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This article forms a brief guide to doing a search using the records of the Valuation Office survey (also known as the Finance Act 1910 records and the Lloyd George survey) now held at The National Archives.

Contents 1 Valuation Office research survival kit 2 Records held at The National Archives 3 Records held elsewhere 4 Usual research path 5 Troubleshooting

[edit] Valuation Office research survival kit

• Valuation Office Records research guide

• Beech & Mitchell. Maps for Family and Local History (The National Archives, 2004), chapter 3. (Further useful information is in chapters 5, 6 and 7).

[edit] Records held at The National Archives

Maps ('record plans'), which are Ordnance Survey sheets annotated with hereditament (plot) boundaries and numbers are in various record series under department IR. These cover England and Wales only.

Field books containing valuations of properties, including the names of the owner and occupier and a description, are in series IR 58. These cover England and Wales only.

A small number of valuation books (see below) for a few areas in central London are in series IR 91.

[edit] Records held elsewhere

Equivalent records for Scotland are at the National Archives of Scotland.

Equivalent records for Ireland are at the National Archives of Ireland.

Additional maps ('working plans') are held many local record offices. These usually show similar information to the record plans held at The National Archives.

Valuation books (or 'Domesday books') are held at most local record offices. These contain less information than the field books held at The National Archives.

[edit] Usual research path

This guidance assumes that you want to find the records for an individual property, but you can use a similar method to find the records for, say, a whole village.

Finding the map:

Maps in the London area are at the scale of 1:1056. Most maps outside London are at the scale of 1:2,500. The Ordnance Survey sheet references for these maps are in the form of a county name, a roman numeral and an arabic numeral (e.g. Shropshire XXX 16).

Use the Ordnance Survey county index maps to identify which sheet covers the area that you are looking for. (Copies of these index maps are in map chest A in the Map and Large Document Reading Room at The National Archives.)

• On the county index maps, each 4x4 block of 16 squares has a large number in the middle but the individual squares are not numbered. (For example, the third square from the left on the bottom row of block 2 on the Middlesex index map is sheet Middlesex II 15.)

• For London, there is a separate index map, each square is numbered individually. (For example, square 10.15 is sheet London X 15).

To find the document reference, look up the sheet reference on the catalogue. For extra accuracy searching, put 'AND' between the county name and the two numbers (e.g. Middlesex AND II 15) and restrict the search to department code IR. The document reference you need will be a letter and three numbers (e.g. IR 121/10/10).

Finding the field book:

Order the map and look at it to find the right property. The hereditament numbers are handwritten, often in red ink. Usually, they are easy to distinguish from any numbers printed on the map.

The field books are grouped by 'income-tax parish', which usually consist of one or more civil parishes. The name of the income-tax parish is often (but not always) the name of the civil parish. Sometimes the names of income-tax parishes are written in the margins of the map. A boundaries between two income-tax parishes is usually shown on the map as a yellow line.

To find the field book, search the Catalogue for the name of the income-tax parish (e.g. Enfield). Restrict your search to series IR 58. Scroll through your results to find the correct range of heraditament numbers. Each field book covers a hundred properties, so if, for example, the hereditament number is 273, it will be in the field book covering numbers 201-300.

Using the field book

Each entry consists of two double pages (four sides):

• The first page includes the names of the owner and occupier.

• The second page includes a description of the property.

• If the description is long, it sometimes continues onto the third page. Sometimes there is a plan of the property on the lower half of the third page.

• The value of the property for tax purposes is calculated on the fourth page, but information about its value also appears on the other pages.

Some entries include a cross-reference to the entry for another property, usually one described in the same field book. This is normally because the owner, description or valuation is the same for both properties.

[edit] Troubleshooting

The sheet reference on the Catalogue looks different from what I was expecting.

Sheet reference that include extra numbers, compass points (such as NE) or place names, are for maps are at more detailed scales. These are used in many urban areas. If you cannot work out what sheet you need using the index map, you may have to take educated guesses.

The catalogue lists several copies of the map with different document references.

This is usually because a boundary between two valuation districts ran through the area. In most cases, you need to look at both copies of the map to find out which one shows the number for the property that interests you.

I can't find the sheet reference on the Catalogue.

Double-check that the sheet reference is correct, including the Roman numerals.

Some of the maps have not survived:

• Very many records for the following areas were destroyed during air raids during the Second World War: Birkenhead, Chichester, Coventry, Liverpool, Portsmouth, Southampton, Winchester, the Wirral.

• Many records for Basildon, Chelmsford and nearby places in Essex were destroyed in a fire at the District Valuation Office.

If the place is close to a county boundary, it could be shown on the map for the neighbouring county. In particular, the distinction between the 'London' sheets and those for the surrounding counties does not correspond exactly to the boundaries of the County of London as it existed during the early 1900s.

For some areas with very low populations (such as moorland areas), the maps are at the scale of 1:10,560. These sheet references do not include an Arabic numeral.

You can also try using the paper series lists (in the dark green binders) instead of the online catalogue.

I have found a map sheet that shows my property, but the hereditatment numbers are not marked on that part of the map.

Check whether there is another copy of the map. If a valuation district boundary runs through the area covered by a particular map sheet, there will normally be two copies of the map, one marked to show the hereditament numbers falling within one valuation district and the other marked to show the hereditament numbers falling within the other valuation district.

Check whether we hold a map sheet at a more detailed scale covering that area.

If the place is near to the edge of London, check both the maps for London and the maps for the adjoining county.

I'm trying to find a field book but can't find the name of my town or village in the catalogue under IR 58.

There is no complete list of which places were covered by which income-tax parishes. If the income-tax parish name is not marked in the margin, and is not the same as the town, village or civil parish name, you may have to take educated guesses to work out what it is.

Where several adjacent villages are grouped together into one income-tax parish, the resulting income-tax parish is normally given whichever place name is nearest the beginning of the alphabet. (For example, Lyminge, in Kent, is part of the income-tax parish of Acrise.) Reference maps, such as those in Phillimore's Atlas and Index of Parish Registers can be useful for spotting likely place names to try.

It is often helpful to use the place-name index filed with the paper series list for IR 58 (in the dark green binder). For London, there is a street index, which is useful but not completely reliable.

The exact forms and spellings of place names can differ from one source to another, so the place name given in the catalogue might be slightly different from what you were expecting.

I'm trying to find a field book but there are several places in the catalogue with the same name.

Sometimes income-tax parishes in different parts of the country have the same name. The names of the valuation districts, which are noted in the Catalogue at subseries level, will help you distinguish between these places. (You can see the subseries name by clicking into the individual entry for a field book.

Sometimes is helpful to use the paper series list and place name index for IR 58.

The description in the field book says 'see file'.

For some larger properties, there was originally a separate file containing further details about the property or its valuation. In these cases, the field book entry would include a statement such as 'see file' or 'special valuation' (abbreviated as 'S.V.'). These additional files have not survived.