Hebden 1873 Local Land Owners

Known as the 'Modern Domesday', the Return of Owners of Land was the first comprehensive register of land ownership across England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland since 1086. It was initiated by William Gladstone's Liberal government in 1872. The survey was undertaken in 1873 by local officials, using parish records and valuation lists for tax and poor rates, and published in 1875.

The survey is based on the landowners, and so is organised by landowner within county, and gives the total acreage owned by an individual, but not where. It is, therefore, of limited use in telling us precisely who owned the land in Hebden. The 1873 entry in the Manor of Hebden Division of Royalty book is more useful for that. However, it does emphasise how far Hebden had moved from the post-feudal yeoman days.

Owners of land of less than one acre were not recorded, so the following list is the amount of land owned by people living in Hebden exceeding one acre. Although the land owned was not necessarily in Hebden, one can be confident by comparing it with the Trust Lords returns above, that very little, if any, was land owned outside the township. Of the fourteen landowners listed, four have brackets around their address, which indicates that they were owners of Hebden land, but their address could not be readily ascertained (although the Barmaster knew where to send their royalties!). The remaining ten landowners were local, and their holding amounted to about 107 acres. The total size of the township is 3,562 acres, so it may be concluded that in 1873 3% was owned by those living locally. Almost half of that was land owned by the Overseers of the Poor.

The area units below are in acres, roods and perches (4 roods to the acre, 40 perches to the rood).