a section of the map which is a long thin map to reflect the shape of Fiddington.

A small section of the associated tithe map

We can easily pick out plot 760 Dr Batter’s Hill which is the first plot named in the above extract. The whole map makes locations clear.

So a handy document which names each field. Potential visitors interested in more of West Lavington should note that we do not have the map but we have the values and occupiers of the properties.

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Tags: 1840, Fiddington, poor rate, tithe map