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Friday 12 March 2010
 
 
 

Valuation rolls

Valuation rolls before 1855

Local and central government gathered information about the ownership and tenancy of land and houses in order to raise property taxes. Before 1855, only a very few records of such taxes survive. There were several poll and hearth taxes levied at the end of the 17th century and from 1667 there was a Land Tax. The surviving records of this land tax are held at the National Archives of Scotland (NAS) in the Exchequer series, NAS ref. E67. They record the value of land for each county down to parish level, together with the names of the proprietors. Remember that until well into the 20th century very few Scots owned landed property. These records therefore relate to only a tiny proportion of the populace (perhaps as little as 3% of the population in the 18th century) and they do not list either tenants or occupiers. This national land tax was also levied on the Royal Burghs but the collection records do not list burgh inhabitants.

 

Title page of the valuation roll for Argyll County, 1911-12, NAS ref. VR89/57

Loretta Timperley used the land tax records to publish 'A Directory of Scottish Landownership in 1770' (Scottish Record Society, Edinburgh, 1976). This shows all the named landowners for that year together with the names and values of their properties, in so far as these can be gleaned from the record. This publication is available in the NAS search rooms and also in good reference libraries. It gives an accurate sense of the type of information available from the original record.

Some local land valuations may also be found in heritors' records (ref. HR) and among private Gifts and Deposits of family papers (ref. GD) held in the NAS.

Valuation rolls from 1855-1989

The Lands Valuation (Scotland) Act, 1854 established a uniform valuation of landed property throughout Scotland, with separate rolls compiled for each burgh and county. The NAS holds copies of all valuation rolls until 1989 (ref VR) when the Community Charge ('Poll Tax') for domestic ratepayers was introduced and replaced the previous system. The valuation rolls that continue after 1989 are only for businesses that pay non-domestic rates. Again, the NAS has copies of these.

The rolls from 1854 to 1988 were collected annually and for each property record the name and designation of the proprietor, the tenant, the occupier and the annual rateable value. They do not list any other residents in a property. For the early years after 1854, there is little detail about properties rented at under 4 pounds annually unless they were on long leases. The rolls run from Whitsunday (one of the Scottish term days, usually around 25 May) of one year to Whitsunday of the next, roughly speaking a financial year.

Using valuation rolls for 1855-1915

The valuation rolls for 1855-56 to 1915-16 have all been digitised and are being made available in the search rooms on the Virtual Volumes application. You should consult the NAS online catalogue to see if the volume you require is available yet. If it is, the ‘access conditions’ field should state: ‘This record has been digitally imaged and will not be produced for readers. The digital images may be seen in the NAS Search Rooms on the 'Virtual Volumes' system.’ If the catalogue entry for the volume you would like to consult does not have this statement and falls into the 1855-56 to 1915-16 date range, contact us as the original volumes will not be produced but we may be able to arrange access for you. The valuation rolls for Undertakings Public (ref. VR121) have not been digitised.

Also available in the search rooms is the VRs Index. This index covers the valuation rolls for all of Scotland for these seven years:1855-56; 1865-66; 1875-76; 1885-86; 1895-96; 1905-06 and 1915-16. It can be searched according to person, group or place (including property type, settlement name, burgh or county). The information contained in the index consists of the description and situation of each property and the proprietor, tenant and occupier thereof. Each index entry is linked to the digital image of the original page in the valuation roll.

For valuation rolls which are unindexed some rolls, particularly for the more populous areas such as Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow, can be awkward to search. For these areas there will often be several volumes covering each year. This can often mean a time-consuming search through the volumes in question before you find the entry for the property concerned.

Within each volume, the entries are arranged either by parish or (in cities and larger towns) by electoral ward, and below that level, by street and then by door number or house name. Consequently you may need to find out in which parish and/or electoral ward the property concerned was situated, before being able to identify the correct valuation roll for the relevant year. A local archive or library may have old Post Office directories or local gazetteers, which will often help you to obtain this information.

Because of the time-consuming detective work needed, staff at the NAS cannot search valuation rolls on behalf of correspondents.

Duplicate original valuation rolls for specific areas may also be held locally on microfilm. You should check this with local libraries and archives.

Using valuation rolls for 1916-1957

The digitisation of the valuation rolls for 1916-17 to 1957-58 is currently underway. The programme of work will start with the volumes from series ref. VR1 Airdrie Burgh and run through to those in ref. VR123 Wigtown County (excluding ref. VR121 Undertakings Public). During digitisation, records will be unavailable for consultation until they are made available as digital images in the search rooms. As a rough guide the records will be withdrawn from access in the following months:

Reference
Place
Month when withdrawn from access
VR1 - VR46
Airdrie Burgh - Kilmarnock Burgh
April 2009
VR47 - VR80
Kilrenny Burgh - Stirling Burgh
May 2009
VR81 - VR90
Stranraer Burgh - Ayr County
June 2009
VR91 - VR98
Banff County - Dundee Burgh
July 2009
VR99
East Lothian County
August 2009
VR100
Edinburgh Burgh
September 2009
VR101
Fife County
October 2009
VR102
Glasgow Burgh
November 2009
VR102
Glasgow Burgh
December 2009
VR103 - VR106
Inverness County - Kirkcudbright County
January 2010
VR107
Lanark County
February 2010
VR108 - VR112
Midlothian County - Peebles County
March 2010
VR113 - VR122
Moray County - Wigtown County
April 2010

Once available as digital images, the NAS online catalogue entry for each volume in will read in the ‘access conditions’ field: ‘This record has been digitally imaged and will not be produced for readers. The digital images may be seen in the NAS search rooms on the 'Virtual Volumes' system.’ If the catalogue entry for the volume you would like to consult does not have this statement, falls into the 1916-17 to 1957-58 date range and appears from the above table to have been withdrawn from access, contact us. All of the valuation rolls which were consulted on microfilm before 2008 have been digitised regardless of their covering dates.

An index to the valuation rolls for 1925-26, 1935-36, 1945-46 and 1955-56 is being created and is likely to become available during 2010. See above for advice on searching the valuation rolls.

Using valuation rolls for 1958 onwards

With the exception of valuation rolls which were on microfilm and were converted to digital images, the valuation rolls for 1958 onwards are consulted in volume form and are currently held at our off-site storage facility, Thomas Thomson House. Before coming to see these records it is advisable to notify us beforehand, so that the appropriate records can be produced in advance of your arrival.

Community charge ('poll tax') records, 1989-93

The NAS has copies of all the registers of people registered to pay the domestic community charge (ref CCH).


Council tax valuation lists, 1993-date

The NAS has a full set of copies of these lists (ref. CTA). They are not very informative, however, since they list addresses only and give no details of the residents or owners of property.


Other records showing landownership

The records of the Inland Revenue Valuation Office provide a snapshot of landownership in Scotland in 1911-12. Their staff surveyed every property, recording the names of owners, tenants and occupiers, charges on the land, valuations and other particulars. Each property's boundaries and assessment number were marked on specially printed Ordnance Survey maps. The field books and maps resulting from this work are held by the NAS (NAS ref. IRS51-88 and IRS101-133). More information on using these records is given in Cecil Sinclair's, ‘Tracing Scottish Local History’, pp28-9.

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Crown Copyright 2009

 

 

  
 
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