The Cadastre

In 1563, Helier de Carteret came over from Jersey and settled on Sark, which was nothing more than a haven for pirates at the time.  In 1565,  Elizabeth the First granted him the fief (governorship) of the island.  One of the obligations of this fief was a requirement to have forty armed men with muskets available at all times to defend the island.

So the island was divided into forty tenements or farms, each with a share of the arable land and a share of the 'cotils', the cliffs around Sark.   Each one was large enough to support a family.  Over time, parts of these tenement were sold off, and it was realised that eventually they could become too small  to support an 'armed man' and his family.  So a law was passed forbidding further subdivision.

The Cadastre is Sark's land registry, and lists the plots of land assigned to each tenement.  In the 1960s, Malcolm Robson, the then owner of the company that is now Sark Electricity, surveyed the cadastre and drafted a series of maps showing each of the tenements.  In the 1990s, T.P. Gordon Brown, the new owner of the company, plotted these maps onto a computer, and that is the basis for the maps shown here.

If anyone notices any inaccuracies, please let us know at the Power Station (832053) and we will update the maps. 
Thank you.