42 C O N T E X T 1 7 1 : M A R C H 2 0 2 2 valuation. Most cooperated, but some brought cases in the courts against the Inland Revenue. Inevitably there are imperfections in the clerical work and in subsequent record-keeping by the Inland Revenue. Some area offices were better than others. Oxfordshire has a remarkably ‘clean’ set of valuation books which the Archives Office has scanned. Bristol Archives appears to have a very full set of records. Gloucestershire has a mixed bag; they have been transcribed and are on a dedicated website supported by the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society: www.glos1909survey.org.uk. The survey results can be interrogated in numerous ways. For example, footpaths or public rights of way can be examined, for which an allowance was made against the value of a property. More than 2,300 rights of way are recorded in the Gloucestershire records, the allowance being generally in the range £5 to £50. ‘There is a public footpath following the stream but not affecting the value to any material extent, say £5’ was the surveyor’s observation on a pasture in Bisley. However, the allowance for a right of way on a farm in Woodmancote in Bishop’s Cleeve was £125, for one on Charlton Kings Common £500, and in Ullenwood on Leckhampton Hill £400. The Recreation Ground in Gloucester, owned by Gloucester Corporation (9.25 acres, 3.7 ha) was valued at £960, for which the allowance was £960. A surveyor’s description of a property can be exceptionally interesting. Chavenage House, for example, owned by G Lowsley-Williams, was described in the field book for Tetbury as ‘Freehold house, building, land & 2 cottages. House: stone & stone tile, part 400 years old & part 6 years.Very good.’The new part was indeed new; a west wing had been built in 1904–5, begun by the architect JT Micklethwaite. But, as the surveyor noted, ‘the house has considerable historic interest & many of the bedrooms are named after distinguished persons who slept in them. Some are Oliver Cromwell’s room, Gen Ireton’s, Queen Anne’s, Sir Hugh Cholmondley’s, Harley’s, Col Stephenson’s, Sir Philip Sydney’s Room & Lord Essex Room.’ The owner during the Civil War was Colonel Nathaniel Stephens, and it is said that in 1648 Cromwell and Ireton visited Chavenage to persuade Stephens to sign the Bill of Impeachment of Charles I. Ordnance Survey map 26.12 (Gloucestershire Archives D2428/3 with thanks also to Marin Bailey) shows Ryeworth Field allotment gardens, hereditament number 118, 4.2 acres (1.7 ha), valued at £500, and owned by Charlton Kings Urban District Council. Part is also illustrated in the photograph (Anthea Jones, 2011). The adjacent field, 117, was also named Ryeworth Field. Allotments followed the strips in this ancient common arable field. Chavenage House near Tetbury. The house faces east. The great hall to the left of the entrance porch has two long windows. The new wing referred to by the surveyor is to the east, beyond a mid-17th-century south wing. (Photo: Anthea Jones with kind permission of Chavenage House)
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