Researching the history of your house can be a challenging but ultimately rewarding and exciting task. Initiating the search can prove to be a daunting prospect if you have never embarked on a such a project before, but with a little direction anyone can become their own house detective.
Starting your research
Discovering the exact age of your house can be a difficult process. As a rule, the older the property, the greater the wealth of archive resources, but one should be aware that the site name may have changed over time and the current building may differ entirely from the original. Do not let this deter the investigation as some interesting facts about the property may be uncovered. As we found with Park Farm, your house may also have played a more integral role in local history and history than first imagined. There are a number of sources available to consult in the quest to rebuild the past. The present restoration seeks to uncover the lost history of the house as accurately as possible. 
Although the general method of research will be the same regardless of which house you research, you can expect variance according to the age, location and availability of surviving records. The following steps will be advantageous in discovering the history of the house.
Preliminary Research – It is vital to first consider the known facts and then work backwards from there. Visiting the record office and library local to your property is a good place to start and from there parish histories and RCHM (Royal Commission on Historical Monuments).
The following avenues of investigation may be of beneift:
Age of building – Materials, appearance of windows, doors, roof may hold clues to its past as will any date stones and inscriptions on the property.
Listed records – Many buildings over a certain age considered to be of architectural or historical importance are listed. If your building is over 150 years old it would be well worth contacting English Heritage to obtain details.
Location – Discover the parish or manor in which the property once belonged. This is integral to the research and will provide the base from which to begin the more detailed investigation. It is important to know these key facts before venturing into an archive or record office. You may find that boundaries have changed over time and the village may even have changed in location, as in the case of Colwall.
Tithe Deeds – These can be found in a variety of places, either your bank, building society or solicitor may hold these. This kind of record is valuable in discovering previous owners and occupants. They may also show how your house may have altered over time, whether this be the size of the property and its grounds or changes in the function.
If your property dates from before 1840 it will be worth investigating the following avenues.:
® The 1910 Valuation Survey – This is a comprehensive survey covering all properties in England and Wales, including the owner and occupier, usage and value. The records are held at Kew and are freely accessiable to the public. Inclosure awards, National Fram Surveys and Census reports can also be located in the National Archives at Kew.
® Census Returns – Lists the names, ages and occupants from each property.
Following this, if you have uncovered a list of previous owners or occupiers you can attempt to access records relating to these individuals and therefore indirectly gain more information about the property.
These sources of information should enable you to discover the approximate date of the property and uncover any interesting social histories. However it is important not to assume that you will uncover a seamless chronology from present to the day of construction. Filling in the gaps through educated guess work will be likely and by looking at other contemporary local properties may help to piece together the puzzle.
A typical selection in records to be found in your local archive or record office:
- Maps and building plans
- Manorial records
- Estate records
- Deposited title deeds
- Leases
- Sale catalogues
- Wills
- Electoral registers
- Trade directories
- Land tax Records
- Local newspapers
- Quarter Sessions records for specialised buildings
- Diocesan and Parish records for specialised buildings
More research now can be done via the Internet, there are useful websites for the British Library, Historical Manuscripts Commission and the National Monuments Record. The NMR with some three million photographs and 50,000 measured surveys is an informative resource. But in many cases it is the local library and record office which is the principal source; here, in addition to topographical works and the Victoria County History there will be the journals of local antiquarian societies and other printed works.