How do we date our house ?

[Alex]

Hello All,
I hope someone can help. We have been trying to date our house which unfortunetly been modernised to within an inch of its life, the usual concrete render, UPVC windows and Artex. It was 2 rubblestone cottages, a one up/one down and a two up/two down but were knocked together sometime we assume, in the 1970's. It was not registered with the Land Registry until 1974 and was not owned privately until 1924. We spent last Friday in the County Record Office and the earliest map they have of the area is the 1841 Tithe Map which we already had a photocopy of. We have the original flagstones in the front room and at the bottom of the stairs. The original stone spiral staircase which wrapped around the chimney is still there except for the bottom 3 steps which were 'mutilated' when a straight wooden staircase was put in, possibly in the 1960's or 70's. The walls are 3 feet thick at the base and gradually narrow as they go up. The original windows are fairly small and the window reveals slope outwards (excuse the expression) 'arrow slit style' into the room to let in more light. When removing a plasterboard ceiling, we found a dark yellow ochre limewash at the top of the wall where it met the original ceiling and when stripping paint off the only original doorframe in the same room, we found orange coloured paint on the wood. The cottage isn't listed and we are not in a conservation area. We went to the local heritage centre to ask advice but they just seemed stunned that we had no intention of getting rid of the flagstones. Should we ask CADW (the Welsh version of English Heritage) or our local Conservation Officer ? Or is this asking for trouble ? We dont have anything to hide and want to restore rather than renovate, we have both learned to lime plaster and have just finished our first room and until the Welsh monsoon season started we were getting the concrete overcoat off the outside and have our buckets of lime mortar ready to repoint and then limewash. Maybe someone could recommend a good book on Welsh cottages that might give us some clues.

Thankyou,

Alex.
I have been trying to answer everyones replies to my post for some time but every time I try to submit it, it just disappears off the screen, can someone tell me where I am going wrong, is it that my reply is too long.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Looking at the price, I'd suggest a trip to the library:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Houses-Welsh-Countryside-Historical-Geography/dp/0117004758
From memory, it's concerned more with houses a bit higher up the social scale though.

There's also this:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Welsh-House-Iorwerth-Cyfeiliog-Peate/dp/1861431325 which is something of a classic

This is very good on the practicalities of conservation:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Precious-Inheritance-Conservation-Vernacular-Buildings/dp/1905960018

 

[robgil]

if i were to try and date my house , first i would approach the task by buying it some flowers to first break the ice, then perhaps a quiet word with a mutual friend to find out what kind of films it likes and what food its partial to then invite it out for a meal or to the cinema , or both.
well , providing it likes kebabs and sci-fi , other wise we would be poorly matched and it may well all end in tears.

sorry , couldn't resist.

 

[Cloudscape]

Are you miles from any other human habitation... or are there other houses in the vicinity? If there's any other properties nearby, there might be some knowledge of local history.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

if i were to try and date my house , first i would approach the task by buying it some flowers to first break the ice, then perhaps a quiet word with a mutual friend to find out what kind of films it likes and what food its partial to then invite it out for a meal or to the cinema , or both.
well , providing it likes kebabs and sci-fi , other wise we would be poorly matched and it may well all end in tears.

sorry , couldn't resist.

:lol: :lol: :lol: but surely flowers is a bit forward nowadays? do the research through a mutual friend first.

 

[Cloudscape]

Or just stalk the house on Facebook. :?

If the house isn't listed, Cadw might not have any info. Could we have a look at pics, and an idea of the situation - remote, village, town (whatever)?

 

[Flyfisher]

Not trying to 'groom' the house for a date are you? :wink:

 

[worms]

Not sure if the suggestion is relevant for Wales (or England for that matter) but due to the nature of things in Scotland in the 18th Century, the old military surveys (1747-55) by General Roy are a good source of earlier info here. While these may not be absolute proof for individual buildings in settlements, they can be indicative for buildings that are isolated in the countryside. Does something similar exist in the South?

 

[another_richard]

Hello Alex.

Was your area enclosed? http://hds.essex.ac.uk/em/index.html

You can find out who lived there around 1908-1910 by using the Finance Act Maps: Held at the national Achive in Kew.

I finds it hard to believe the archive you visited does not hold and maps earlier thatn estate maps.

Etc

 

[Penners]

If the civil records are no help, try the church records. Have a word with the vicar for advice.

 

[chuckey]

1. The house deeds should show some history, ours go back to 1805 - Its still got the same name!.
2. If the house has a name, looking in the various parish records and census returns will tell you who lived there and at what date.
3. Around here its difficult to date property by its styling as these were just what the builder or client fancied at the time. Victorian properties are easier to identify by their more sensible form of roof construction. But the stonework could of course be older.
Frank

 

[Alex]

Please help, where am I going wrong ? I have been trying to post replies to everyone who kindly posted replies to my question but I seem to fail at every attempt. Is it that my reply is too long ? This has been going on since the beginning of September. Is it a way of keeping the technologically challenged off of this site ? :lol: Do they run evening classes for people like me ? Surely you can't all work in IT !
Thankyou,

Alex.

 

[MdB]

Well you seemed to manage it OK there. What is going wrong? PM me if you want to.

 

[Alex]

Thanks for answering so quickly. The reason I wondered if my reply was too long is that I type to the bottom of the screen and then disappears down below it, (if you get what I mean), I then can't read the bottom few lines of type. I know it sounds daft but is there a word limit for replies ? I have tried looking through the help section but no luck. Teenage daughter won't help, I think she has run out of patience with me and my lack of computer skills. I can't imagine putting photo's on here !

P.S. Can't work out how to insert lines from other peoples replies into mine. I think lime plastering is easier.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Poor Alex. I've been in that state. There is no limit to words on here, thank God. I can't understand why you can't see the bottom of your reply. When you fill up the white box you're typing into a scroll thing appears on the right of the text box, use your mouse pointer to scroll up and down it. If the worst comes to the worst, hit submit and carry on in a new post!

If you'd like to quote someone,there's a quote button top right of their post. Click it. You get the whole thing. If you want to quote just one sentence of what they say you have to highlight that one sentence FIRST, then click the quote button. If you want to quote multiple people in one post, just scroll down the page using that bar on the far right and click on the relevant quote button by the posts you'd like to include.

If that's too hard, you could try something like:

@Penners - I agree
@Joce: what nonsense!

That saves time.

If you would like to include photos, you must first get familiar with uploading photos from your digital camera onto photobucket or flickr. I love photobucket as under each image there's a drop down box with one bit of writing that says "Share image code" You copy that and just paste it into your post here - it makes it easier if you have both period property and photobucket open at the same time (you should be able to use ctrl+t to get lots of websites open on your computer at once)

Hope that helps - very kind people to help you here if not!

 

[Schoolmarm]

:shock:


When I hit quote, it goes straight to the reply box, so I can only ever quote one person.

I just tried to do the highlight sentence and hit quote thing, but the whole post was quoted.

 

[Alex]

Thanks for your reply, I was beginning to feel quite clever when I managed to upload photo's onto the computer but after trying to reply to everyone who kindly replied to my original post and failing every time, I am ashamed to say that i actually gave up for a month. I didn't want everyone to think that I being rude and not even acknowledging their responses. Even though I was scrolling down the page, when I took my finger off the mouse button, the page was springing back up. I have printed off your reply to me so I can have it in front of me when I try it out. This seems like a really good site and everyone is so friendly and helpful and its good to have other peoples opinions and advice on things, especially when things are not going well.
Thanks again, I'm off to study your instructions now (over a cup of coffee) and will attempt them later in the day.

Alex

Schoolmarm, you are not suffering alone ! Is there a support group for Technologically Challenged Period Property Owners?

 

[JoceAndChris]

@ Schoolmarm

Hmmmm, all I can say is make absolutely sure that the sentence you'd like to quote is still highlighted when you hit the quote button.


It doesn't matter that you're in the reply box and you've just dealt with one quotation, just scroll down using the scroll bar on the far right AND THE SCROLL BAR BY THE POSTS and repeat the process, for example:

Thanks for answering so quickly

If the civil records are no help, try the church records. Have a word with the vicar for advice.

There's also this:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Welsh-House-Iorwerth-Cyfeiliog-Peate/dp/1861431325 which is something of a classic

You should be able to get all the way back tio the beginning of the thread and quote as much and as many as you'd like.

@ Alex Don't give up! Look at that lovely reply you just posted! Keep practising with highlighting and scrolling! Often with photobucket I have to highlight copy and paste that image code 4 or 5 times because of finger inaccuracy. The mouse is a VERY sensitive little creature.

 

[Flyfisher]

Alternatively, just use the 'quote' button just above the reply box. This will automatically enter "{quote}{/quote}'' in your reply - except it will use square brackets like this [ ] [ ]. Anything you type between the middle ][ brackets will appear in your reply as a quote. You don't have to use the 'quote' button though, you can type the 'quote' controls youself if you wish.

Just like this.

You can add as many quotes as you wish by just repeating the "{quote}{/quote}'' controls:

Just like this.

And this.

Finally, if you want the quote to be assigned to someone, you can do this by adding the name to the {quote} control like this: {quote="any-text-here"} (again, don't forget to use square brackets).

That's the way to do it!

You can even use a quote within a quote like this:

What a lovely sunny day

Not where I live!

It might look daunting at first but there is logic in the madness - there always is with computers, it's the only thing they do.

 

[Penners]

Penners - I agree

Thanks, Joce. That's a phrase I never thought I'd live to see.

Alex - Flyfisher has eloquently explained how to insert quotes (attributed or not) within your post. As to the apparent limit on the number of words, I seem to have to same problem as you. Once my narrative reaches the bottom of the box (which it does all too often!) it fails to scroll normally. The text bounces up and down with every letter I type, and remains largely invisible, unless I stop typing and scroll down to it.

I have yet to find a solution to this problem, except to continue typing blind, and then sub my work afterwards!