The Stories Hidden in Date Stones Have you ever noticed an old house with a date stone? Maybe paired with a set of initials? Or perhaps even your own home has one. From the 17th century onwards, it became increasingly common to inscribe buildings with their construction date. By the 18th and 19th centuries, especially…
One of my favourite things about researching old houses is how often they turn out to be hiding remarkable stories. Every so often, a property offers up a detail that feels like a gift. Receiving the order for 197 County Road was exactly that. On the surface, it’s a charming detached 1930s house; behind it…
For anyone who appreciates old buildings and their history, St Osyth’s has to be on your list of places to explore. Hidden on the Essex coast, St Osyth is one of those rare places where layers of English history sit almost completely intact. As a house historian who spends my days researching period homes, tracking…
House history research into an address in a small West Sussex village surfaced the story of Arthur Victor Edwards Burrage. An ordinary young man, born into a large working-class family, who found himself living to tell a very extraordinary tale. Arthur’s story began in the village of Warnham. Born in 1891, he was one of…
This week’s house history research into an address in Epsom brought me across a curious story that unfolded in the town back in the late 19th century. Victorian England was a very different country to the one we know today, especially in how the law treated personal relationships. This story originated out of South Street,…
Whilst researching the history of an address in Berkshire, I stumbled across a case that pulled me far beyond deeds and census returns. The name that surfaced was Lydia Astell – born in Berkshire around 1796, the daughter of Ellick Etherington and Hannah Robley. Her story could not be neatly contained within four walls. Instead,…
When House History Turns True Crime This house history took me to the beautiful, historic market town of Petworth in West Sussex. Known today for its antique shops, handsome Georgian facades and character cottages, the streets are full of charm — but I could already sense there were deeper layers of history waiting to be…
