Broseley Local History Society  
Incorporating the Wilkinson Society

Broseley Valuation 1802

In 1802Valentine Vickers valued the town of Broseley.  Although Vickers does not state the purpose, the ledger appears to be a valuation of the town in order that the Tithes can be calculated on what was now a  mixed urban and rural parish with a population of around 5,000. Thus it is the equivalent to the tithe valuation of 1838 however there is no associated map and it does not list individual fields.

The document lists the occupants and owners of each property so, with the exception of lodgers and sub letting, it lists the head of household for all the occupants of the town.  It also lists where the property was situated and gives a brief description.

Page 5 is missing but the sub totals on the bottom of page 4 and top of page 5 are identical hence no entries are missing.

Page 27 is missing so the names between Charles Guest and Thomas Glover are lost.  Strangely the binding of the book does not indicate that this page was torn out, rather that it was never transcribed, so there may be another copy of the book which includes this page.

Page 36 is torn out so the names of the Joneses from Francis to Thomas are missing.

The original ledger is in Shropshire Archives. Reference P44/V/1/1

Broseley Tithe Map and Apportionment 1838

In past centuries landowners had to pay a tithe to the Church of the Parish.  This consisted of one tenth of the produce of the land and stock allotted.   This resulted in landowners giving wheat, barley cows, pigs etc to the curate of the church.  In the early 1800's this system was changed so that instead of  paying in kind, the landowner now paid one tenth of the income from the land.   As part of this change, throughout the country, details maps and indexes were made in order to calculate the amount which should be paid for a piece of land. i.e. the income which could be expected from the land.

Broseley was surveyed  in 1838 (dated 27th April 1838) by B. Hill of Colemore Row of Birmingham  and a detailed index (apportionment) and map produced.  The map details each house, garden and plot of land and is drawn to a large scale.

The apportionment contains various headings:

Landowner:         This shows who owned the land.
Occupier             This is the person to whom the landowner let the land of property
Relet To:             Often the Occupier did not live in a house but re-let it so this shows the actual occupier.
Plot                     This refers to a plot number on the Tithe Map.
Area                    Area of the plot of land, in Acres.
Rent                     How much was paid to the Church in Pounds, shillings & pence.
Cultivation           What was grown on the land
Description          For a field this is the field name.  Houses, coal and iron pits etc are described.

View the Tithe Map Index (compiled by E.J. Cox).

View a scanned version of the Map  (Courtesy of the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust)

A copy of the map and index can also be seen in Broseley Library.  The original maps for Broseley, Benthall, Willey and other parishes in Shropshire can be seen at the Records Office at Castle Gates Shrewsbury. 

Valentine Vickers Ledgers

There are nine volumes of ledgers at Shropshire Archives (515/1-9) containing the valuations of property undertaken by Valentine Vickers.  Below are transcriptions of the items relating to the Broseley area.

Severn Valley Railway Schedule of Premises