Do you know the age of your house?

It can be fascinating to find out the history behind your home. Many houses have been altered since they were originally built and few retain their original features.

There are some features that can easily confuse us about the age of our property. Victorian windows may have been installed in place of original Georgian ones, and the dates inscribed in stone may not be true, so we can't take everything at face value. However, discovering the history of your property can provide a great insight into the lives lived by its owners.

There are many free resources that offer evidence that can help towards ageing your home. Look at all of the different aspects carefully.

Here is an idea of places to start your search.

If you own your house and have a mortgage, title deeds are usually held by your mortgage provider or bank. This is usually a great starting point to find out how old your house is, but there may be a small charge to view the documents. Most registered titles are now held digitally by the Land Registry and copies can be downloaded online for a modest fee, which is a good deal quicker than it used to be. Older properties sometimes have deeds that were never registered, and those are the interesting ones.

Make a visit to your library or local records office and have a look at old maps. This can lead you to the age of your house. It is even possible to view old maps online, and the historic Ordnance Survey series is particularly useful because you can compare the same plot across several decades and watch buildings appear and disappear.

If your neighbours' houses are a similar style to yours they may lead to some information. Local roads may even be named after historical figures of the past or local events, and around here a fair number are named after collieries, mine owners or the farms that were there before.

If a house has been plastered with gypsum or lime, if it has sash or casement windows, or whether it has a damp proof course, all of these can offer an indication of the history and age of your house. They all have relevance.

Damp proof courses are a particularly good marker. They became common practice from the later part of the nineteenth century onwards, so a solid wall with no damp proof course at all is usually telling you something about when it went up.

If your house was originally used for business purposes, or if someone of local significance lived there, a good place to look could be census records and Kelly's directories, some of which you may find free online. Otherwise, another trip to your local library may be in order. A great deal more of this material has been digitised in the last few years than was the case when we first wrote this, so it is worth searching online before you make the trip.

We hope that you enjoy finding out about your property. Why not get in touch and let us know what you find? We'd enjoy reading your stories.

And if you are thinking of altering your property, then ABDS can be on hand to help you every step of the way. If it turns out your house is older than you thought, it's worth checking whether it is listed or sits in a Conservation Area before you plan anything, and there's more on that in do you need planning permission.

For more information please call us on 07773 899 597 or contact us through this website.