Identifying the period...

[mcmurray]

As you will know I'm looking for a cottage in the area around Lincoln, it is going rather well actually, thanks for all your help.

I mentioned the cottage we are going to view this afternoon as being 1900s, however I'm having second thoughts concerning the period, despite what the estate agents tell me. As usual around lincoln, the small cottage is rendered and painted white and has been uPVC double glazed :roll: which makes age determination a little difficult. I've attached a photo, what do you think? Are there any 'give aways' to determine the period? Sadly the interior has been changed radically from it's original configuration when it was modernised in the 1960s, thus I don't believe there are any period features left inside.

Alastair


From my experiance of an un-modified Lincoln cottage of similar look, I'd say that is was originally two up, two down with a ground floor lean too at the back housing the kitchen.

 

[christianb]

Very difficult to even have a punt from the angle and distance. And, as you say, modifications have made the job even harder.

Looks like there's an addition to the rear elevation. Taking this out of the equation, how many rooms deep is it? How large are the bricks (if it is brick) of which it is constructed? How far from the centre of the village is it placed (closer = older as a very rough rule of thumb)? There are plenty of publications and online guides to helping you get a better idea of the period in which a property was built, and these are some of the questions that need to be answered.

There are also maps from the late-1800's available online for many parts of the country. Sure, they're thumbnail versions, but you might be able to see if there's a little black oblong where this property is sited.

C.

 

[mcmurray]

ok, we have located it on an 1891 OS map, well.... I say 'it', we have located a building marked on the map in its exact location, if it is the same building that stands today is not clear.

Now the million pound question. What would the front aspect of the cottage looked like back then? I guess the only sure fire way of finding out what it looked like before will come when someone ripps down the plaster on the interior of the front wall to reveal original door openings and window positions. As it stands the window positions just don't look right.

Alastair

 

[Tom]

Looks like there's an addition to the rear elevation.

The shape of this house is the same as many traditional Lincolnshire houses. It's just the way they were built

Jaqy

 

[Schoolmarm]

What about looking through some census records?

We dated my daughter's house to a hundred years older using census online things.

 

[Tom]

What about looking through some census records?

We dated my daughter's house to a hundred years older using census online things.

Mcmurray, I have a worldwide account with Ancestry, if you'd like me to look up something for you.

Jaqy

 

[DaveBrigg]

Alastair, that's so similar to our last house that I had to look twice to check it wasn't the same place. The only difference is that our front door had been blocked and the room behind turned into a dining room. A new main door had been fitted at the rear. We had an almost identical rear elevation, created when the house was extended to the back in the 1990's. The render is to disguise the breeze block construction of the rear extension. Our house had also been modernised, although there were one or two clues about its original construction. It was apparently two cottages, each with one room downstairs and one above. In the early 1900's the two cottages were converted into a shop.
The picture below was taken in the 1920's. You can see where one door was converted to a window, and two upstairs windows have been blocked up. The thatched cottage to the right was long gone by the time we moved in. I would guess that our house was built in the mid 1800's, but the design seems to have been widespread in Lincolnshire, so yours could possibly be of a later date. You could always ask the estate agent what evidence they based their judgement on.

 

[mcmurray]

Just got back from the viewing.
What a horrible cottage oh, it wasn't rendered, just painted brick.
The right side of the door was the original building, everything to the left was 1960s, with additions done in the 90s to further widen and add a flat roofed room at the back once the owner couldn't get upstairs. The original windows had been replaced in the 60s with large long ones, these were replaced with the smaller ones (seen in the photo) in the 90s leaving some very suspect brick work. Throughout the downstairs rooms damp was peeling the wall paper and mould was up to two feet high up the walls in places, and that's not just the exterior walls! Upstairs the ceiling had come down in one room and black mould was eating the walls under all the windows.

Considering the price was £155k I was shocked.

I did bump into the neighbour who was a nice old chap who had lived next door for 30 years, he new the full history and really put me off, saying that the 'old git' who used to live there did all the work on the cottage himself and the house was locally known as a death trap. He said the best thing that could happen would be to demolish it and put up a new build. Really there is more 1960s bodge than 1860s honesty. I also found out that the neighbour owns the garages opposite and isn't willing to sell.

PS. Thanks for the offer on Ancestry

 

[Penners]

As others have said, it's virtually impossible to date the building on the basis of your photo, and the modern "improvements" ( ) would make it difficult even in the flesh.

All I can say is that (in my extremely amateur opinion) its general construction - two-up, two-down, central chimney, later rear outshut, is redolent of many Victorian buildings.