Uncovering The Story Of A House
Gill explains how she used maps to research a house in Wells-next-the-Sea, Norfolk
I began with the map created for the Inland Revenue Valuation Office Survey (1910– 1915), which I found in The National Archives at Kew (TNA). Although the field book does not survive, I was able to identify the owner and occupier by checking the plot number against the survey register held at Norfolk
Record Office (NRO).
The house can be seen on earlier Ordnance
Survey (OS) maps, and a railway plan of 1853, although the landowner was not named because the property fell outside the affected area.
I used the tithe and enclosure maps and award of 1813 to find out who owned it and narrow down when the house was built. Copies of these are at NRO and TNA.
The tithe map was published in 1838 and the accompanying apportionment listing owners and occupiers in 1844. The map shows the house and outbuildings on plot 329, and the owner Henry Tyrrell occupied it. He also owned and occupied two adjoining plots, 249 and 250. Two structures are shown on plot 259, with brace or ‘field tie’ symbols (shaped like a long S), meaning they belonged together. Unfortunately the apportionment does not mention the house or buildings, just the land, because that was what was being assessed. However, it does give the plot sizes in acres, rods and perches.
The enclosure map of 1813 for Wells-nextthe-Sea narrowed down when the house was built. Its site was not on common land, but it was next to an enclosed plot numbered 644. Although enclosure maps did not have to show properties, this one included all of the houses in the parish. There was no house on this plot in 1813, but the house was clearly in existence when the tithe map was created, so it must have been constructed between 1813 and 1838.
The description on the enclosure award revealed that a lane ran alongside this site, which formed the basis of the main road shown on later OS maps.