Wandsworth and Battersea, 1838–1841
The two tithe maps joined

The maps. Tithe maps were drawn after the Tithe Commutation Act of 1836, which replaced tithes paid in kind with a money rent charge. Each parish map came with an apportionment: a schedule, keyed to the plot numbers, of who owned and occupied every piece of land, what it was used for and how much it was charged. Both of these were made by the same surveyor, Charles Lee, three years apart; the plot numbers on each side of the join belong to that parish’s own apportionment.

How they were joined. Battersea’s map was enlarged and turned very slightly to match Wandsworth’s, using points both maps show on the parish boundary: the Thames bank, the two roads from Wandsworth into Battersea, the corner where the boundary leaves St John’s Hill, and the southern tip by the road to Tooting where the two parishes met Streatham. Along the join itself it has been eased by a few yards so that roads and boundaries meet; elsewhere each map is as Lee drew it. The join follows the Wandsworth map’s boundary line. The maps do not quite agree about the boundary by the distillery at the river, so the join is less tidy there. The titles and certificates of both maps are kept, and a strip of the neighbouring parishes – Putney, Wimbledon, Streatham, Clapham and Lambeth – is left round the edge.

These copies. Colour copies of both maps, cleaned up to make them easier to read: the yellowed and stained paper evened out, the colour washes strengthened and the pen lines sharpened. The Battersea map was photographed at a smaller size, so at full zoom its lines look slightly bolder than Wandsworth’s.

See also. The two maps on their own: Wandsworth, 1841 and Battersea, 1838; the Streatham tithe map of 1839 (Balham and Upper Tooting), which joins on to the south; and the Ordnance Survey 25-inch map of the 1860s.