Delving into building history
Would you like to find out more about the history of your house?
Do you want to research any historic building? Is it in the United Kingdom or Ireland?
If so this guide by Jean Manco will start you on the detective trail. Some information could be just a few clicks away, but to get the full story you will need to visit libraries and archives. Researching Historic Buildings points the way.
It includes hints on planning a research programme, and clues to finding and understanding useful sources. There are bibliographies on everything from architects to Victorian architecture. There are quick guides to archives. There are introductions to a wide range of building types and architectural styles, plus the development of towns and villages. Eccesiastical sources are such a big topic that the Church gets a section to itself.
Help
Choose a section from the top menu. Then use the side menu to explore.
- A good place to start is pointers to help you plan your research.
- Gazetteers and inventories will lead you to what is on record about an historic building.
- Do you know who designed the building? See the books and links on architects and engineers.
- Local history suggests books to help you ferret out and understand the local context.
- Towns and villages may help to place the building in its setting.
- Maps and images are the best place to start looking beyond the printed page.
- Though the most important thing to look at is the building itself.
- Select the type of building for an outline history of the type and any studies, gazetteers and specific sources.
- The style section takes a brief look at British architectural styles and lists further reading.
- By this time you may be ready for a trip to the library. See tracking down the book you want.
- The next move is to take the plunge into archives. Save time through careful preparation.
- This whole website is printer-friendly.
News and site updates
Church wallpaintings
The Churches Conservation Trust cares for 341 English churches.
Over 80 of them have wallpaintings of some kind, making the Trust one of the
country's most significant keepers of nationally important wallpaintings. So
the Trust was inspired to create a beautiful online guide: Discover
wallpaintings. The range of date and type is extraordinary - from the 12th
to the 19th centuries, from simple monograms to visually rich Victoriana. It
takes us through the history, development and meaning of wallpaintings, as well
as conservation techniques. The Trust is looking for funding for phase two of
the project. 15 January 2012.
Dorset Manorial Register
Following a four year project run by volunteers at the Dorset History Centre and supported by The National Archives, the Dorset section of the Manorial Documents Register (MDR) has joined those already online courtesy of the National Archives: The Manorial Documents Register. 26 October 2011.
Pews, Benches and Chairs
This month the Ecclesiological Society published the first book to focus on church seating. It promises to tackle head-on today’s debate about pew removal, as well as covering the history of the topic. Trevor Cooper and Sarah Brown, (eds.), Pews, Benches and Chairs: church seating in English parish churches from the fourteenth century to the present. 29 August 2011.
The Map of Early Modern London
My
attention has been drawn by Janelle Jenstad, its creator, to an ambitious
project from the University of Victoria, Canada. The aim is to turn the large
woodcut map of London attributed to Ralph Agas into an interactive resource,
linking to encyclopedia-style articles, scholarly work, student work, editions,
and literary texts to the places mentioned therein. (The map itself was already
available online via British History Online: The
'Woodcut' map of London c. 1550.) I have listed The Map of Early Modern London beside Mapping Medieval Chester in my
ever-lengthening towns bibliography. 27
August 2011.
Google deal with British Library
This morning an arrangement is announced between the British Library and Google for the digitisation of out-of-copyright works. Google will pay for the digitation of 250,000 works from between 1700 and 1870, giving the library one copy and keeping another to make available online. Google has similar arrangements with more than 40 other libraries, which make it possible already to search and read the full text of countless out-of-copyright books. However the British Library has a massive collection, since it is a library of legal deposit, which by law has received a copy of every book published in the United Kingdom and Ireland since 1757, but also holds the royal library, which was a library of legal deposit from 1662. The project will take some years to complete. 20 June 2011.
National Heritage List for England
The new National Heritage List for England is a combined catalogue for all designated English heritage. You can search listed buildings, scheduled monuments, registered parks and gardens, World Heritage Sites, Certificates of Immunity and Building Preservations Notices all in one fell swoop. 8 June 2011.