Llandrindod and district
Some Victorian maps
  Llanbister in 1841  
 

The map below is based on the tithe map for the parish of Llanbister and it gives us a good idea of the layout of the village at the beginning of Queen Victoria's reign.

The original map was not aligned with North at the top so we have turned it round to make it easier to compare with later maps.

TITHE MAPS
In Victorian times almost everyone had to pay tithes to the Church of England. At the beginning of the reign the tithe became a tax on your property. The maps were drawn to see what property everybody had
  1. The tithe map shows the tollgate on the turnpike road to Newtown. To take any animals through the gate you would have to pay a toll. At the time this map was made William Bounford lived here with his family. He worked on a farm locally so it was probably his wife who collected the money and opened the gates.  
  2. The village itself with its houses clustering along the hillside by the church. In 1841 there were 2 seamstresses making and altering clothes, 2 shoemakers, 1 tailor and 1 mason. According to the census records a carpenter and his apprentice lived in the village at Frog Street. The grocer was Francis Woosnam aged 70.  

A mystery!
The 1841 census tells us that there were 5 soldiers lodging at the house of a local woman. What were they doing there? We don't really know but they might have been staying there in the period of unrest after the Chartist uprising in Llanidloes. (Click here to see pages on the Chartists)
 
Compare with a map of the area in 1902..		  
 

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