Welsh Journals

THE PARISH OF CAREW, (c.1838) H. A. Lane The Commutation of Tithes Act (1836), which necessitated the preparation of detailed parish maps, and information of land ownership, etc. is to-day responsible for giving the local history student a large scale cross section of any parish in the nineteenth century. Such was my introduction to what now appears to be a continuing historical study of the parish of Carew. For many years we have taken our holidays within the parish and, as one of my interests is the reproduction of old maps, this naturally led me to the acquisition of the Carew Tithe Map1. From that point in time I became more and more engrossed in local family histories; people's living, working and playing activities, and all the other information associated with the 19th century parish history. The Tithe Award for Carew consists of the detailed map of the parish (drawn to a scale of 6 chains to 1 inch), together with the Articles of Agreement between the landowners, the rector and the vicar, and the Schedule which gives the names of the landowners, the occupier, a description of the premises or land, the size of each holding in acres, roods and perches, and the annual tithe payable. Unfortun- ately, in this Award the land cultivation state was not recorded but this does not really detract from the overall picture that is obtained. An initial look at the Tithe Map gives one a rough insight into the agricultural and community scene at that time. The Carew map reflects the contrasts produced by past systems of land tenure. The larger, more compact farms, e.g. Summerton, Poyerston, Llandigwynett, are probably descendants from the farms that lay outside the open township fields, whilst the frequency of strip-shaped fields in the vicinity of Williamston, Carew Newton and Sageston indicate that these were the areas originally containing open fields, i.e. holdings of tenant farmers. The distribution at the time of the Tithe was indicative of the extent to which exchange and consolidation had taken place. The enclosed fields were small, many being strip-shaped, and perpetuated part of the ground-plan produced by the open field system. The population appears to have mainly been dispersed between Williamston, Carew Newton, Milton, Sageston, Carew Bridge and Carew Cheriton. From the Tithe Schedule the total land acreage, in excess of 5,000 acres, is recorded as being subdivided as follows: Arable Land 1,568 acres Pasture Land 3,253 Cottages, Homes, etc. 50 „ Woodland 22 Roads, Waste, etc. 173 Vicarial & Rectorial Glebe 35 „