When was your property built, and how has it changed over time? What stories are there to tell of its walls and the people that lived within?
We are not architects or buildings experts, but we can look into the human occupation of your home and the historical evidence of its changing use over time.
If only walls could talk. For those curious to find out the history of their house, we don’t blame you. Whether it’s a one-hundred-year-old farmhouse or a contemporary new build, every house has a history (though, some more interesting than others). By researching a home’s past, you’re sure to uncover its previous residents (and their stories), as well as the home’s architectural and (potentially) archaeological history. Not only can finding a house’s history make you better appreciate its quirks and charm, but it can also be helpful for preservation purposes.
We can explore and unearth:
- Historical photographs
- Moving images
- Architectural plans
- Archaeological surveys
- Colourful maps
- Census and other biographical data
- Secondary sources histories
The potential range for ‘house histories’ is extensive. For example:
- You may be interested in the stories of those who lived there.
- You may be interested in the structural changes and uses.
- You may be interested in setting the lifetime of the house within the demographic and geographic changes within the area.
- You may have specific interests such as the house during wartime.
- Your house may have a peculiar history which you would like to research (e.g. it may previously have been a church, a schoolhouse, or a pub).
- Something other than these.
All or some of the above may apply to your situation which may also benefit from a particular medium used to present the findings. We would strongly urge you to contact us so that – at no cost to you – together we can chat through exactly what it is you wish to achieve and what you expect. We can then design a bespoke package to suit your requirements.
This makes a unique gift, that the whole family and beyond can appreciate at a very affordable cost. But more than that, it can also serve as a legacy document for generations to come.
The following example is work completed by us and highlights the range of research that we are able to provide.
Responding to an enquiry from 500 miles south of this remote corner of the NE Scottish coast we set out for one of the numerous little cemeteries around these parts which stand isolated away from modern settlements and whose parent church has long since disappeared.
We identified and photographed a number of headstones bearing the family name in question. From there the detective work involved initial online searches which provided some more information but resulted in more questions than answers. Through contacting the district folk museum, local studies and local history groups, and genealogists, we discovered that the family’s roots in the tiny Speyside villages of Kingston and Garmouth were deep and wide. They are also fiendishly difficult to unpick due to the inter-marrying of maritime families and the naming protocols for children.
After much further research, graveyard outings, and field-trips to the River Spey, we were able to construct a picture of the family’s importance to the incredible explosion of a (now forgotten) 130 year shipbuilding industry. We were able to identify a number of surviving properties with which the extended family was associated. For the purpose of this enquiry we concentrated on one – Dunfermline House (formerly Red Corf House) – since it was at the centre of the maritime industry which so profoundly influenced the economic and social fabric of the area, fundamentally and permanently configuring the physical environment. It was possible to trace the building back to its origins as a leper hospital in the 14th century, to its usage as a corf house (a building for curing Salmon), through its role as the heart of the shipbuilding era, right up to the present.
In addition to the ‘house histories’ it was fascinating to uncover and pass-on details of ships built by the family shipyard in the grounds of Red Corf House, their voyages, cargoes, crews, and sadly their wrecks and the loss of lives, including relatives. We even discovered that one of the family’s boats which was wrecked off Tasmania is now on display at a maritime museum there, and due to confusion with an earlier ship of similar name, is immortalised on the first Australian $5 note.
Dunfermline House today from across the River Spey
Dunfermline House and the channels which are all that remain of what was once a shipyard
Dunfermline House today from across the River Spey
Dunfermline House in 1977
The first Australian $5 note with an image of the Spey built barque ‘The Waverley’
French Phillips Historical Consultancy 