If you want a reasonably definitive source it is probably tithe awards, as
the creation of new parishes in the 19th century sometimes caused boundary
changes. Civil Parishes were generally those existing in 1890. their
boundaries therefore reflect the current ecclesiastical boundaries.
However I suspect the issue may be more complicated in certain areas in the
north of England where the basic unit of poor law administration was the
township, not the parish. Here in Worcestershire, I know of several cases
where the poor law was administered according to manorial boundaries, these
being described as townships or parishes as appropriate.
I do not think either William I or Henry VIII should be blamed. It is more
that in the period after the conquest, many manorial lords founded a chapel
for their tenants, thus constituting a parish with the same boundaries as a
manor. The rest of the old parish remained under the care of the original
church. Where this lay between part of the old parish and the church, the
result was to leave a detachment.
Nevertheless I think there may have been an opposite process which might be
described as accretion. A monastery was given a manor and added it to its
own parish.
The process regarding the inclosure of a common where there was
intercommoning is quite different. The normal rile under inclosure acts was
that the land allotted in lieu of common was held under the same title as
the land in respect of which it was allotted ('the dominant tenement').
This therefore meant that the allotment was subject to poor rates in (and
hence in) the parish of the dominant tenement. However there are probably
exceptions as some Acts made specific provisions concerning this
Peter King
-----Original Message-----
From: From: Local-History list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Woollard, Matthew G
Sent: 27 June 2003 13:02
To: Peter Wickham King
Subject: Re: Parish boundaries, c. 1900
Dr Graham Jones is quite correct, the History Data Service at the University
of Essex do publish these maps on CD-ROM. This is shameless advertising, of
course, but if you are interested please visit:
http://hds.essex.ac.uk/hpew/hpew.asp. A link to an order form is available
on that page.
Matthew Woollard
Head, History Data Service
UK Data Archive
University of Essex
Colchester CO4 3SQ
email: [log in to unmask]
phone: +44 1206 873704
fax: +44 1206 873003
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jones, Dr G.R. [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 27 June 2003 12:15
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Parish boundaries, c. 1900
>
>
> There are also the detached portions which arose from the
> gift of tithe.
>
> However, much easier to demonstrate is a community's need for
> balanced land uses, leading to detached portions which might
> provide, for example, woodland, or meadow (and in some areas
> seashore). These detached portions might come about through
> aggregation (most typically the consolidation and sharing out
> of previously intercommoned grazing) or fragmentation (when a
> larger unit was split up, perhaps through the acquisition of
> parochial rights by a previously dependent chapelry, and
> again a process of sharing out ensued).
>
> There is now an electronic Atlas of Historic Parishes of
> England and Wales, with pre-1850 boundaries of townships as
> well as the parishes themselves, available on CD from the
> History Data Service at the University of Essex.
>
> Best wishes
>
> Graham Jones
>
> ****************************************
> Dr Graham Jones
> Lecturer in English Topography
> University of Leicester
> Centre for English Local History
> Marc Fitch Historical Institute
> 5 Salisbury Road
> Leicester LE1 7QR
> United Kingdom
>
> Tel: +44 (0)116 252 2764
> Fax: +44 (0)116 252 5769
>
> e-Mail: [log in to unmask]
> Web pages: http://www.le.ac.uk/elh/grj1
>
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