Old photographs

[Longdogs]

Since moving into our Victorian house, we have been on the look out for any old photographs of the property, preferably with previous owners standing outside the front door. You know, like the ones you see in horror films that show who exactly is haunting you and throwing your furniture around .

So far we haven't found any. Has anyone found old photos of their house and previous owners and hung them on the wall?

 

[Andys]

I recommend the power of Facebook Through a photo posted to a locally-dedicated facebook group we've recently come across the family whose ancestors lived in our house until the 1990s ( and are listed as living in it on each census from 1841 too ). We had a very interesting afternoon looking at their old family photo album!

 

[fernicarry]

I found a postcard on ebay showing our house in 1914, it was built in 1863 we think, the title is a bit vague on the matter. The row of houses looks exactly the same today except for the trees. I have a search set up for the name of our village and the old name of our house which occasionally throws up other interesting 'artifacts'.

As Andys says census records can tell you a lot as well. In 1901 our house was occupied by a man (occupation cotton merchant), his wife, their 6 children, a nanny and a housekeeper! Its quite a substantial house but it must have been quite lively with that number of people.

We've also had visits from a previous occupant (70's and 80's I think) and one of her daughters who told us lots of great stories including the walls they had knocked through as well as the time a cow got stuck in the burn in the back garden!

-Alan

 

[Feltwell]

Interesting, not thought of that one - mind you, I'm not on Facebook, though Mrs F is.

No good for viewing past owners, but "Britain from Above" is worth a look for aerial pictures. I found the text search a bit hit and miss, only found 7 pictures for my town, but if you clicked on any of the pictures and then clicked on the Parish, 57 were available - including some good ones of my house.

http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/

If you're near any kind of local landmark, past or present, Francis Frith is worth a look - they have pictures of the church a few doors along from me, but not my house alas.

http://www.francisfrith.com/

 

[mims&pip]

Hi Longdogs

The previous owners of our last house - a non-listed, thatched, but otherwise quite grand ashlar stone Georgian house in Wiltshire - had done loads of research (but not much in the way of maintenance :roll during their twenty years of ownership and had traced the family that had lived there in the early 1800s. Their descendants were living in Australia and had sent our PO a couple of pics from late Victorian/Edwardian times when the property was a house with attached saddlery. We also found a pic - similar to what you describe with the family standing in front of the house - at a vintage fair selling old postcards & photographs. We framed these up and had them hanging in the downstairs *facilities* When we sold that house in 2014 we gave them to our buyers.

So far we have barely started to research our current house - originally built in 1853, extended in Arts & Crafts style during the 1920s - but a neighbour did mention the other day that there is an historic photo of it in a pub nearby......a good excuse for a visit, methinks :lol: It's a rather unusual house (inside and out!) and one of the earliest in the area, so imagine there must be more old photos/other historic info knocking about, but so far my internet research has brought forth nothing. Next job to search the census records.

Mims x

 

[DJH]

We have just one photograph of a group standing in front of our house taken we think, sometime in the 60's and it shows the family of previous owners and neighbours shortly before stations. I suppose very few photos would have been taken of a lowly Irish farmhouse years ago...

Doug

 

[malcolm]

I have been given a collection of photos by the local historian but hadn't thought about putting them on the wall. That's a good idea. My house had a new front and side around 1910 and I have photos taken before and after from both sides which are interesting and useful.

There were at least two significant makeovers earlier but nobody bothered to invent cameras or (so far as I know) to paint any pictures to record those so I only have maps to go on. I am lucky enough to have a list of the names of most of the occupants back to 1646 which I suppose ought to go on a wall somewhere too. Before that date I have a bit of wood which I'm tempted to have dated if I can find a willing university that doesn't charge the earth. The wood used to be the wall so maybe I should hang that back on a wall somewhere too.

 

[mims&pip]

I do wish past occupants/owners had taken more trouble to record for posterity (not to mention nosy parkers/history buffs such as myself, lol :lol: ) the history of houses we have previously owned......

Our Tudor house in Essex house had a very interesting - to us at least - history, as it was dismantled in the 1930s and rebuilt, bit by bit in a different part of the county. It was intended to be part of a garden suburb, but this was never completed due to the interference of WW2. It was apparently the first domestic building in Essex to have an outdoor swimming pool, but this was filled in after causing issues for pilots during the War (might be an apocryphal tale, that :roll: ). A few years back, after much online searching, I found a lovely first hand record of the rebuilding, written by a son of the then owner (who was a master builder, teaching his trade/craft to his sons), but at the time our printer was broken so I had to resort to copying it out by hand. When I looked online for it a few months later the article had vanished......

Local to our current house is a similar building, The Buttery - that was moved from Shifnal, Shropshire where it used to be the old butter market - to be part of Major Kenneth Hutchinson Smith's (a very interesting character, by all accounts) Castlecroft Gardens, a miniature 'model' village affair where the Tudor style properties were constructed from timbers etc reclaimed from much older houses that were being demolished. Unlike our Essex house, the history of The Buttery is well-documented. There is one of the Major's houses in our road, sadly it looks much altered.

Mims x

 

[MatthewC]

I've only found one old photo of my house, and that was only in about 1960. The trouble is that people stand opposite the house and in one direction there is a good view down a quite narrow street with old houses either side towards the market place, and the other way is the 12th C church, so no one ever seemed to look 90 deg in the direction of the house!

 

[malcolm]

The only reason I have any early photos of the house is it forms part of the view to the church, and is also in the foreground of the panorama when people have gained access to the church tower for photos. I haven't found any images deliberately taken of the house before it became ugly in the 1980s. An accidental image when something was going on in front in the 1950s is the best I have, but annoyingly that doesn't show what the stained glass in the front door looked like. I still have the door but not the glass.

 

[Longdogs]

Some interesting stories, which have given me some encouragement to carry on looking. I have found quite a few photos of our town (loads of the church) but all seem to stop half way along the street and do not go as far as the house. I might do a bit more research on the previous names on the deeds and see if I can find family photos as suggested.

Thank you.

 

[chuckey]

My Brother has an early picture(1910?) of his Georgian house. It shows the owner leaning on the gate post which was about 5' from the front of the house. The interesting thing is that the front garden is now at least 20' deep and there is still a 10' verge to the road ( for the time being?).
Frank

 

[TheRoost]

Look for local forums or historical societies in your area, they may have some photographs.

We found a photo of our house frontage, taken in 1900, when the house was about 10 years old, although the owners are not in the picture. We also have a couple of pictures of it's large formal side garden, which was sold off and built on years ago sadly.

We also found a picture of the owners (Mr Oliver Gaggs, married Miss Fanny Woof :lol: ) stood outside another, grander Edwardian house nearby, with two babies in a pram

 

[steveb]

or on the wall in the village hall in our case:

 

[wobs]

Since moving into our Victorian house, we have been on the look out for any old photographs of the property, preferably with previous owners standing outside the front door. You know, like the ones you see in horror films that show who exactly is haunting you and throwing your furniture around .

So far we haven't found any. Has anyone found old photos of their house and previous owners and hung them on the wall?

Clearly, what you need to do is take a photo of yourselves in front of your house for posterity, and place a copy stained with blood, under the floorboards or in some secret compartment. Some cryptic message on the back would add to the interest (or fear).

As for ours, we have seen no old pics as you describe.
Our last house can just about be seen in one of the Hull Then & Now books, which has a picture of it from the 1900s, and one from when I owned it. Nothing as exciting as most here, but is nice to see.

When we sold it, I went through the house documents, and found background on the previous owners, including jobs, and relationships etc. What I should have done, was to add something similar, but I did do a full report on the work I did.

 

[Penners]

Clearly, what you need to do is take a photo of yourselves in front of your house for posterity, and place a copy stained with blood, under the floorboards or in some secret compartment. Some cryptic message on the back would add to the interest (or fear).

The other wizard PPUK trick is fun if you're going to wallpaper a wall. Before you hang the paper, daub on the wall in runny red paint, "I WILL KILL AGAIN!".

 

[malcolm]

It is surprising how much can change in less than 100 years. Here are two photos taken from the church tower. The first from about 1900 and the second from 1987. My house is the one to the right. Spot the difference! They invented cars for a start.