The original tithe plans and apportionment records for England and Wales were retained by the National Tithe Commissioners, while copies were made for the registrar of the appropriate diocese, and one copy for the incumbent and church wardens of the parish.
Today all the commissioners’ originals are held at The National Archives (TNA) in Kew. The diocese copies for upper Swaledale (townships of Grinton, Reeth, Melbecks, and Muker) and Arkengarthdale are held at the West Yorkshire Archive Service (WYAS) in Leeds, and the parish copies at the North Yorkshire County Record Office (NYCRO) in Northallerton.
The transcriptions of the upper Swaledale and Arkengarthdale tithes that appear on these web pages were completed over 15 months during 2015-16 by a small group of volunteers within the local-history sub-group of the Swaledale and Arkengarthdale Archaeology Group (SWAAG). For convenience, we used as our principal source the parish copies of the plans and apportionment records held at NYCRO. For this we must acknowledge our grateful thanks to the staff at NYCRO who assisted us in obtaining digital and paper copies from which we could work at home, and at leisure.
Transcribing some of the apportionment records presented a particular challenge because at one or more times in their history they had been updated. We were of course keen to produce a transcription that accurately reflected the surveys when they were originally made. Fortunately, none of the plot numbers that linked the plans to the apportionment records had been altered but several names of owners and occupiers, had been crossed out and replaced.
The handwriting of the updater was identifiably different from the originator, so the changes were easy to spot. However, in some cases the names crossed out had been rendered undecipherable. Fortunately, one of the online commercial genealogy web sites – The Genealogist – had the unadulterated commissioners’ copies from The National Archives, and since one member of the group had a subscription to the web site, he was able to compare and check our work.
Among other challenges, some of the less-common surnames and the more obscure field names were sometimes difficult to read. Also, the clerk who wrote the original record sometimes spelled the same personal name differently in different parts of the document. Wherever possible local knowledge and/or common sense were applied to resolve such difficulties with confidence. Otherwise, where such confidence was lacking, we have transcribed names as best we could, however strange or inconsistent they may have appeared.
We checked and cross-checked our work rigorously, however no guarantees of accuracy can be given, and researchers in any doubt are advised to check the original documents, all of which are accessible as explained above. The transcribers were Judith Mills, Will Swales, Andrea Dixon, Jane Harrison, Geraldine Coates, Mike Keenan, Gavin and Joan Graveson, and Delyth Rennie. If anyone becomes aware of any error in the transcription, please email will.swales@ntlworld.com so it can be rechecked and corrected.
Images of all the very large tithe plans for the townships, held at NYCRO, have been uploaded to this web site. Please be aware that some of the plans are damaged so that certain small areas are lost. Better plans are available at WYAS and TNA, or through the subscription service at www.thegenealogist.co.uk.
by Will Swales, updated 1 November 2024.
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Header photograph shows a view across the River Swale to Reeth village, with medieval lynchets to the left and Fremington Edge forming the far horizon.
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