Return of Owners of Land, 1873: England and Wales (exclusive of the Metropolis)
[issued by the Local Government Board]

Vol. I DEVON and SOMERSET - Extracts relating to Modbury

Printed by George Edward Eyre and Willliam Spottiswoode, London in 2 volumes (1875)

Transcribed by Sheila Jones

(E-mail: sheila.jones[at]liverpool.ac[dot]uk)

N.B. These extracts relate to people who owned 1 acre of more of land and who gave their address as Modbury. It should not be assumed (unless stated in a footnote) that the land they owned was in whole or in part in Modbury, merely that that was their stated place of abode. Similarly, there may be other "absentee" owners who owned land in Modbury but were not living there, who do not therefore appear in this list.

The £ s value given relates to the land's Gross Estimated Rental (it does not mean that the owner was necessarily receiving any rent or rent to this value); the 2001 value £ calculates the current equivalent purchasing power of the £'s value as calculated using the Economic History Association's "Purchasing Power of British Pounds from 1264 to Present" at the MeasuringWorth website. However, this is only a crude figure - costs and standards of living were very different in 1873. Perhaps a more accurate gauge of the relative value of land rentals, is to compare the 1873 figures below with the fact that the average weekly wage for an agricultural worker in 1872 was 11 shillings. Assuming that such a worker was employed at the same rate for 52 weeks a year (which probably was not the case!), his average annual wage would be £28 12s in 1872, equating to £1,265.21 in modern purchasing power.

Sheila Jones
February 2002

Footnotes

1. In Modbury, but lands referred to were in Somerset!
2. Of Little Modbury
3. Land held in the parish of Modbury; not certain if this person was living in Modbury

Brian Randell, 23 Aug 2002