THE CUSTODY OF THE TITHE MAP [To the Editor of
the SPECTATOR.] Sm,—It appears desirable to draw the attention of all who are concerned for the proper custody of historical documents to the danger that is now threatening the Tithe Award with its map. By statute one of the two official copies of the award is required to be kept in the, parish by the incumbent and churchwardens. In practice this provision has not always been observed in the past, but, as a rule, the award
has never wandered very far away from the parish. - During the present year, however, a great change has taken place in the collection and administration of the tithe rent- charge which may tend to deprive parishioners of reasonable access to their map unless the position be carefully watched. All tithe is now vested in and collected by the Governors of Queen Anne's Bounty. A few incumbents act as their own collectors, but the majority allow the Governors to collect it, and for this purpose a new and centralized system of collection has been established, resulting in the tithe being paid to a collector whose offices are very rarely inside the parish concerned.
My information is that in many cases the collectors hold the award at their office, this being an entirely illegal place of custody. In this county (Staffordshire), at any rate, one of the principal collectors requires tithe to be paid to him at an office in a neighbouring county, and here the tithe award of the parish from which I write (Cheadle) lay until the Parish Council interested themselves in the matter, and obtained the return of the document to its proper depository. It would be no bad thing for other Parish Councils to look into this question, and claim the custody themselves if the incumbent is careless in the matter. But there are a large munlber of parishes which are too small to possess an effective council with a suit- able office, and in these cases whether action is taken will depend upon the interest and vigilance of individuals.
It should not be necessary to labour the point that the Tithe Award is not a private rental, but a public document of increasing historical value for the local historian, apart alto- gether from the use made of it by those who sell or buy land, and apart from its value to local authorities as evidence on questions of public roads or footpaths.
The plea has been and will no doubt be urged : it is a great convenience for the collectors to hold these maps in their offices. The answer is easy and sufficient. The collectors are entitled, under the provisions of the Tithe Act, 1925, to obtain from the Diocesan Registry the transfer of the second official copy. This and not the parish copy is the document which collectors are empowered to have in their
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