Griffith's Revision Books & Maps

URBAN EXAMPLE

Church Street, ColeraineParish of Coleraine

Co. Londonderry

W. MacafeeOctober 2013

This presentation will cover the following:

How to access the online Valuation Revision Books for a street in a town – the example used here is Church Street, Coleraine, Co. Londonderry.

How to “read” and interpret the pages in the books.

How to link the numbers on the pages to the various large-scale street maps of the town available in PRONI. [Note that these large scale town maps are not available from the askaboutireland.ie website.]

How to match the valuation house numbers with the census house numbers to establish where families actually lived in the street in 1901 and 1911.

Before using the Revision Books for any purpose I would always look at the VAL/2/D Valuation Map [c.1860] plus the accompanying Printed Valuation Book to give me some idea of where properties were located within a street and see who was “living” there c.1860 – see next two slides. If you have already looked at the Griffith’s Printed Valuation and accompanying Maps you can skip slides 3 & 4.

Part of the 1859 Valuation Map for Coleraine showing Church Street [PRONI: VAL/2/D/5/15]This map is available in PRONI and in some local libraries

The pages in the Valuation Revision Books that we will look at in this examplar relate to the part of the street indicated

New

Row

This is a page from the Griffith’s Printed Valuation for part of Church Street, Coleraine [1859]. It precedes the Revision Books.

I will be using the Revision Books to see what changes took place between c.1860 and c.1911 in properties numbered 12 to 15.

131415

16a 16

1718 12

2009 Photo of Properties 12 to 18 in Griffith’s 1859.

Click on the Search Valuation Revision Books link to start your search.

Note that this page also contains an introduction to the Revision Books plus links to Further Information. Certainly worth reading.

Below is a screenshot of the search for the Revision Books for Church Street in Coleraine. If the County and Parish were not selected you would end up with all of the Church Streets in N. Ireland.

Here are the results of the search showing the 9 books that cover the period 1859 to 1931. Note that the street is situated within the townland of Coleraine & Suburbs.

Before you move on to the next slide - click here - to go to the PRONI website and do this search. You will then be able to “follow” me online as you read the rest of the slides in this presentation.

This screenshot shows the Image Results page. This is where you “get at” the books and the pages. Note that you can use the Search Results button and the Search Page button to return to these pages.

Click on the Index Image button to find the first page number of Church Street in this particular book.

You can click on any of these links to access related books.

When you click on one of these links the book will open in a separate window or tab.

Note that the Related Books pages do not contain this list of links. You will have to come back to this page each time that you want to see another Book.

This is the index page where I can see that the pages for Church Street begin at page 125.

I will use the navigation buttons to reach this page.

As you will see in the next slide the numbers that I want to look at are on page 126, so I will use the Forward Ten Images button.

This page [you should have a better view of this page on your online copy] shows changes that took place between 1859 [the date of the printed valuation] and 1865. The changes are recorded in a purple/red colour and black/grey colour. Only one date 1863 [referring to the black/grey changes] is shown on the page. I found a date of 1861 for the purple/red changes in another page of the book . This date is consistent with what appears to have happened at No. 11. In 1859 there was one property [valued at £25] occupied by a Malcolm McMullan renting from Robert Hazlett. In 1861 McMullan’s name was stroked out and replaced by James McCandless. By 1863 McCandless had split the property into two and rented 11a to a Hugh Cheyne [hence McCandless shown as the immediate lessor or landlord]. No. 11 was revalued at £18 and No. 11a at £14 – a total of £32.00. Barry Cunningham took over No. 14 in 1861 and John Huey became the tenant of No. 13 with Joseph McCarter [his father-in-law] as immediate lessor. Click here to read more about John Huey.

VAL/12/B/30/9B [1866-1874]

The changes in this page relate to properties 14 & 15 occupied by Barry Cunningham in 1865. This screenshot only shows part of page 138. Your online shot will show the whole page. Clearly he had gone by 1866 when the new Revision Book was created. The names James Cassidy in No. 14 and Jane Smyth in No. 15 are the first to be listed in 1866. Cunningham could have moved any time between 1863 and 1865. The colours used to record the changes that took place after 1865 are purple for 1870, red for 1872 and blue for 1873. 1870 saw Nos. 14 & 15 rebuilt and the valuation increased from £9 to £32 for No. 14 and £10 to £25 for No. 15. By 1872 William & Jas. Nevin are the occupiers of No. 14 and Alexr. Barber M.D., the occupier of No. 15.

VAL/12/B/30/9D[1874-1884]

Source: Street Directories 1856-1905Surname Forename Local

No.Street Business Date

Nevin & Son

Robert 23Church Street & New Row

Agricultural Implement Makers & Dealers, Provision Merchants, Grocers & Agents for Queen Insurance & Royal Insurance.

1870

Baxter William J. 23 Church Street Grocer & Druggist. 1894

Huey John 29 Church Street Grain & Flour Merchant, Seed & Manure Merchant & Agent for the Phosphate Guano Co. 1894

Stewart James B. 33 Church Street Boot & Shoe Dealer & Leather Merchant. 1894

Reynolds James Church Street Draper. 1905

There are a lot of changes in this page which you should be able to interpret. This screenshot shows part of page 257 and part of page 258. You will have to look at pages 257 and 258 online. The information obtained from Street Directories should be helpful in giving you some idea of what was going on in these properties at this time. The changes in No. 13 [John Huey] are very interesting.

258

VAL/12/B/30/9F [1885-1892]

Note the arrival of the YMCA in the street c.1889. In the upper part of No. 13 paying a rent of £25 pounds per annum.

VAL/12/B/30/9J [1893-1899]

Note that the map numbering has changed. There is no date in the right-hand column to indicate a date. The year 96 appears in this colour on other pages in this book, so I am fairly sure it was 1896. As you will see later the numbering on the 1882-1907 street map was revised. I’m assuming that you are still with me, online.

VAL/12/B/30/9K [1900-1912]

It should be relatively easy to match this page with the 1901 and 1911 Census – see later slide.

We now turn our attention to maps. I have included three relevant maps:

PRONI: VAL/2/D/5/15 [1859] which the valuers used until c.1880. [As well as in PRONI, copies of this map are available in Coleraine and Ballymena libraries.]

PRONI: VAL/12/E/156/1/9 [1882-1907] Note that the street numbering changes on this map.

PRONI: VAL/12/E/156/2/4 [1907-1935]

The two VAL/12/E maps are part of a series of large scale street maps covering the entire town of Coleraine, only held in PRONI. You can use the PRONI eCatalogue to see a list of these maps. Just type Coleraine in the Any Text Box as shown in the screenshot below and VAL/12/E* in the PRONI Ref. Box. Set the results per Page Box at 50 [there are 38 maps] and click on Search. If you want maps for another town simply type its name in the Text Box and VAL12/E* in the PRONI Ref. Box. The * is important. Without it, the search will not work.

Part of 1859 Valuation Map for Coleraine showing Church Street [PRONI: VAL/2/D/5/15]

Part of 1882-1907 Valuation Map for Coleraine showing Church Street [PRONI: VAL/12/E/156/1/9]The original of this map is only available in PRONI.

Note the change over in numbering from the earlier 1859 map to odd & even street numbers that are different from the local street numbers used in the valuation books from 1859. This numbering continues in the new 1905-1937 map shown in the next slide.

Part of 1907-1935 Valuation Map for Coleraine showing Church Street [PRONI: VAL/12/E/156/2/4]Note that Nos. 16, 18, 20 & 22 on the north side of the street are being redeveloped c.1907

7 7

2220

2315272931

3330

2826241614

7

5

3

Now that we know the Griffith’s Valuation numbers for the properties in the street and have maps that can show exactly where each house was located within the street at the time of the 1901 and 1911 Census, it is possible, in many cases, to match the valuation numbers with the Census house numbers. Below is a copy of Form B1 from the 1901 Census. It lists houses in the street numbered from 1 to 17 along with the name of each head of household. I have added, in red, the Griffith’s Valuation numbers.

1901

I think that house numbered 18 was beside the house numbered 3 in Griffith’s. I think the enumerator Hamilton Hemingway failed to list a fair number of shops where the owners lived elsewhere in the town. Compare the number of properties listed in 1901 with those listed in 1911. You will find the Form B1s for 1911 in the next few slides and you will see that I have added the Griffith’s numbers [where I could] in red.

3

5

71614

101112

13

The houses listed here start at the Diamond end of the street and go as far as the junctions with New Row and Rosemary Lane [modern day Park Street].

1911

191524

23252514a

32 27& 29

Note that No. 25, which belonged to John Huey, has Mrs Huey as the person on whose land the property was situated. John Huey had died in 1905.

3331

3537

Below is a screenshot of the search for the Revision Books for Church Street in Ballymoney. If the County and Parish were not selected you would end up with all of the Church Streets in N. Ireland.

Here are the results of the search showing 14 books that cover the period 1863 to 1930. In fact there are really only 7 books. Note that part of the street is situated within the townlands of Glebe and Townparks. This is the reason for the apparent duplication of books.

This is the Index page for Book VAL/12/B/4/3A (1863 - 1864)

Note that Church Street is on two different pages.

Page 32 for the part of the street in Glebe townland.

Page 72 for the part of the street in Townparks townland. In the pastI have missed parts of some townlands or parts of some streets because I was not aware of the fact that the street was in more than one townland.

This problem is particularly acute in some of the streets in the City of Derry. For example, parts of Bishop Street and William Street are located in different wards. I suspect the same would be true in Belfast, but I have no real experience of working with Revision Books there.

*

*

I have added this example of a search for the Revision Books for Church Street in Ballymoney because that particular street was located in two different townlands