Mapping historic buildings in your parish

Historic buildings are buildings that are thought to be important, either because an important historical event took place there, because they are a very good example of a particular style of architecture, or because they help make an area look different and special.

Listed buildings can be normal houses, like this one on the High Street, Burnham There are over 7000 historic buildings in Buckinghamshire. See how many are in your parish. Do an Advanced Search on Buckinghamshire’s Heritage Portal and choose the name of your parish from the pull down list. You can display what you have found on a map by pressing the Map button at the top of the reults. You may have to zoom in to show all of the historic buildings clearly.

What period are most of the historic buildings in your parish? Create a bar chart like the one below:

Example bar chart showing dates of listed buildings

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A building can date to several different periods. Decide which is the main period of building by looking at the description. What do all or most of the buildings of that period have in common? Many eighteenth century buildings, for instance, have a fanlight over the door, like this one:

Think about the reasons behind the main building period for your village. If many of your village's buildings were constructed in the nineteenth century, maybe they were built for the workers in a factory, or to house those working in a large country house. Does your village have a country house or factory in it? Look at the table below of reasons for each century and decide which fits your village:

Century	Reasons
15th	As people moved from the villages to the towns, the old houses in your village were preserved rather than knocked down and replaced.
16th	The landowners in your village did well out of rearing sheep, and constructed well-built houses.	Your village had royal patronage.
17th	The landowners in your village did well out of rearing sheep, and constructed well-built houses.	Yours is a coaching village, on a main route to and from London.	Your town did well in trade or a particular industry.
18th	Yours is a coaching village, on a main route to and from London.	Your town did well in trade or a particular industry.
19th	Houses were built to house workers at the factory/ies.	Houses were built to house workers at a country house	Houses were built when the railway came.
20th	A New Town, built to a modern plan.

Many churches are listed, like this one at Upper Winchendon Are there any pictures linked to the listed buildings you found on Buckinghamshire’s Heritage Portal? Choose two or three houses that best reflect your village and print or copy out the description and photograph to create a report showing what you village looks like.

You can also put the map and bar chart you created in this report. At the start copy out the reason why your village looks the way it does from the table above. Also put on there the main characteristic of that century’s buildings. Your finished report could look something like the example, Waddesdon in the Victorian period.

Go back for more Archaeology in local history.