Return of Owners of Land, 1873

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The two-volume Return of Owners of Land, 1873 is a survey of land ownership in the United Kingdom. It was the first complete picture of the distribution of land ownership in Great Britain^[1] since the Domesday Book of 1086, thus the 1873 Return is sometimes called the "Modern Domesday",^[2] and in Ireland since the Down Survey of 1655-1656. It arose from the desire of the Victorian governing landed classes, many of whom sat in the House of Lords, to counter rising public clamour (encouraged by the press) about what was considered the monopoly of land.

In 1872, the Local Government Board was ordered to compile a list of landowners from ratings records. One return was prepared for England and Wales (excluding London), and separate returns were prepared for Scotland (in 1874) and Ireland (in 1876). The Return lists holdings by size (in acres, roods and poles) and estimated yearly rental of all holdings over one acre. It is laid out by county and landowner, with an identifying address for each landowner. For landowners with extensive, scattered holdings, the address may not correspond to the land's location and may be outside the county in question. The location of the land is not given. A comparison with the Domesday Book survey was made in the Return's Explanatory Statement. The 1873 Return had inaccuracies (some significant), and a revised edition—The Great Landowners of Great Britain and Ireland—was published in 1883 by John Bateman (1839–1910).