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.
- Should this site go down, you will find an archive copy at the UK Web Archiving Consortium.
News and site updates
Powering the world
The Archives and Records Council Wales won funding from the Pilgrim Trust for a project to catalogue some collections from the industrial past of the principality. The business papers include those of two slate merchants and a brickworks. The project got under way late last year; you can follow its progress on the blog Powering the World: Looking at Welsh Industry through Archives. 4 February 2010.
Medieval new towns
A conference over the weekend of May 21-23, 2010 in Winchelsea (East Sussex) aims to highlight the latest research on medieval new towns and their planning. For more information see Revisiting New Towns of the Middle Ages. The conference registration fee is £25. 1 February 2010.
The history of pubs
A conference on the history of pubs, organised by the Pub History Society, will be held at The National Archives on 20 February 2010, from 10:30 to 16:00. Admission is free but booking is essential. To book, call +44 (0)20 8940 6884 or email the Pub History Society. 16 January 2010.
Longford Cathedral burned down
This is not the news you want in the festive season. St Mel's Cathedral in Longford, Republic of Ireland was destroyed by fire in the early hours of Christmas Day. St Mel's was a grand Victorian edifice in the Classical style. 27 December 2009.
Google and UNESCO join forces
Now for a treat I've been saving for Christmas. Earlier this month Google announced a partnership with UNESCO to include imagery of World Heritage sites into Street View. You can wander around the ruins of Pompeii, The Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris, the historic centre of Prague or 16 other sites. Google aims to add many more World Heritage landmarks in the coming months. 23 December 2009.
Scotland's Places
The website Scotland's Places makes light work of local history research north of the border. It is a joint venture of the National Archives of Scotland (NAS) and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS), combining catalogues and digitised maps, photographs and other records from each institution, including the report of the Land Ownership Commission 1872-3. It was launched in October. 23 December 2009.
Evaluating sources
A quick guide to evaluating sources has been added to the introduction to primary sources. 22 December 2009.
OSI free Mapviewer
Ordnance Survey Ireland digitised its splendid archive of early OS maps some time ago and made them available for a fee at Ireland's Historical Mapping Archive. Now a public version of its Mapviewer has been launched on the OSI's own website. It includes the first edition 6-inch sheets of the early Victorian period, and the late Victorian 25-inch series. 19 December 2009.
Image finder updated
Over the
last couple of days I have been updating my list of
image collections online, organised geographically. I'm happy to report
many more additions than subtractions. 18 December 2009.
CBA report on vernacular buildings
The CBA research report Vernacular Buildings in a Changing World: understanding, recording and conservation (2001) is now available online from the Archaeology Data Service. 13 December 2009.
County Clare NIAH volume
The latest volume from the (Irish) National Inventory of Architectural Heritage came out late month: An Introduction to the Architectural Heritage of County Clare. 13 December 2009.
Images of England
English
Heritage have sent out Christmas greetings, together with the news that the
final images were added this year to Images of England. This was an
astonishingly ambitious project. It was no small task to photograph every
listed building in the country. The photographs were taken by hundreds of
volunteer photographers, starting in 1999. The completed site now has over
323,000 images of England’s listed buildings. 8 December 2009.
Connected Histories
Online historical research is set to get easier. The Connected Histories project aims to create a new search engine for materials relating to British history 1500-1900, such as digitised books, newspapers, manuscripts, maps and images. It is a partnership between the Universities of Sheffield and Hertfordshire, the Institute of Historical Research, and King’s College London. But don't rejoice yet. The website won't be fully launched until 2011. 27 November 2009.
Pillboxes and dragon's teeth
The original reports from The Defence Areas Project, which examined preparations for the defence of Britain in 1940/41 against the threat of German invasion, can now be downloaded from the Archaeological Data Service. 16 November 2009.