This chapter covers the kind of evidence that you could use to help you find out more about a building: what information each sort of evidence contains, where to find it and where to go next, as well as highlighting potential difficulties with the evidence.As with all local history, there are different strands to the history of the building:The sources that you use to find out information for one strand can help give you leads for a different strand, or confirm evidence you found in a different source.

With buildings, it is always best to do some general background research (using secondary sources), then start with the present and work back, switching between sources if necessary to follow the trail. The three main types of sources for researching the history of a building are:

Physical Sources

This is the building itself: what the building looks like now, and what it looked like in old sketches or photographs. This might help you see if any alterations were made and also help you date the physical changes. There are also tell-tale signs of alteration:

• Changes in the colour, shape, size and bonding (layout pattern) of bricks
• Windows – if they are symmetrical on one side and not on the other, the house may have been altered; blind windows may have been filled in to avoid window taxes
• Changes to the roofline
• The back door being moved
• Parts of the house obviously added on (particularly if they aren’t symmetrical changes).

Dating The Property

• Older buildings tend to be nearer the centre of a settlement and built with smaller bricks; however, older buildings are also more likely to have been rebuilt, and reclaimed materials might have been used during a rebuilding or addition. Original brickwork is most likely to be found in a cellar

 

• Check neighbouring buildings – are they of a similar style?

 

• Check architectural guides (such as the glossary in Pevsner) to help you date architectural features of the property

 

• Check the roofspace – the size of the beams can help you date the building

 

• Look at the number and size of chimney stacks (this might help when looking at hearth tax assessments – but beware of ‘false’ chimneys which don’t actually relate to a hearth in the building!)

 

• The building may have a date stone to give you some clues (but remember this may commemorate something other than the building of the property)

 

• Is the building listed? If so, it may be in the listings of the Department of the Environment; copies are available in your local library

 

• Check in which parish, manor or administration unit the building lies; this will help you later when you are checking maps and documentary sources (though remember that boundaries change over time).

 

What Use Might The Building Have Had In The Past?

Buildings often change their use depending on the owner. So what is now a residential building might have been a barn, a mill, a shop, a pub, a school or a former religious building. A shop might have once have been a house that was converted in the 17th century when its owner changed the layout of the ground floor for business and lived over the shop. You can also tell if a building was used for weaving, as there is usually a long row of windows on the top floor to let in the light. Mills used to have houses attached to them; the machinery or mill itself might no longer be there, but the millpond and stream might be.

Street directories (see Chapter 8) can help you find out what the building was used for in the past – though remember that house names and numbers change, as do street names, so you may need to cross-reference the information against other records (such as census returns and rate books) to confirm that you are looking at the right building.