WE may not all live in a listed Georgian pile such as our cover star, West Hall, in Richmond upon Thames, but the history of even the most humble home can still be fascinating. Here is how to research the history of your house:

Start by looking at the title deeds, which may contain details of past transactions. If you don’t have them, they may be held by your mortgage provider, solicitor or local library.

Apply to the Land Registry for a copy of the registration records of your house. These will exist only if your house has changed hands since compulsory registration was introduced: 1899 in London, 1979 in Scotland, 1990 in England and Wales, 2003 in Northern Ireland. If your house is registered, you will receive details of sales, boundary plans, owners, mortgages and other historical information (landregistry.gov.uk , scotlandlandregistry.co.uk , ireland-landregistry.co.uk ).

Talk to your neighbours – someone may already have researched the street’s history.

BACKGROUND

• Old beats the new in battle over skylines

• Preservation’s new order

• Family jewel

BACKGROUND

• Which would you prefer...

• Country houses: then and now

• Ancient versus modern

• The end of the road

Which would you prefer...

. . . a Regency gem for £2.75 million or a new-build mini-manor for £3.5 million?

The thrill of the old . . . or the ease of the new?

What's more desireable - period or brand new? Join the debate...

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Date your house by looking at the architecture. The dating tool at bricksandbrass.co.uk/deshist/dateintro.htm , is a good place to start.

Use the following resources: your local studies library (usually in the main borough or county library), the National Archives (nationalarchives.gov.uk), the London Metropolitan Archives (cityoflondon.gov.uk/lma) and your local planning department. An excellent website is british-history.ac.uk. Check in the London County Council Names of Streets and Placesreference book to see if your street name or house number has changed over the years, or, outside London, check census records for where a house number changes but the occupants remain the same. Particular documents to look out for are:

1. Electoral registers. These give information about the registered voter in the house, and have been kept annually since 1832. From 1928 women voters appear and you can find street names and house numbers. You may be able to track down former residents who are still alive.

2.Old maps. Britain has been mapped regularly by the Ordnance Survey since 1854, so you can check when your street and house first appeared (old-maps.co.uk , ordnancesurvey.co.uk ). Other useful maps, which may include owners’ details, include tithe maps from the 1830s, Goad Fire Insurance maps from the late 1800s, drainage maps, estate maps and bomb damage maps. Check the historical social class of your street using Charles Booth’s poverty maps, compiled between 1886 and 1903 (lse.ac.uk/booth ). Were the former residents of your street “lowest class, vicious, semi-criminal”, or “upper class, wealthy”? Other old London maps can be viewed at www.motco.com/map .

3.Census records. Address details are available from 1841 to 1901, although online versions (ancestry.co.uk , findmypast.com ) usually allow searches only by name. Your local library should catalogue records by street.

4. Annual directories. These are early versions of the phone book and Yellow Pages and can help you to identify who lived in your home. Once you know the name of a past resident, you can look up each year’s telephone directory (btplc. com/archives) to see how long they lived there. A good book on the subject is Home: The Story of Everyone Who Ever Lived in Our House, by Julie Myerson (Harper Perennial, £8.99). West Hall is for sale for £4 million via Knight Frank, 020-7591 8600. How to research a listed house, page 7

What are the top ten country houses in Britain? To find out, go to: timesonline.co.uk/marcusbinney

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