With the help of Cheshire Tithe Maps Online, you can explore historic maps of Frodsham, comparing them to the modern day structure and features of the town.

This tool allows you to place historic and contemporary maps side by side, reflecting how the lay of the land has changed as Frodsham evolved from a modest scattering of houses to a town of nearly 10,000 people.

This is all thanks to the careful preservation of nineteenth-century tithe maps, which split land into plots, keeping a record of their owner, occupier and use.

Tithe, which is the Old English word for 'tenth', was a compulsory tax paid for centuries to the local parish church and its clergy.

Initially, it would involve the payment in kind of one tenth of the agricultural produce, from crops to wool to milk, generated from a parcel of land. By the nineteenth century, the tithes had taken on a monetary value.

Through Cheshire Tithe Maps Online, you can use the fader in the top right-hand corner to blend two maps together, making it easier to compare historic and modern views of the town or street.

By clicking on a particular plot, you can also read about the people that owned the land, as well as what it was used for.

For example, where St Luke's Primary School now stands, there was once a field by the name of Bottoms, which was owned by the Rev. John Collins and used by William Whitby for arable farming.

Cheshire Tithe Maps Online can be found here.