Dr John Bulaitis, Canterbury Christ Church University, sheds light on an often forgotten but fascinating piece of Kentish history dubbed the Tithe War by the national press.
During the 1880s and again during the 1930s, Kentish farming communities fought the tithe, a payment to the Church and other tithe owners dating back to medieval times. They confronted bailiffs, disrupted auctions and blockaded farms to prevent seizure of stock for tithe non-payment.
Dr Bulaitis' talk focuses on two leading protagonists, Edward Peterson whose support of the tithe began in 1886 after he served an order to seize sheep from a farm in Smarden that led to the imprisonment of a local farmer, and Frank Allen, the tithe collector at Canterbury Cathedral who became the main organiser of the National Tithe Payers’ Association, which animated the fight against the tithe in the 1930s.
A transcript of this talk can be found at bit.ly/3NOAFoO
Find our guide to using tithe records at kentarchives.org.uk/collections/tithes/
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