Agricultural History Review, Volume 49 Part 1 (2001), pp. 56–78
The ownership, occupation and use of land on the South Downs, 1840-1940: a methodological analysis of record linkage over time
John Godfrey and Brian Short
Three major complexes of documents are now available for the study of agriculture from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries. The tithe surveys, already well known, are now joined by the Lloyd George 1910 Valuation Office material, and the National Farm Survey of 1941-3. This paper expl ores the methodological issues arising from the use, and especially the comparison, of the three sources in the context of a case study from the South Downs in Sussex.