The survey includes details of over 300,000 farms in England and Wales including how the land was used, location, condition and management as well as details of owners and tenants.
As one of the most requested documents at The National Archives, the digitisation of the 1941 National Farm Survey will help to preserve the original documents as well as improve access for local and family historians researching agricultural labourers and farms.
The first records to be digitised will be the individual farm records (MAF 32) with the accompanying survey maps (MAF 73) coming later.
The project is planned to be completed by March 2027, with the first digital records coming online from March 2026. The resulting databse will be freely available online, enabling researchers to discover more about family farms or their local area.
Jeff James, CEO & Keeper of The National Archives said: “This is a unique opportunity to realise the potential of what was seen as a ‘Second Domesday Book’, a ‘permanent and comprehensive record of the conditions on the farms of England and Wales’. Thanks to this partnership, the National Farm Survey, an enormous database of land ownership and land usage in mid-20th century Britain, will be freely available online to researchers in the UK and globally.”
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