How to look for records of... Land use, value and ownership: Valuation Office Survey 1910-1915

See section 5 for advice on how to find field books.

3.3 Valuation books

Valuation books (also known as ‘Domesday books’) were the first major record created by the Valuation Office at the start of the survey. They are distinct from the field books, which were the final record compiled after the survey was completed, and which usually contain more information. See section 6 for advice on how to find valuation books.

3.4 Survey forms

In the course of the survey a number of forms were used to collect information. Some of them were sent to land and property owners for completion. See section 7 for advice on how to find examples of surviving forms.

To find and see a plan you will need to identify its document reference using our online catalogue. The plans are not online and you will need to consult them at The National Archives.

You can refer to the National Library of Scotland’s Ordnance Survey map page to identify an Ordnance Survey sheet number and then search Discovery for the corresponding plan or plans (see 4.1). For maps of London, see 4.2.

If you are at The National Archives, you can use the county index maps held there in the Map and Large Document Reading Room (see 5.3).

5.2 London maps

Use the Genealogist website to either zoom in on the part of London you are interested in on the map explorer, or try a name search. See Online records for more detailed instructions.

Maps used for the London region (see the appendix at 11.2 below) are at the 1:1056 scale. To find these using the National Library of Scotland’s map page you should search at the 1:1056 scale in the ‘Choose a map series’ box.

Go to 5.4 to look up the sheet number in our online catalogue.

5.3 Using original county index maps

You can use unique annotated county index maps to identify individual sheet numbers at the 1:10,560 and 1:2,500 scales. These index maps are available at The National Archives building in Kew.

Go to 5.4 to look up the sheet number in our online catalogue.

5.4 Finding plans in Discovery, The National Archives online catalogue

Perform an advanced search in Discovery with Department code  IR in the reference box, using the Ordnance Survey sheet county or place name and Roman numerals (numerals in upper case) plus Arabic numerals, and the date 1910 in the date field.

For example this search.

The plans you need will say Valuation Office in the catalogue description (the search may also find Tithe Redemption Office maps).

You may need to look at more than one plan to find the one used for the property you are interested in, which should be annotated with handwritten numbers.

There may be maps for the area you are interested in at more than one scale. Most areas will be covered by the 25 inch scale county map (1:2,500) but for towns there may be maps at larger scales such as 1:1,250, while London maps are at 1:1056 scale. The Discovery search will find maps at all scales.

Guidance on understanding the map scales used for the survey can be found in the appendix at the foot of this guide.

Another explanation for the situation where the property you seek lacks a handwritten plot number is that a county or Valuation District boundary ran through the area. Two different local offices each annotated a copy of the map that fell within their area. If a map shows parts of two or more different income tax parishes, the boundaries between them are often shown as yellow lines. Look for the same sheet number in a different county or Valuation District.

It is also possible to browse the catalogue using the links in the appendix at the foot of this guide. The plans, however, are arranged by Valuation Office regions and districts, which do not always equate to counties, and districts may have more than 100 maps, so this search method can be time-consuming. Since 1910, regions, districts and other divisions of the Valuation Office have been reorganised on a number of occasions. Plans have been transferred from closed district valuation offices to new ones. You may, therefore, need to examine plans in more than one district before identifying the appropriate plot(s).

Once you have the plan in front of you, look for the assessment number (or ‘hereditament number’) of the individual property or parcel of land, handwritten, usually in red or black ink. Look at the margin of the plan to see if the income tax parish may be written there, and if so, make a note of this, too.

6. How to find field books

The key to finding a field book is to first find the respective plan for a place to ascertain the assessment number and income tax parish where possible (see section 4).

The field books are arranged alphabetically by valuation district and, within districts, by income tax parish.

Many income tax parishes were made up of a number of civil parishes, but were usually named after the place with the name nearest the beginning of the alphabet. If you cannot find the place you want in our catalogue, look for other local places, especially those beginning with a letter near the beginning of the alphabet.

There is no place or street index to the field books.

6.1 Using our catalogue to find a field book

Once you know the assessment number and income tax parish, follow these steps:

• Step 1: Use our catalogue to search IR 58 by the name of the income tax parish – this will usually produce multiple results for IR 58 documents
• Step 2: Use the drop-down menu on the search results page to sort the results by ‘Reference’ (the default display for search results is by ‘Relevance’)
• Step 3: Once sorted by reference, scan down through the results to find the assessment number range which covers the assessment number you are looking for
• Step 4: Click on the title of the field book to view the full catalogue description and the ordering and viewing options
• Step 5: Order the original field book (if you are on site, in our building) or a copy (if you are off site)

7. How to find valuation books

A number of valuation books for the City of London and City of Westminster are held at The National Archives. For other areas you will need to search in local archives for surviving valuation books.

Search for City of London and City of Westminster valuation books by browsing through record series IR 91.

8. How to find survey forms

Survey forms were not systematically retained by the Valuation Office but we hold some examples among the records of other government departments who themselves provided information for the survey about land they occupied. Copies of forms have, in some instances, also been retained by landowners for their own use and are sometimes found among estate records, solicitors’ papers and at local archives.

The forms include:

A set of blank forms is preserved as ‘Various Specimen Forms’ in IR 9/62-64.

9. Records on the work of the Valuation Office

Some records on the work of the Valuation Office include:

• a number of files about the Valuation Office itself, including some instructions to valuers in IR 40
• a set of papers about the land tax proposals and discussions prior to the 1909 budget in IR 73/6
• draft notes about the organisation of the Land Valuation Department drawn up in June 1910 in IR 74/146
• reports on the progress of the original valuation in IR 74/148
• a copy of the report of a Committee appointed to inquire into the organisation of the Valuation Office in 1920 in IR 75/114
• an account of the Office’s history and functions was compiled in 1920; a copy is in IR 74/218
• lists of addresses of district valuation offices showing the changing distribution of offices between 1913 and 1919 in IR 40/2878
• a number of Treasury files in T 1, T 170, T 171 and T 172 contain papers on the work of the Valuation Office. Papers explaining the mathematics of increment value duty calculations, and copies of the rules made by the Inland Revenue Commissioners are in T 1/11209 and T 170/4
• Inland Revenue memoranda in T 171/28 and T 39
• reports of the Inland Revenue Solicitor in IR 99/29B-42

Records which relate to specific cases:

• press cuttings about individual legal cases, c.1914, are in IR 83/54
• other memoranda about court cases are in T 171/39
• a few petitions, including special cases and awards, are in E 186
• papers relating to one celebrated test case, Lady Emily Frances Smyth v Commissioners of Inland Revenue, are in IR 40/2502
• papers on the case, Commissioners of Inland Revenue v Lumsden, are in T 172/100
• records of the Land Value Reference Committee set up under the Act to regulate procedure in appeals against assessment are in LT 5. They include registers of appeals and a few sample case files

10. The Finance (1909-1910) Act and its legacy

The Valuation Office Survey was initiated by the Finance (1909-1910) Act (10 Edw. VII, c.8 section 26(1)) which provided for the levy and collection of a duty on the increment value of all land in the United Kingdom.

The main object of the Act was to tax that part of the capital appreciation of real property which was attributable to the site itself, i.e. excluding that arising from crops, buildings and improvements paid for by the owners. In this way, private owners were required to surrender to the State part of the increase in the site value of their land which resulted from the expenditure of public money on communal developments such as roads or public services.

Increment value duty, as this levy was called, was based on the difference between the amount of two valuations. The site value as at 30 April 1909 constituted the ‘datum line’ for the purposes of increment value duty. A second site value was to be taken on the occasion of any subsequent sale or grant of a lease, or transfer or interest in a piece of land, or the subsequent death of a land owner, to determine any potential payment of increment value duty. The assessment of the site value on subsequent occasions was a recurring operation which formed part of the role of the Valuation Office until increment value duty was repealed by the 1920 Finance Act (10 and 11 Geo. V, c.18).

Although the 1910 land value tax was abolished following the 1920 Finance Act, the Valuation Office remained. Its modern-day successor is the Valuation Office Agency.

11. Further reading

Most of the following recommended publications are available in The National Archives Library.

A range of books can also be purchased from the National Archives’ shop.

Geraldine Beech and Rose Mitchell, Maps for Family and Local History (2004)

Brian Short, Land and Society in Edwardian Britain (2005)

Brian Short and Mick Reed, An Edwardian Land Survey: the Finance (1909-10) Act 1910 Records (Journal of the Society of Archivists, 8(1), pp. 82-3, and 8(2), 1986, pp. 95-103)

Brian Short and Mick Reed, Landownership and Society in Edwardian England and Wales: The Finance (1909-10) Act 1910 Records (University of Sussex, 1987)

Brian Short and Mick Reed and Bill Cauldwell, The County of Sussex in 1910: Sources for a New Analysis, (Sussex Archaeological Collections, vol. 125, 1987, pp. 199-224)