What Were The Primary Sources Of The Changing Landscape In The 19th Century

Primary sources were the main sources used to investigate the changing landscape in the mid-19th century. These sources included Historic Ordnance Survey maps (Ordnance Survey Ireland, 2016), Griffith Valuation maps (OMS Services Ltd, Eneclann Ltd and the National Library of Ireland, 2003), 1841 and 1851 Census information (University of Essex, 2004-2007) and Griffith Valuation Household Returns (OMS Services Ltd, Eneclann Ltd and the National Library of Ireland, 2003). The Ordnance Survey (OS) maps were created in 1838. The OS maps provide information about provinces, counties, baronies, parishes and townland names. These maps also portray buildings, settlement and the physical landscape in Ireland at the time. The British

The Griffith Valuation maps were created between the years of 1847 and 1864. These maps were constructed in order to evaluate the Irish landscape and gain knowledge of all the taxable properties in the country in the 19th century (Reilly, 1998). Sir Richard Griffith was an Irish man who was working for the British government and was in charge of carrying out the Griffith Valuation. Griffith had valuators travel to every region in Ireland in order to collect information on settlement and farming patterns, field sizes and place names. The Griffith Valuations are an extremely advantageous source of information, even more so than the OS maps because they have a list of all the household returns to correspond with the Griffith Valuation maps. Every plot of land in every townland on the maps contains numbers which correspond with the household returns and this can tell a lot about each individual land holding. It can also be assumed that these Griffith Valuations are more credible that the OS maps. To assure that the valuations would be carried out within well-defined scientific guidelines and procedures, beginning in 1833 Griffith published a series of field manuals for the use of his staff and he left no doubt in their minds about the level of efficiency he expected (Reilly, 1998). These valuations are great sources of information as they contain information on the area, buildings and those occupying the land, although while they are seen as being more historically correct than the OS maps the validity of the land values could be questionable as the valuators may have overestimated the land values so as to gain more