Introduction
to the Survey - In about 1950,
when I had the run of the fine collection of documents kept in the
Vestry at Chelsfield parish church, I found and transcribed a
leather-bound volume containing a survey of the parish of Chelsfield
and Farnborough, taken in 1798. Later on this was among a few items
which were deposited at Bromley Local Studies Library, reference
P86/3/1, unfortunately dated to 1817 rather than 1798. This
confusion has arisen because the volume later belonged to Thomas
Waring, and bears on the fly-leaf his signature and the date 1817.
Spurred on by the efforts made by efforts to publish transcripts of such material on
the internet, for greater availability, I recently checked through my own work, and have now
put on computer the part referring to Chelsfield – I hope to add
the Farnborough section in due course. I have corrected a few
obvious errors, and have added in square brackets some farm names
not included in the original, but otherwise this is a literal
transcript.
The survey is similar to the Tithe surveys of 40 years
later, although less detailed; the accompanying map is described
only as an "eye sketch" and the parish is shown divided
into 15 sections, to which reference is made in the terrier. The
introductory page reads –
CHELSFIELD – The Number of Acres in the following
Terrier, is generally ascertained by Computation. In a few
Instances, however, it will appear that the Contents are stated, in
Acres, Roods, and Perches, which were, in such Cases, where the
Owner, produced a Map of the Estate – Each Piece was nevertheless
viewed, previous to its Quantity being set down.
I have included photographs of the map and of
specimen pages from the survey, and a tracing of the map for ease of
reference.
Geoffrey Copus October 2005
17 Oakdale Road, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN4 8DS
The Schedule
(155KB) With names of
landowners, occupiers, fieldnames and field uses with acreages
The
Maps
To view individual pictures click on the thumbnail picture.
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| 1798
Survey of Chelsfield |
Tracing
of 1798 Survey of Chelsfield |
Page
of 1798 Survey of Chelsfield |