House Histories
As part of our “History of Settlement” project we commissioned a professional investigation of what are generally regarded as three of the oldest houses in Bingham, including the use of dendrochronology analysis to date some timbers. 21 Long Acre had no beams that could be dated and 23 Long Are East had only one. 61-63 Long Acre had sufficient datable beams to five a good estimate of age. As part of our subsequent “Roots and Development of Bingham” Project we commissioned more studies using dendrochronology and/or architectural survey methods, again using professional archaeologists. The results of those studies can be found here. BHTA has been fortunate in being allowed access to a number of sets of deed documents for buildings in the town and we have been able to scan interesting items. We would be pleased to be offered more. These documents are usually stored by one’s mortgage company and can difficult to access whilst there is a loan outstanding on the property. We have been able to see some sets of documents during the process of a property sale, when the documents pass between solicitors. Documents reveal names and occupations of owners (sometimes tenants) which can be traced in the census and trade directories to extend and add interest to the information. Sometimes there is sufficient to merit a ‘family’ page linked to the main text. Many ‘Bingham names’ crop up repeatedly as lenders, witnesses or trustees, giving an insight into how local society was organised. Examples of how women’s property rights changed can be seen in some of the deeds. The way in which people funded house purchases changed over this period from private loans to building societies as these developed. The process of infill development of some of the small agricultural closes can be traced, showing how this is not just a twentieth century phenomenon. Most modern land transactions include a plan of the property. Until the end of the nineteenth century this was rare - but some examples exist in the deeds we have seen and are where available are reproduced in the text. They often add information about the surrounding area and property ownerships. In some cases we have traced the development of the land parcel involved by including extracts from old maps; Sanderson’s map of 1835; the tithe map of 1841; and Ordnance Survey maps of 1848, 1901 and 1910. |
We can learn how the major family - the
Chesterfield/Carnarvon dynasty - secured their land holdings under a succession
of trust arrangements and how they managed the development of Bingham
in the later 19th and early 20th centuries. One interesting trend that
has emerged from our examination of deeds is that The Fifth Earl of Carnarvon
sold many freeholds during 1920. We assume this was to generate funds
for his excavations in Egypt with Professor Howard Carter, which culminated
in the discovery
of the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922. |