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Stamford Local History Society
Rate Book 1836
Alan Rogers 2017
STAMFORD IN 1836: A TRANSCRIPT OF THE RATE ASSESSMENT OF THE TOWN.
INTRODUCTION: THE TOWN OF STAMFORD IN 1836: BOROUGH RATE BOOK
In the Town Hall archives at Stamford is a survey of the whole borough (including St Martin’s parish) of 1836. It consists of six separate books giving the rateable value of every property in the six parishes of the town. The books are standard with printed columns with name of occupier, name of owner, nature of the property (house, garden, shop etc), its location in the town (usually by street but not street number), and rateable value.
The survey was conducted by two eminent land agents in the town, Bryan Browning (architect, responsible for Barn Hill House, Bourne Town Hall and Folkingham Castle [1] ) and William Hack [2]; but there were also others involved, for several of the books have a note to say that these pages were ‘examined by EWC’.
The books are well preserved and written on the whole clearly although the scribe, who seems to have copied from original schedules, had some peculiarities of handwriting which on occasion makes it difficult to determine a name exactly - especially capital letters. Many first names are abbreviated and are not always clear; and ‘Mr’, ‘Mrs’ and ‘Ms’ are not always distinguishable. It would seem that occasionally the surveyors guessed at the spelling of a name or used a variant spelling different from (for example) the contemporary Pigot’s Directory (1835). Mallory Lane is often (but not always) given as ‘Mannerly Lane’.
The books have had pencil additions from time to time and some entries have the writing ‘qu’ against them [query]; some blanks have been filled in in pencil, names of occupants and especially owners have been changed, and valuations changed (almost always downwards); these are in italics in this transcript as far as they can be read. It is not known when these changes were made. Not all these pencil additions are legible. The assessors or the copyist have made one or two errors in transcription - these are noted in the footnotes.
[1] Royal Commission of Historical Monuments, Stamford 1976 p lxxxiv for brief biography; it seems Browning had not yet moved into Stamford’; he is not in Pigot’s Directory of 1835.
[2] Searches have not yet revealed anything about Hack.
While most of the books have page numbers, some do not. We have added page numbers to our transcript where they do not exist in the original for ease of reference. On occasion, the writers have made an error in the page numbering - these are indicated in the footnotes.
The enormous value of this record - a house-by-house survey of the whole town with occupant, owner and usage in 1836 - cannot be overestimated. Not all the owners of course were resident; and it is possible that some of those listed as occupiers (i.e. the actual ratepayers) may perhaps be tenants who have sub-let the property, but on the whole it would seem that they were in fact real occupants. And the nature and location of each property is also of great value. This was just before the major expansion of the town in the later nineteenth century, but new building can be seen at the bottom of Empingham Road near Rock Terrace (Stamford New Town). This survey can be compared with the very detailed Knipe’s map of 1833. In addition, the location of some of the properties in the streets may be identified by comparing this survey (especially the large number of properties listed as belonging to Browne’s Hospital) with the full and very detailed survey of all the Hospital’s properties in 1845 [also available as a .pdf from the Stamford and District Local History Society]; in this 1845 survey, each of Browne’s Hospital properties is located with a map giving the owners of adjacent properties.
This transcript was typed by Peter Tomalin of Lyddington from a photocopy of the rate books held by the Stamford Survey Group (now the Stamford and District Local History Society); but some additional material was provided by John Hopson, Hon. Archivist to the Borough Council. It has been checked by Alan Rogers and John Hartley. We are immensely grateful to these people and to the Borough Council for helping with making this available. The importance of the borough archives and their accessibility for promoting the history of the town cannot be over-estimated. In this format, these records can now be searched easily for personal names or inns or other features of Stamford’ s early nineteenth century history.
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Parish of All Saints 1
Parish of St George 29
Parish of St John 49
Parish of St Martin 65
Parish of St Mary 78
Parish of St Michael 83