England Land and Property: Difference between revisions

The resulting registration in Middlesex and Yorkshire was remarkably complete. The only deeds which escaped were leases of less than twenty-one years and those relating to copyhold land. The registration systems in the two counties were very similar. Only ‘memorials’ or short summaries of the deeds were registered. These memorials showed the date, the names and addresses of the parties and of the witnesses, and a description of the land. In general more detail was recorded in Middlesex than in Yorkshire, and in Middlesex the nature of the transaction was generally stated. Plans often appear from about 1800 onwards. However, in Yorkshire deeds of bargain and sale were recorded in full, and in the North Riding from 1735 any deed could be entered in full if the parties wished. There are fairly full annual indexes in each registry but in Middlesex the grantors’ or vendors’ names alone are indexed, in full alphabetical order from 1828, and there is no index of places after 1718. In the one year 1800 the number of registrations in Middlesex was just over 4,000; in 1880 it had grown to 42,250. The records of these local registries are described at length in ‘The deeds registries of Yorkshire and Middlesex’ in the Journal of the Society of Archivists, vi (1980) 174-86 [FHL book 942 B2ja].

In Yorkshire compulsory registration did not commence until the 1970s and it was only then that the three local registries at Beverley (for the East Riding), Northallerton (for the North Riding) and Wakefield (for the West Riding), were closed, their records now being housed at the record offices in those towns. They have all been microfilmed.