Hearth tax a baker who, to avoid chimney tax, had knocked through the wall from her oven to her neighbour's chimney. After the Glorious Revolution, the hearth tax was repealed by the newly empowered English Parliament and agreed to by the newly installed William III and Mary II in 1689, as "not only a great oppression to the poorer sort, but a badge of slavery upon the whole people, exposing every man’s house to be entered into, and searched at pleasure, by persons unknown to him." At the end of the Glorious Revolution in 1688, William III and Mary II also agreed
Skinnand down, however, during the Civil War and, by the time of the Hearth Tax returns of 1665, there were just three houses in Skinnand. Details about the Norman-built Anglican church of Skinnand are sketchy, although it was reputedly dedicated to St Matthew and burned down by Oliver Cromwell's forces in the 1640s. Historical records certainly show that it had begun to fall into ruins in the 17th century - at around the time of the English Civil War. The "Glebe Terrier" documents of 1700 recorded: "The church was in ruins, no house for the rector, more than this we find