The Return of owners of land, 1873, was a survey carried out by the British Government to determine the number of owners of land of one acre or more in the United Kingdom (excluding London ). The returns were compiled from rates records and were first published for England and Wales in 1874. They established that nationally almost 270,000 people (or organisations such as schools, charities or railway companies) owned an acre or more of land. The returns are therefore a Victorian version of Domesday.
The material in the returns contains the name of the landowner, the landowner's address, the extent of land held (in acres) and the gross estimated rental value determined from the rates records.
For Sussex , 5,059 names are given in the county return (out of a total population of 417,456). An additional 14,675 owners (not individually listed) owned land of less than one acre in extent.
The landowner returns of 1873 are clearly of interest to family historians trying to identify the extent and value of their ancestors' land holdings. However, the returns are also of use to local historians as when combined with other data, such as the 1871 Census, they enable a more detailed picture to be developed of the economic and social composition of entire communities in the mid-Victorian era.
ISBN 978-1-905347-39-1
