Held at:	National Archives
Reference:	MAF 73/17
Source:	Original Maps
Title:	Digital Archive: National Farm Survey Records for the Parish of Longtown - Farm Survey Maps
Place name:	Longtown
Date:	1941 - 1942

Description:

When the Second World War began in September 1939, Britain was faced with an urgent need to increase food production, as imports of food and fertilisers were drastically cut. The area of land under cultivation had to be increased significantly and quickly. The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries set up War Agricultural Executive Committees in each county (‘County War Ags’) to carry out a farm survey between 1940 and 1941, and to use the information collected to bring uncultivated land under the plough and to improve poor farms. These records have largely been lost, but once the short-term objective of increasing food production had been met, the government decided to carry out a more general National Farm Survey. This took place between 1941 and 1943, with a longer-term purpose of providing data that would form the basis of post-war planning. Such a survey, of which these documents form part, was seen at the time as a ‘Second Domesday Book’, a ‘permanent and comprehensive record of the conditions on the farms of England and Wales’.

Every farm and holding of five acres and more was surveyed, including those of market gardeners, horticulturists, and poultry-keepers. A set of forms for every farm, completed by farmers and farm inspectors was produced and make up the National Archive record series MAF 32, extracts of which for the parish of Longtown can be viewed here on this website.

A set of maps for each county, based on Ordnance Survey maps, showing the land belonging to each farm in the survey are also held at the National Archives. These make up record series MAF 73, and have been designated here for our purposes as part 3 of the National Farm Survey.

Each part of the survey for a given farm bears that farm’s unique code. For the first two parts of the survey this comprises an abbreviation of the county name, the district, the parish number, and the individual farm number: for example HF/288 for the Herefordshire district of Dore and 51/1 for the parish of Longtown (51) and the individual farm number 1 for Middle Ponthendre Farm. The grid square reference from the Ordnance Survey is also given for each farm; XLIII SE from the 1904 Second Edition in the case of Middle Ponthendre.

However, the maps showing the boundaries and extent of the corresponding holdings use a different code nomenclature called the County Code, which is handwritten onto the OS map sheets. The underlying rationale and structure of the County Code is not immediately obvious, but fortunately it also appears on the title page of the Farm Survey form, Part 1 of the Survey, enabling the Farm code and the County code to be correlated as in the table below.

 

 

We are grateful to David Lovelace for permission to publish the collection of photographs he has taken of some of the original maps held in the National Archives for the parish of Longtown, which is a unique resource giving a snapshot of the local farming community at that point in time.

 

National Farm Survey Maps: Parish of Longtown - Extract of Holdings Referenced by County Code

 

Farm Ref *	County Code	ELSG Map Reference	Name
76	138/2	Map 6	Garn Farm
37	138/3	Map 6	Pen-y-lan
75	138/4	Map 6	Lower Brooks
44	138/5	Map 6	Lower Hunthouse
72	138/6	Map 3, 5	Great Bilboa
59	138/7	Map 2	Old Court
69	138/8	Map 2, 3, 4	Cwmbologue
74	138/9	Map 5, 6, 7	Lower House Farm
46	138/11	Map 6	Welsh Hunthouse
11	138/16	Map 4	Upper Bryn
19	138/17	Map 4	Lower Bryn
	138/19	Map 2, 4	Little Trelanden
56	138/20	Map 2, 3	Cwmdulas
52	138/22	Map 4, 5, 6, 7	Griedol
54	138/23	Map 2	Belpha Farm
49	138/25	Map 6	Great Hunthouse
29	138/26	Map 1	Llandee Farm
58	138/28	Map 2	Kellyn Farm
	138/29	Map 6
50	138/30	Map 4, 6	Tyearnot Farm
21	138/31	Map 2, 4	Upper Bryn
25	138/32	Map 1, 2, 4	Sunnybank Farm
17	138/33	Map 2	Great Trelanden
55	138/34	Map 2, 3, 4, 5	Maerdy
51	138/36	Map 6. 7	Pen-yr-heol
23	138/38	Map 2	Wayne Farm
53	138/39	Map 4, 5	Ruthland
67	138/40	Map 4, 5	Mynydd Fyrddin
84	138/41	Map 6	Upper Brooks
71	138/43	Map 4, 5	Lower Wernddu
57	138/48	Map 2	New Inn Farm
22	138/54	Map 4	Pontynys
7	138/57	Map1, 2	New Buildings
27	138/58	Map 6	Upper Ponthendre
64	138/59	Map 3	Castle Bach
47	138/60	Map 6	Little Hunthouse
68	138/61	Map 5	Quarry House
60	138/62	Map 2	Yew Tree Farm
48	138/63	Map 6	Middle Hunthouse
77	138/64	Map 1, 2	Pontys Mill
42	138/65	Map 6	Garn galed
45	138/66	Map 6	Clodock Mill
	138/67	Map 2
86	138/68	Map 6	Oaklea
65	138/70	Map 2	Park Road
62	138/71	Map 2	Whitehouse
70	138/73	Map 2, 4	Upper Wernddu
24	138/74	Map 2	Pontys Mill
	138/75	Map 6
80	138/79	Map 2	Charity Land
*Farm References are all prefixed HF288/51, for County of Herefordshire, Dore District, Longtown Parish

 

High resolution images of the 1904 Second Edition Ordnance Survey sheets with the original hand written annotations showing the boundaries and codes of the holdings in the table above can be downloaded via the links below:

 

ELSG Ref	Map 1	Map 2	Map 3	Map 4	Map 5	Map 6
OS Sheet	XXXVIII.13	XLIV.1	XLIV.2	XLIV.5	XLIV.6	XLIV.9

 

 

Observations:

The available map photographs shown here do not cover all of the Longtown properties itemised in parts 1 and 2 of the Survey elsewhere on this website.