Tax taken to hearth

Did you know that there was once a tax on fireplaces in the UK? The hearth tax was a 17th century tax, and the University of Roehampton, in the form of Dr Andrew Wareham, are digitising records of the tax from every county in England!

What is interesting about the tax (to us anyway) was the fact that it was neighbours who monitored each other and did the tax collecting as a sort of part-time job! The tax ran from 1662 until 1689 and was collected twice a year. It was also levied in Scotland in 1691 until 1695.

Just for the record Hampton Court Place has 1,700 hearths, but because it was a royal palace it escaped the tax! Households with rent of less than 20 shillings were also excluded from the tax.