Dating the age of property in Merthyr Tydfil An increasing number of people want or need to know the age and history of their properties.
We offer a number of books on the topic, including books like "Tracing the history of your house" by Nick Barratt. While those general books are very useful if you need to do more detailed research, they do not usually help much with specific homes in a local area.
We can usually assist you with dating the age of a local house and we should certainly be able to help you to be close enough to the dates that are usually needed for insurance purposes.
- Stage 1: Look at the physical style of the building
Confirm the general age by a general assessment of the style and construction of the house and the area that it is in. Be aware that even if there is a map showing a builidng on a particular site, it wouldn't have been a modern bungalow in the 19th century!
In cases where a property seems to be out of keeping with the locality, you would need to do more research. Later planning records are usually the most useful for that.
- Stage 2: Depending on the style of construction you can use the following sources:
Census records
If you believe that the house has been been built 19th Century look at indexes to census returns prior to 1901. Those records tell you who lived there on census night and and when that address first appeared in the census records (the census was and is conducted every 10 years) .
Local maps
You can also look at early maps, although most of the areas with few houses were often not incuded on the maps at that time.
Electoral registers
Some properties were included in the early electoral registers, but coverage wasn't comprehensive because of various restrictions regarding who could vote.
Planning lists
Library staff have access to an "Index to the Merthyr Tydfil Planning Books" ( these start in 1856 ). Although there were no planning controls at all until after 1850 there was a survey of streets and roads in 1866 to make sure houses had a proper water supply, toilet, ventilation etc…….. this survey does not extend south of Troedyrhiw or north of the Merthyr Tydfil Parish into Vaynor.
If you believe that the house was built in the 20th Century you have access to a much more comprehensive set of the Registers of Electors.
You can also have a the use of a much better and lmore comprehensive set of local maps (with a greater need to be sure that the property on the map is the same house!) and a greater range of council documents on planning and new buildings Please note that many of our earlier records cover only the Parish of Merthyr Tydfil, extending from the top of Dowlais to Quaker’s Yard. They usually do not include the same detail for areas that joined the Merthyr Tydfil area in 1874 (like Vaynor)
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