Guide

The Town of Louth

Louth is a market town in Lincolnshire, small by modern standards, but fairly large by the standards of the early nineteenth century. Successive censuses, as listed below, showed rapid population growth in the first half of the nineteenth century. After 1851 the population growth stopped; and by the 1880s the town had a significantly declining population.

Louth History

Louth has been well served by local historians from Richard Goulding (1868–1929) onwards. For the period dealt with in this website particular reference should be made to Richard Gurnham’s The Story of Victorian Louth referred to here as Gurnham 2015 (for abbreviations like this one, see the Sources page) and also, covering a much wider period, Gurnham 2007, a comprehensive local history, and Robinson 1979, which is more selective, but more detailed on some topics. This website is aimed presenting information not readily available, rather than summarising recent literature.

Economics of Louth

Louth’s primary economic function was to serve the adjoining rural areas. In the early nineteenth century much of the economic activity in the town related not merely to retailing but to manufacturing. Thus a farmer might go to Louth market wearing a hat, suit and boots, all not just bought in Louth but made in Louth and driving a one horse gig also made in Louth. Once there he would refresh himself with Louth–brewed beer made with malt from a Louth kiln that used barley bought at Louth. However this manufacturing was largely of a craft type, serving almost entirely local needs. Only a carpet factory served a national market. The factory has been celebrated in a lavishly illustrated book, Robinson 2010. An extensive review of Louth’s local manufacturing in the nineteenth century is contained in Chapter 3 of Gurnham 2015.

It was significant in the pre–railway age that Louth was a port: the Louth Navigation Canal enabled very small ships to reach the sea from the town and there was a useful trade with Hull and other Yorkshire centres; some ships went as far as London. The railway reached Louth in 1848 but initially did not remove the value of the canal.

Rates

Early nineteenth century England had various local government bodies, most of which levied rates. The principle of rating was that almost all land and buildings had assigned values, which were based on the annual rental values (not capital values) of the properties. A local government body with power to meet public expenditure by levying rates would fix a rate of a stated sum “in the pound” and the occupiers of land and buildings would pay this rate by reference to the rating list’s value of the properties that they occupied. For example, if the rate were two shillings in the pound (ie 10%), the occupier of a house with a value for rating purposes of £14 would have to pay £1 8s (often written as 28s). The main type of expenditure met by rates was the relief of the poor.

The Printed Lists

The three printed rating lists for Louth reflected general revaluations that were approved on 1 January 1823 (R1823), 24 March 1838 (R1838) and 21 June 1851 (R1851). In the lists the streets of the town were arranged in alphabetical order, and the occupiers living in the streets were listed to show the nature of their homes, the owner (“Proprietor”), and the rateable value. For each occupier this initial listing was normally followed by a listing of any other land and buildings that he or she occupied, whether or not in the same street. For open land the acreage was usually given, unless very small. For example R1823 begins as follows.

(In the version given in the Databases section of this website areas and sums of money are expressed as decimals eg Hallington Close is shown as 8.43 acres valued at £13.75.)

This arrangement by occupier has the great advantage of confirming identity; if William Anderson’s shop had been listed in Walkergate, over 50 pages later than Aswell Lane, the view might have been taken that there were two William Andersons. Unfortunately the practice of listing by occupier was not invariably adhered to. Unlike census returns, the rating lists were not “snapshots in time”; the valuations were done over a period of weeks. Where a ratepayer moved from one house to another during the valuation period, he might be recorded as being at both or neither.

Information Provided by the Rating Lists

In the example given above the first record is a particularly valuable one, since we have not merely the name of William East, but by inference his occupation (publican) and some indication of his economic status: he owned the pub. The land that he leased from two clergymen (“close” means “field”) indicated that he needed grazing land, possibly because he kept and hired out a small carriage (“gig” or “fly”). It is worth noting that the combined value placed on two fields with a total area of less than 14 acres was higher than the value placed upon his medium sized public house.

The next person referred to, William Brown, was listed in a trade directory as a “corn chandler”. In nineteenth century usage “chandler” implied a small-scale dealer and this is confirmed by the relatively low value of the house that Brown occupied (though most Louth houses were worth less) and the absence of separate trade premises. The third person, William Anderson, was not listed in trade directories but other sources indicate that he was a tailor.

Further information about the rating list is given in the sequence of pages under the heading Rating System. Details of the street names used in the rating lists, and how they relate to modern names, are given on the Streets page. If you are unfamiliar with Louth’s street pattern, you may find it helpful to download and print the town plans provided. The rating lists did not show house numbers, because the numbering of buildings did not take place in Louth until 1860. This often makes it difficult to fix the position of a building in the named street.

Other Records

Records Relating to Voting

Apart from the three rating lists, the most useful database made available here is the list of voters in the church rate poll 1834, the circumstances of which are briefly described on the Voting page. The main advantage of this list is that it shows the occupations (if any) of the voters. Like the rating lists, but unlike all other voting records, it includes female ratepayers, the right to vote being treated as a property right. Non-ratepayers were not entitled to vote. The disadvantage of this list is that it was less complete than the rating lists, because a substantial minority of the ratepayers did not vote.

A much more restricted database, also described on the Voting page, is the list of Louth residents entitled to vote in parliamentary elections immediately after the Reform Act 1832; only a minority of householders were entitled to vote. From 1835 most of the male ratepayers were entitled to vote for councillors on the new borough council; annual “burgess rolls” were compiled to list the potential voters. The burgess rolls give only limited information and not many of them have survived but the databases include the roll for 1844, the earliest that covers the whole town.

Directories

The trade directories provide an important source of information about nineteenth century Louth. Some of the directories may be found on the Historical Directories of England and Wales website of the University of Leicester and others are available commercially. The Directories page provides notes on the scope and accuracy of the directories covering Louth for the first half of the nineteenth century.

Public Expenditure

Poor Law

Rates were levied by a variety of different bodies in order to cover a wide range of items of expenditure; but most of the money went on the relief of the poor. The poor law is an enormous subject and I have not attempted to deal with it in detail except for some points on its administration in Louth: see the Poor Law page.

Improvement Commissioners

After poor relief the second highest item of rate-borne expenditure was the maintenance of highways. In Louth from 1825 this was the responsibility of the Improvement Commissioners established under a local act of parliament. The commissioners also introduced gas lights for streets and provided a network of sewers. They had relatively wide powers but did not always exercise them effectively: see the Improvement Commissioners page.

The Old Corporation

Up to 1835 Louth was to a very limited extent governed by a corporate body of seven men, who held office for life and filled vacancies by co-option: see the Corporations page. For the purposes of this website the importance of the Old Corporation lay not in what they did (very little) but for what they owned. The financial records relating to the extensive corporation properties provide the best body of evidence for values in the town.

The Borough Council

In 1835 the Louth Borough Council was established. The first elected councillors described themselves as reformers, but their appetite for reform was poor. In their early years their main achievement lay in the establishment of a small police force for the town.

Background

The Value of Money

Any consideration of nineteenth century property values tends to lead to the question “What’s that worth in today’s money?” On the Value of Money page I have endeavoured to show that this is not a useful question. Nineteenth century values cannot be put on a modern scale but can be illustrated, particularly by showing how money was then spent: see the Household Expenditure page.

Housing

The quality and availability of housing in nineteenth century Louth is an interesting subject for investigation. On the Housing page I have set out some information on house numbers.

Public Houses

Public houses have figured largely on the pages of both contemporary newspapers and modern histories. They have a special importance in relation to the rating lists in that the precise location of a public house is almost always known and this helps to fix the position of nearby buildings. The Public Houses page deals also with beerhouses and the sale of alcohol generally.

Markets and Fairs

The importance of Louth’s markets is examined in Markets and Fairs.

Other Notes

Some pages have been included that are relevant to Louth history, but mainly outside the period 1823-51. For example, there are notes on Louth in the eighteenth century and some notes on the publications of Richard W Goulding.