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Original poster

Inspired by the 1921 census, have you looked up the history of your house?

82 replies

MedusasBadHairDay · 07/01/2022 16:36

I'm not having a lot of luck finding out about the history of my house, so hoping to hear some success stories to inspire me Grin

We're fairly certain the house was built in the early twenties as part of the drive to build council houses after WWI so I'm hoping I can find it's first residents on the census, though aware it might not have even been built in time, let alone occupied.

OP posts:
NotJustACigar · 07/01/2022 16:40

Yes, our house was built in 1877. In the 1881 census it was occupied by a flax salesman, his wife, their 5 daughters, a maid, and their lodger who was a dental surgeon from India! By 1891 they were all gone. I always wonder what happened to them. Another house on our street was where a titanic survivor lived.

Poledra · 07/01/2022 16:45

How do you know if it's your house, though? My house dates from the 1690s, and its number has changed as the village grew!

Poledra · 07/01/2022 16:47

Sorry, posted too soon! I don't want to pay for the transcripts to only find out it's the wrong one...

GreeboIsMySpiritAnimal · 07/01/2022 16:50

I haven't, but we know it belonged at one point to a war hero (WW1) who was the only person in our town to receive a Victoria Cross, because the local historical society is keen up put a blue plaque on it to his memory.

ChurchlightJane · 07/01/2022 16:50

I looked up our house which is a terraced Edwardian but although the houses either side of me are listed, ours is notConfused

KeepYellowBoxClear · 07/01/2022 16:51

Yes - I looked yesterday. It’s fascinating. There were three houses on our street and the Haigh family lived in ours. Husband and wife, three children.

I wonder what they’d make of it now - we’re mid-way through an extension, there’s 6 additional houses on the street and our village has completely changed.

I haven’t paid to view the record to see their occupations, but I’m very tempted!

Original poster
MedusasBadHairDay · 07/01/2022 16:53

@Poledra

Sorry, posted too soon! I don't want to pay for the transcripts to only find out it's the wrong one...
This is my problem, it's only listing 6 properties on my road and none have numbers that I can see - I presume there are numbers on the transcript but I'm not buying them all in the off chance on of them is mine. Especially as there are more than 6 houses in the road, most of which are built at the same time (we found them all on an ordnance survey map from 1925).
OP posts:
Original poster
MedusasBadHairDay · 07/01/2022 16:54

@ChurchlightJane

I looked up our house which is a terraced Edwardian but although the houses either side of me are listed, ours is notConfused
Oh that's weird. Wonder if it was just unoccupied the day of the census?
OP posts:
FlyingFlamingo · 07/01/2022 16:56

I have the same question as @Poledra.

My road is long (about 10 miles I think but the last few miles are mostly farm land), the houses range in age from Victorian (maybe older) to brand new and I think the numbers must have changed at some point because ours ‘matches’ our neighbours but their house is 1930s and ours is 1910s I believe. There are 2 entries for the road, each with multiple houses. Some have names (that I don’t recognise so may now be numbered), but most don’t have any name or number. The entries aren’t ordered by district either so how do I know which is mine? Confused

Howshouldibehave · 07/01/2022 16:56

Can I ask how much you have to pay and can you see any information without paying?

HollowTalk · 07/01/2022 16:56

How do you search for your house rather than for a person?

AndrewPreview · 07/01/2022 16:59

Ours was built in 1997 Grin and we were only the second people to live in it so I think we're good on our history. The 1921 census has got me back into looking at our family history though. When ancestry stuff first went online, my family tree matched up with my mums cousin as he was publishing his grans war poems (its very convoluted, but that side of the family is massive). We got to meet up and go through old photos that I'd inherited and he told me who everyone was. It was really interesting.

Hellocatshome · 07/01/2022 16:59

When we bought our house the survey identified bomb damage and you can tell it used to be mid terrace but is now end terrace is there is a gap a few houses wide then the terrace starts again. We looked it up and found a newspaper article describing how our street took a direct hit by a bomb in WW2. The missing houses in the terrace were either flattened by the bomb or pulled down as unsafe and our house despite being a bit wonky was considered structurally sound enough to leave (confirmed by the survey) although it has had some strengthening work done to the wall that should have been joined on to next door. The newspaper article sadly indicated there had been 1 death in the bombing which was that of a fire warden. Where we live it is all grid pattern terrace housing but there is a clear line of missing terraced houses from the port moving inland so you can clearly see the route the German bombers took as they dropped their bombs.

OhGiveUp · 07/01/2022 17:01

For some reason, when we bought our house the solicitor included all the deeds from the previous owners.
I have no idea how he got hold of them, but they made fascinating reading.

Angel2702 · 07/01/2022 17:03

Ours wasn’t built until 1930 and has been in our family since it was built so have the full history and photos from then.

Hmmph · 07/01/2022 17:11

My house was built in the mid 1920s, so the census wouldn’t help!

However, I have already researched all the old inhabitants. It’s a family home that people stay in for a long time so there haven’t been many! We also received all the old deeds and records related to the house when we bought it, which helped a lot with finding everything out, but I have also researched the missing information. The saddest thing was the first couple who lived here had a child who died at birth - I found that out on baby loss awareness day so I lit a candle for him (and them). They never had any other children.

SkepticalCat · 07/01/2022 17:13

Some good tips here for researching the history of your house. One of them is to work backwards in time so you can be more certain you are looking at the correct house, rather than starting further back and working forwards. As others have said, house numbers may change over time.

blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/top-tips-for-researching-the-history-of-your-house/?s=09

CovidCorvid · 07/01/2022 17:31

I also can’t tell which house is mine on the list. I put my street and village in and there are 65 houses, I know one is mine but can’t pay for all 65. There’s no house numbers.

dudsville · 07/01/2022 17:36

My house was built in 1938 and, shockingly, we're only the 3rd owners. My neighbourhood was built at the same time and I don't know what it is about this neighbourhood but all around me are similar stories.

BlackLambAndGreyFalcon · 07/01/2022 17:37

Unfortunately my house wasn't built until the 1960s!

PissedOffNeighbour22 · 07/01/2022 17:38

Mine is from around 1790 and can't find the house in some of the census years due to it being a very small hamlet of 3 farms back then. I think it's been lumped in with one of the other villages in the area but I can't find a trace.

TyneFilth · 07/01/2022 18:07

If you look at www.old-maps.co.uk for your postcode, you can go back through older map editions and you may be able to see house names or numbers for the right time period.

My house was built in 1937 so I've got a while to wait before I can find out about its first residents!

OpposableThumbs2 · 07/01/2022 18:15

Mine doesn't have any numbers on it but does have a schedule number, does that amount to the same thing?

Tulipomania · 07/01/2022 18:21

Same problem. 12 houses for my parents.

Found my house but it was spelled wrong.

EdnaMole · 07/01/2022 18:22

I couldn’t fathom the house numbers thing either..made an educated guess and paid to look but none the wiser as still no house number? Said there was only 10 in the schedule, there’s about 50 now and while some are clearly more modern I’d say more than 10 are..including (I’m assuming) ours..I have no idea exactly when it was built, but would have thought pre-1921 for sure. Any ideas how to narrow things down and/or find out house numbers?