How long has your house been there? Who else lived in it before you did? Nick Barratt explains how to find out.
Every house, regardless of its age, has a story to tell. To me, this is the most exciting aspect of tracing the history of your home - you never know what you will discover. It doesn’t matter whether you live in a post-war terraced house, or an idyllic rural cottage with darkened, twisted Tudor beams – you can step back in time to find out who built your house, and explore the life and times of previous inhabitants. In doing so you will begin to understand more about the community in which you have chosen to live, whether it is a bustling inner city or a quiet country village.
Nevertheless it’s important to begin your investigations with realistic expectations about the outcome. Programmes on television make research seem easy, and speed the process of discovery up whilst masking the fact that a team of researchers worked away on the project for weeks on end! Reality is never that simple. As with any piece of research, there will be dead ends and disappointments, so don’t give up; if one line of enquiry comes to a halt, retrace your steps to known facts and start again – every house will have a different history that requires a unique research trail.
Start by ‘reading’ the architecture of your house, both internal and external. You can usually narrow down the period in which it was constructed, or pinpoint periods of reconstruction or refurbishment. You should also look at neighbouring houses for comparable architectural styles. If your house is markedly different, ask yourself why – the reason might lie in the construction date. Check to see how close your house is to the centre of the village or town - older houses tend to be nearer the middle. There are various volumes on the architectural side of house history to help you with this process, such as R. Brunskill’s History of Vernacular Architecture or B.Breckon and J.Parker’s Tracing the History of Houses.
You should also try to get as much background information about the property as possible. House history can be a very sociable activity - talk to previous owners, estate agents or local newspapers, as they all might have pictures, stories or clues about your house. Find out what parish it falls in and what manor it was once part of, as this information will be crucial in locating documentary source material. Wander into your local study or history centre in the nearest library and see how much is on your own doorstep.
As with all good detective stories, the trick is finding clues, and using them to look elsewhere. You will soon progress from the local study centre to the nearest county or local record office, where you will encounter primary material for the first time. Usually this will then lead you to national institutions such as the National Archives, which in turn holds material compiled by the National Register of Archives that you can use to locate relevant local or specialist archives. There are many resources online; Access to Archives allows you to search by keyword for specific documents across hundreds of participating archives, whilst Archives Hub provides a means of searching academic archival collections. Don’t forget that what you discover during your visit to one archive might take you back to one you have already visited to look at a different set of sources.
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Content last updated: 05/12/2005
About our expert
Nick Barratt is a historian with specialist knowledge in medieval state finance. He's been involved in researching many television programmes including, The House Detectives, Time Trail and Who Do You Think You Are? Nick's published widely on personal history and has worked for the Public Record Office and The National Archives.
