how do I find out what was on my land?

empy

Afternoon all, not sure where to post this as it is an odd question, please feel free to move it if it is not in the correct place, infact I would be most gratefull if you did.

Any ways my husband and I bought a building plot about 2 years ago and have just completed building our house(after a nightmare 2 years living in a mobile home with two young boys, but thats another story) whilst digging the footings our builder found the remains of a basement of a clunch cottage about 200-300 hundred years old ,complete with stairs leading down to it and a fireplace, it had been backfilled in the 20's or 30's as we had found amoungst the rubbish in it a milkbottle from that date period.
we unfortunatly had to fill it with concrete as its postition meant we couldnt do anything with it. after speaking to a fairly elderly chap who has lived in the villiage all his life he stated that there was 3 or 4 cottages on our land at one point.
my questions are:

how do I find out for sure what was on my land in the past?

if so can we build replacement dwellings in the place of these cottages?

how would I prove that these buildings were there?

many thanks in advance.

paddy's_mum

You could consult your county archives who may well have very old maps. A quick call to Ordnance Survey might reveal the earliest map for your area that they have, and which would be available for you to purchase.

English Heritage hold a vast archive of aerial photographs (priced at about £35 if you went ahead and bought a copy of one relevant to you) and can, if asked, send you photocopies of any photographs they hold that show your plot.

Local history societies or museums often have a large quantity of material available for scrutiny.

Might also be worth putting a letter in to your local newspaper asking if anyone knows, or has memories, of the old cottages.

empy

Hi, Thanks for that will check all the rescources that you have listed, it would be great if there was so we could build a couple more houses on the plot and reduce our mortgage a bit as at the moment it is huge and scary.

silvercar

It may be that the planning permission for your new home includes a clause that only one dwelling can be built on your plot.

empy

Ive just checked the planning permission there is no clause about the single dwelling, as it is a large plot with good accsess I dont feel tere would be issues with planning and highways agency.

many thanks for bringing the planning permission thing to my attention.

Doozergirl

Even if you want to build a replacement dwelling these days, you mustn't knock it down before you get planning permission. If you knock something down, it's entirely likely that you mightn't get planning permission to replace it.

We were told to not even knock down sheds and outhouses before obtaining planning permission to replace them with a proper extension.

I really don't think the council will take into account buildings that haven't even stood in many people's memories. Whether they grant PP regardless of that is another question!

Liz1966

You could try looking at old census records. They will be available for free at your County family records centre or at Kew Record Centre or online at various geneology sites such as https://www.ancestry.co.uk or https://www.findmypast.com (some charge for the service). You will need to have an address for this but this would only need to be the road name & you will be able to find all the houses listed on that road.

Good luck!

Generali

Try your local library or local history society.

Seen_the_light_4

What about talking to the Planning Officer who dealt with your original planning permission for your new house about the possibility of building another house on the plot.

Depending on what is said you could test the water with an outline planning application.