Finding pictures of my Victorian house

[cawright1]

Hi guys, we own a Victorian terraced house in Stockport. It's a small terrace of only 6 houses, and it is on a main road. As my wife is into Victoriana in a big way, she wants to try and get some of the original features back into the house, starting with the windows. None of the houses on the terrace have original windows, and what they looked like when the house was built (1898) can only be conjecture.

Ideally, we would find some pics of the terrace / our house during its early years.

We've tried all the local history groups and not managed to get much at all, a distant glimpse of our house through some trees being the best we can currently find.

I was going to settle for that, thinking that there weren't too many cameras about in those days, but then it occured to me that there must be something somewhere that has either pictures or at least a lithograph of the house? I mean, when the terrace was built, surely some record was taken of the work? and what about the sale of the newly built houses? Surely there would be something that the estate agents would have used? Then, planning permissions? Again, I would have thought this would have involved drawings etc.
And what about the 'city engineer'? Don't those guys take pictures of all new buildings?

Anyway, just wondering if anyone could give advice on the above, and point me in the right direction to try and get some pics, or info.

 

[plasticpigeon]

Bravo, I think your wife has excellent taste, and windows are one of the most influential factors when it comes to the appearance of a house. Have you tried looking for old postcards, there seem to be quite a few of local areas from around 1900. Here is one seller.

www.markfynn.com

Have you typed your road into google images???

 

[Feltwell]

I think you'll struggle to find anything unless you happen to be lucky and find an old postcard (as PP mentions above) or an old book with an illustration. The oldest I've found of my house is an aerial picture from the 1950's, taken as we had a large brewery behind us. County archives are worth a try but planning permission in it's current form only came in around 1948 from memory, others on here will know more about this.

All is not lost though - firstly, have you asked any neighbours who have been there a while if they've got old pictures or who can remember what the original windows looked like? The chances are they were still there until at least the 1970's, if not much more recently. You may even find someone has the remains of an old window languishing in their shed. If all residents are fairly recent, does anyone know who used to live there?

Have you asked in a local shop? They tend to know who the older locals are who have been in the area a long time - even if they didn't live in that terrace they may well know who did.

Pictures on here would be good, before anyone else says it! If it's a fairly standard late Victorian terrace then they would almost certainly have been box sash windows. If it's a terrace at the humbler end of the scale then a 2 over 2 sash is highly likely.

Have the old windows gone completely from all the houses? Sometimes one survives round the back or on an outbuilding - and sometimes with sashes the timber box frame is left in-situ, and a new UPVC or aluminum frame inserted within the box.

 

[angrybird]

I find talking to neighbours a good idea, one neighbour came up with a photo of my house with 2 limestone cottages in my garden no wonder there is so much stone lying around,a miss Nuttal lived in one of the cottages she was a seamstress any local websites? again I found a very old picture on a site of one side of my house when it was a village shop, a lady can remember the shop smelling of damp and freshly baked bread! not much change there :lol:

good luck and keep searching/asking questions
jacqueline x

 

[JoceAndChris]

It's so superb to get hold of old piccies or just information, yes, I'd write letters to every house in the terrace or knock on every door and ask. Sometimes people hang onto old sales brochures. You might get lucky in the library if you have a sift through some of the local history books. Good luck!

Yes, I agree with Feltwell about the sashes, and they'd have been likely to be horned I think.

 

[agbagb]

We found our hershttp://www.picturethepast.org.uk/fr...s=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;DCHQ502134&prevUrl= the shop on the left. There might be a similar resource that covers your area.

The window are most likely to have been 1 over 1 sliding sashes at that time with horns (only the best for an up and comming area like Stockport), although the old style 2 over 2 was still in common use. This is as close as I've been able to get ours with the required double glazing.