Tracing the history of your home

[Mikey]

Has anyone ever done this?, I'm reading a book at the moment about how to go about tracing the history of a building. Its got me gripped more than any factual book I've read for a while. Have any of you peeps researched the history of the house you live in.

[veggiechicken]

Yes and who lived here since the 1841 census! Consultations are available

[Thelma Sanders]

only in as much as I found out when it was built by looking on censuses (correct plural?) and old maps of the area when there were only footpaths and one road through the village - fascinating stuff

The cottages were built in the orchard of a big old house, when the grounds were split in 2 by the then newly built railway line - Found so far in the terrace: the railway foreman, a railway engineer and a railway fireman There are lots of bricks and small horseshoes in the gardens, so I suspect they were using the gardens as stabling, as the gardens are on the otherside of the front footpath, rather than behind the houses.

[julesapple]

1968 utter monstrosity of poor design built by the twit who is now our landlord.....how I would love something with some history, some character.

[lottie dolly]

we have ours within the deeds,going right back to when it was all farmland,and how it was all devided,plus the names of peeps all the way back to then,fascinating stuff,i have spent hours looking at ours,tells you all you want to know,starts in the early 1920's,without having them all out again,cannot say exactly,but that much i do remember,

[SarzWix]

Ours is an ex council house, and we're only the third family to live here since it was built after the war. My dad's house on the other hand has the old deeds from back in the 1700s, complete with hand drawn maps. Gorgeous they are

[binley100]

Ours was built as housing for the managers for the factory (GEC ) which used to be behind us . It was built about 1915 and we have an ariel photo showing our house looking on to fields .......bit different outlook now .

[alldigging]

1953 built.
And I know who lived in it from 1973.

[marchogaeth]

Ours was most probably a Ty Unnos (built in one night) with all the surrounding land for as far as you could throw a hammer. Brilliant isn't it? (Must have been a very small hammer or a great big hammer thrower mind.)

[KittyColdNose]

Built on farmland in 2011. Soul less but a means to an end.

[veggiechicken]

Our was a Ty Unnos (built in one night) with all the surrounding land for as far as you could throw a hammer. Brilliant isn't it? (Must have been a very small hammer or a great big hammer thrower mind.)

I'm so excited to hear that today.....

[Nicos]

This is something I want/intend doing!
Our house dates back to 1630....but French records are....urmmm.... welll.... * sigh!

[Sheneval]

Has anyone ever done this?, I'm reading a book at the moment about how to go about tracing the history of a building. Its got me gripped more than any factual book I've read for a while. Have any of you peeps researched the history of the house you live in.

My own house is only 40 years old but I have researched houses owned by my ancestors dating back to the late 1700s

As VC says: the Censuses which started in 1841 and were carried out every 10 years and are available up till 1911 are good starting points. In Scotland we also have the register of Sasines which records the passing of houses/lands from one person to another from late 1700s - prior to that we had Retours which served the same purpose. Valuation Rolls commenced in 1855 and ran annually till the Poll tax was introduced in the mid/late 1900s - you will have something similar to those in Wales.

Wills can also be useful dependent on the circumstances.

I found map dated 1780 which recorded all the houses in Prestwick and the occupiers of same; also a map of Paisley in the early 1800s showing the owners of all the houses in the town. With a bit of luck you may find something similar if your property dates back to that time.

Good Luck

[bubblewrap]

Terraced house 3 bedrooms postage stamp garden built 1897.

[Madasafish]

Our house started c 1820 as the lodge house to the local estate - owned by a small local business man.

The estate was purchased and our house extended by a local iron and steel magnate -who left his initials and family crest in the glazed tiles in the hall to the front door. A new lodge was built elsewhere in the early 1900s to avoid the marshy track going through the fields behind us.

The estate house became a hospital in 1929 when the iron and steel business went bust and our house was sold to a local family. In the early 1970s our house was sold, renovated and the outbuilding demolished , the plot split into two plots - and a granny flat and garages added to our house built from part of the outbuilding's stone.

Our house adjoins fields on two sides and the railings separating us from the fields are cast iron made at the magnate ironworks in the 1860s..

The entrance to our yard goes through two stone pillars and follows the line of the old coach road . An outline of the old road can be seen in the grassy field behind us and leads to ornate cast iron gates restored by the National Trust when it bought the estate gardens some 2 decades ago.

We have been here some 30 years. We have deeds showing the original 1820s layouts.