Large-scale maps covering most parishes in East Sussex are available on CD.

The tithe maps follow old parish boundaries and most date from the 1840s.

Many show the boundaries of fields, woods, roads and rivers, the location of buildings and what the land was used for.

There are more than 120 maps available, including parishes at Alfriston, Battle, Chailey, Dallington, Eastbourne, Frant, Glynde, Hastings, Lewes, Maresfield, Newhaven, Peasmarsh, Rye, Seaford, Ticehurst, Uckfield and Wadhurst.

The maps cost £10 plus 55p post and packing from East Sussex County Council's website eastsussex.gov.uk/archives or can be viewed free at the council's records office.

Not all East Sussex parishes are available. Areas that were free of tithes or where no crops were grown were not mapped.

Parish boundaries may be different now to when they were mapped and the best way to find out if a map exists is to check the directory of tithe maps available on the website.

Residents without access to a computer can use one free in libraries.

Tithes were taxes paid to the local church. People paid one tenth of everything they produced.

By the 19th Century there was a great deal of resentment towards the payments, particularly from non-Anglicans, who still had to support the church.

Tithes, abolished in 1936, also discouraged farming improvements because if production went up, so did the payments.