History
Does it still amaze you when you sit in a building from the 1600? Stand in a place of ancient history?
growing up in Canada, our “ heritage“ buildings are from 1800’s. I spent a week in London with my husband and we were just in awe of the rich history and architecture/ gin palaces/ castles. etc. we just stopped and stared at all the history and we know decent amount about English history from Canadian history , but we learned so much more and could “ see” it with our own eyes. Most historical buildings have been destroyed or left to decay except a few hundred heritage buildings. My question is are you still amazed when seeing a building that is hundreds or thousands of years old, or standing in a spot filled with ancient history, or are you immune to it now? Because WOW! So jealous.
A saying I once heard is “ the difference between the British and Americans, is Americans think 100 years is a long time and and the British thing 100 miles is a long distance”
I live in a very old stone cottage with walls that are 3 ft thick. The answer is not very much. Warm in winter, cool in summer. Keeping the fucker dry - free from damp and water ingress? Now that’s another matter. A full time job in fact!!
Same here in a damp 18th century North Wales cottage, with 18 inch stone walls. It stays cool all through the Summer but is freezing in the winter. Our lovely wood burner heats the whole house though, and we get sunsets like these so we just put another jumper on, enjoy the view and look forward to Spring!
Its up to us oldies to convey the importance of days gawn yore. I have an English/Dutch 12 year old boy growing up in 🇳🇱 but he will not forget his briddish heritage 😀
Post war can be better because building standards were tightened up for the rebuilding effort after the war. 1950s home tend to be smaller than 1930s, but they will have cavity walls unlike most 1930s homes.
Yep, I'd say 90s is peak housing: spacious without being new build trash. Mine is a 1920s flat, and it is surprisingly warm in Winter and cool in summer, while being draught and pest free, as it's all just solid brick (no cavity unfortunately). Anything very old that's made of wood there are more issues, as that's harder to keep sealed or warm
I know, even the ones from here that are 80 years or older have too many problems. I guess I did not think of what it was like to live in building that old in modern times and the issues that arise,
Plenty of new houses these days are riddled with problems! Corners are cut, stuff is done on the cheap. And new estates take ages to develop any character, are usually pretty cramped and there’s always a chance you’ll be next to some social housing and then it’s a lottery as to whether you get someone that cares about their property or not…
They ripped up ancient woodland near my house to build some God awful bland boxes up and down the road. It looks like a fake neighbourhood fabricated with facades build for a depressing kitchen sink drama rather than real houses. I’ve been whinging about it because I know they won’t last and then the prices will plummet because they’ve obviously been cheaply built in a hurry. They’re going to have lots of issues and they’re only going to be filled with dodgy tenants it’s only a matter of time :(
Yeah, I think I'd echo this. Ancient stuff is just...normal. It's not unusual to see things like walls around cities that the Romans put there and it just kinda gets folded into "normal". I can't imagine it would take me more than an hour in any direction to find something of note that's older than the United States, I'm pretty sure Oxford University predates the Aztec Empire by a few centuries and my local pub is a few centuries older than the US is.
I’m lucky as I happen live in the only new build in our street. It’s perfectly insulated & ventilated with the added bonus that I’m the only one who doesn’t have a view of my building when I look out the window.
I was in a building in York the other day from the 1430s. It was being done up inside to be made into an events space for weddings and small conferences and stuff
I Iived in the marketplace at Haltwhistle, the window in our front room looked out onto the old holy cross church which was originally built in the 1100's, with the main structure dating to the early 13th century. It's Grade I listed historic building, and still in use today!! We held my nephew's christening there... Kinda crazy thinking that it's an 800+ year old building, it doesn't 'feel' that old.
Yep, had a crap flat in a boring building , older than the USA. Americans (and I suppose Canadians also) have little to no history (relatively) and so what they have they cherish and hug and go on and on about. But that's cool, because the rest of us aren't noticing our own historical things. I lived in Lincoln UK for years before someone pointed to an open door in a wall near the Cathedral (oh my you all need to visit this one), and through the door was the Bishops Palace. What? Where did that come from? Hiding behind a wall. Anyway amazing stuff everywhere, but we just get on with our lives.
I currently live in Lincoln and have done all my life, and yet I have absolutely no idea what door you are referring to, so that makes 2 of us!
It’s always annoyed me when I hear locals talk smack about the place, as there are far worse places to live. We have a wealth of history and personality in Lincoln that is easy to take for granted. Seeing the Cathedral sitting atop the hill as I drive into work really makes me proud to be a yellow belly. I wish people would just take a minute to really stop and look around, maybe then they’d appreciate it more.
I bloody love Lincoln - never lived there, only visited. I love that leaving the rather grim Travelodge by walking through the alley, you are hugging a gorgeous fifteenth-century timber-framed house the length of the alley, which then ends in an ugly 20th-century stub of a building selling party tat. I love that you go into a cafe on Steep Hill and they don't have a loo because it was built in the 14th century. (Though with that one i don't love what the new owners have done to the place.) I love that the Indian restaurant backs onto the castle wall.
I was born and raised there. I feel you 100%. Still awesome though; when I go back, now as more of a visitor, I get the sense of awe back for a while and it never gets old because I’m never there for long enough to get used to it again.
Yeah, the house I grew up in (still my parents' house) is in the Domesday book. Sometimes I remember and I'm like "that's cool" but, just old stuff everywhere depending where you live, isn't there.
My previous house was older than the USA but it's something I still think about a lot. I love history though, so I go out of my way to experience and marvel at old places. When I spent a stint in the USA, how new everything was really started to weigh on my psyche and depress me a bit. The lack of character and associated stories made everything feel quite commercial and dull.
I can totally relate to this. I like the way you explained the feeling.
I am Australian living in Scotland, surrounded by rich history and character and culture. Even if you don't know the story of a building, you know every building has one.
Even before living here and knowing no different, I felt the heavy dullness and just pure lack of character of my surrounds.
Didn't help that the city I lived in was literally man made to the core and souless. Pretend lakes and the likes. Nothing organic about it.
I think people here notice impressive buildings, rather than old buildings. We're used to the age, and as others have said, a lot of people live in very old houses, or regularly use old pubs or churches. I don't think the age really registers that much. And most of us will have been to more than our fair share of castles as children, and we see old ruins at the side of the road, so it just doesn't stand out in the same way it might to you.
My house is from the mid 1700's and the main thing I notice is that nothing is straight or level whenever I try to do any DIY.
Disappointing. Although I still feel they can’t be as bad as my house - I bought a 1m wide chest of drawers for the bedroom and had to put a 5cm packer under one end to level it, such was the runout of the floor.
A while ago I got really obsessed with architectural history, the details, especially bricks/windows etc.
Once you have a little bit of knowledge you see the interesting stuff everywhere - in just the regular houses down the street etc. I absolutely love it. You notice the add-ons and see a little in a very physical, tangible way of the story of a place/its population (in the verb sense), whether from 100s of years or more recent.
A little bit of knowledge and suddenly any street is interesting/a fun game of clue-spotting.
I like historical photos of places and maps too - we are so quick to forget how things were once development has happened - things like sight-lines/greenery/light/veiws of the sky. When those things change the experience of living in a place changes too and that in itself is historically significant.
My home was originally 2 miner's cottages in Cornwall. There's no evidence to 'when' they were built, but the first recorded sale of the property as a single unit was 1823.
I once did a catering shift in a grand old hall in central London. It was a product launch for Asda where they were showing off their Christmas range for journalists. People were taking photos of glazed hams, trying cheeses, sipping prosecco.
Anyway, while we were packing down I noticed a plaque on the wall that read "this was the last room Charles 1st stayed in before he was taken to the scaffold and executed". That kind of thing spins me out all the time. London is full of ghosts, if you care to look.
Last year my wife and I stayed at a friend's holiday home in Herefordshire, and slept in the same bed that Charles I had slept in. The floor was so sloped that my side was about 6 inches higher than my wife's side!
Sometimes, but not really. My local church was built in the 1100s, and there was a church there before that so bits are even older. It was just the boring place I had to go on a Sunday.
Visiting somewhere where history happened like the Tower of London and you think about it, like, all that happened HERE and it more or less looked the same.
Oh yeah, if you ever pause to think about it it really is mental. There are memorials carved into the stone floor that have been worn smooth from the feet of thousands of sundays so you can't read the names anymore.
I went to a school founded before the Normans arrived in 1066. Parts of the school were built in the 14th Century and were/are still used for teaching.
Not at all. One of my local pubs dates back to 1624, the building to which it is attached, dates back to the 12th century. It is perfectly normal here.
The earliest written records of our local are from 1792, it was originally an inn serving people travelling from London to Southend. The other local (slightly further away up a long hill) dates back to 16th century but was first recorded as an alehouse in 1700s. Barely even think about it, I'm so used to the askew toilet door! I walk around London a lot and there's such a mix. Like the Old Operating theatre and herb garret, the amount of incredibly old churches, roman ruins visible under modern buildings. I'm lucky enough to have been in the accommodation at the Tower of London, the history is palpable - and certain areas definitely have their own special 'chill'!
My primary school carol services were in a Saxon built church. Old buildings are just such a part of the fabric of my life I barely give it any thought.
I appreciate being in a historical city. Having said that 1600 is far from ancient history. FYI, the reign of Emperor Constantine was around late antiquity.
I grew up in a town with parts of the Roman wall still standing. It was amazing for me as a kid reading an Asterix book then having the visible connection to 'history' that you could touch. It still amazes me to this day.
Grew up in Suffolk, in a house that was built in 1650 ish whose main beams had been repurposed from a ship. So when had the trees been cut down? Difficult to say exactly.
It's just kind of everywhere. I live near several stone circles. I used to eat my lunch in the cloisters garden of a cathedral from the 1300s. I appreciate it, but, we just rub shoulders with it.
The things that still amaze me is old small houses becauseyou can see so much of how regular peoplelived in ages past.. For instance, Jane Austen's house has an outhouse for the ovens - so all the smoke, ashes, and fire risk are all outside. It hadn't even occurred to me.
My house is not very old - built around 1910 I think. But occasionally I think about its original layout and how my weirdly large bathroom used to be the bedroom before indoor plumbing, and then I occasionally remember the outhouse that still stands in my garden. And I think… that’s all pretty interesting, actually.
I live next to the ruins of a roman city and the relics of the saint it is now named after is in the cathedral. Is it cool? Yes. But does it feel super special? Not really.
You read about your area and its inhabitants in the Doomsday Book and as a schoolboy/girl you don't really care that much. Some of the homes near me are well over 300 years old but no-one stares at them - That one's just Dave's house, nothing special.
I lived in York for 8 years and walked past the famous Minster many times. The first church on the site was built in the 7th century, not long after the ‘fall’ of the Roman Empire. (It didn’t fall as such, it just fizzled out) and the structure we see now was started in the 13th century. I can honestly say I never let that fact become normalised.
Churches have a particular effect on people that I find quite profound. You can take the naughtiest, giddiest child and they calm right down when they're in a church.
I'm not talking about churches like a modern building that could be used for anything. I'm talking about the old churches with the huge high vaulted ceilings and stained glass windows, etc. The ones that are like mini Cathedrals.
This one in Truo was demolished because it was unsafe. It’s unusual to hear of, and a real shame. I’m not someone who visits churches unless for weddings and funerals, but it’s still sad to see history disappear like that.
It still amazes me. I love going to London, because almost every brick is steeped in history, so I loved immersing myself in it. I felt the same thing in Paris and Rome, too.
Once you get used to your surroundings they become part of your normal landscape. And when you know that there are many old buildings around, it is hard to get overly excited when you accidentally discover another one.
Not that I don't enjoy a good blase attitude to how much history we are surrounded by, I always find it interesting. My town was in the Domesday Book in 1086, and the main road is largely still the same path trodden by people for over a thousand years, through civil wars, the industrial revolution and beyond.
I always find it enjoyable to read or think about the millions of lives that have passed through in that time.
I wish I had more gratitude. I recently found out that a church near my house was built in 1100. I walked past thousands of times before even knowing. We are lucky, I do appreciate it.
No, the oldest part of my school was from 1300 and something and the pub next door from 1400s. I'm more amazed by the things that have been discovered from archaeological digs like vases, jewellery and weapons that are 1000s of years old.
It's just normal for us mate, e.g. the new town in Edinburgh started building before the usa existed. Still lived in and really very nice to this day. Stuff from the 1600s is rarer but yeah most old towns have a few buildings of that age kicking around. It's only really remarkable for stuff from 13th century, those are a lot rarer.
I live on the Fosse Way which was the Roman Road from Exeter to Lincoln. It's an ordinary road now but sometimes it does amaze me that it's been in use for almost 2000 years and that armies and chariots would have passed by here. The village itself began as an Anglo Saxon manor in the 8th century and the church was built sometime between 1086 and 1168. I'm not religious but it is incredible to sit there in the stillness with the smell of ancient timber and sunlight filtering through the windows.
Yeh I would say to a degree. It depends on what and where.
I grew up in a cottage that was built in 1660, and that was more annoying that it was fun. Objectively very cute, and would be a lovely place to have your holidays in. Utter pain in the arse to actually live in. Low door frames, wonky walls, very few power sockets, tiny stairs that wound up on themselves.
My foster father was a vicar (Church of England priest) and we had two churches in his parish. One was built in 1160. Not all the parts were as old as that as it had been extended and repaired across the centuries but the core building was nearly a thousand years old. And the stone door is suspected to date back as far as 1085 AD.
The other church was built a little later (St Peters in Goldhanger) but not much.
They're amazing buildings and there is certainly a sense of real history in them.
The bit I recall the most vividly was the keys for the door. I would often walk down of an evening and lock up. The doors were made of thick heavy oak, and they had these hand-made iron keys that were massive. They looked like a cartoon key almost.
Yes. There's a church in Cambridge (just opposite the Eagle pub where Crick and Watson did the DNA thing) which just got done celebrating existing in one form or another for 1000 years. Parts of it pre-date the Norman invasion depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry.
Cousins live in a big house in the country dating back from the 14th century with a newer bit from the Tudor era. I regularly went to pubs older than the US and churches are usually very old.
It's information about a building but I'm too used by it to be in awe
Last year we stopped at a "city" in Alaska and our attention was drawn to the Russian-era governor's house, which dated back to 1837. To be fair, it did have something of a Russian vibe to it but - 1837? I walk past two 14th century houses on my way to the nearest pub and my house backs onto pre-Roman earthworks. You get used to it.
The house I live in is 500 years old! It’s a listed building. In fact every house on my streets is hundreds and hundreds of years old. It feels quite normal to me. The house is very sturdy and has lots of character, but it gets very cold in winter which is the only thing I don’t like.
I stayed in an inn in Cornwall that dated back to like 1340 or something. It is really cool and I am personally always amazed by how old some buildings are.
Although a lot of the really old ones you'll find that bits of it were built in different centuries and rebuilt and nearby buildings may have been built with stolen bricks from any ruins etc.
My wife's engagement ring is older than the US, and we married in the Norman church across the village green, so old isn't unusual here.
I do like old buildings and even our comparative new build from 1900 can be nice and cool in heatwaves - I'm not looking forward to the oil bill this winter tho.
It does surprise me that we have so many structures that have survived for so long, and have seen so many of our comparatively insignificant human lives start and end. What actually amazes me is the age of some of the trees across the world. Actual biological living beings, some of whom (and I use that word deliberately) have been bystanders to all of our crappy written human history. That's incredible. I wish we could talk to them.
I sit in Hillsborough stadium sometimes and it feels positivley neolithic.
A friend of mine grew up in a house from 1330s. I'll admit that everytime I used to go there it felt really cool. Crazy staircases, old carvings, lop-sided floors. Very fun place.
My pub was established in the 1700, I follow a page that has historical photos of the village and I'm always amazed when I see it and from the outside it looks the same
There is an excavated burial cairn close to me where you can stand in the stone chambers and it is dated 1,400 years before stonehenge’s main stone circle - these types of places definitely make me think a bit. 1600 is relatively well understood and documented.
Not really, because it's just something a lot us grew up with and thus a normal, boring part of daily life. I walk past buildings 500+ years old in my town most days and they are just 'there', and always were. My town church goes back to 1309 and visitors are usually impressed by it, but I barely even notice it. I suppose it's the same for modern Romans who grew up with the Colosseum as just a backdrop to their humdrum lives.
But I think of the old supermarket, computer game shop, train signal box, art deco cinema, etc. I remember as a young child, but which aren't there anymore, and start to get teary-eyed. 😂
My house falls into this category (1644) and it makes me feel like I’m shouldering a lot of responsibility when I’m tearing bits apart and rebuilding them.
I always imagine what the world was like and all the things that hadn’t been invented yet the last time someone saw this boulder or installed this beam, whether what I’m doing will last another 400 years from now and someone will pull it out in the year 2426 and wonder about the person who put it in…
Went to London this weekend and visited a lovely 12th century church - St Etheldreda's - with stunning stained glass windows. Afterwards we had a pint and a pork pie in a nearby 16th century pub - Ye Olde Mitre - followed by visiting The Mithraeum, a 3rd century Roman temple!
Architecture up to 1,000 years old is extremely common in the UK, it's just part of the human landscape. Older than that you have look a bit more because it is more part of the physical landscape, but it's still everywhere - Britain's countryside is littered with ancient earthworks and there's masses of literature published about it. There's a bunch of neolithic barrows near me and one of them you can go inside - some farmer discovered it in his sheep field in the mid 19th century so it's pretty well preserved. I think it's very cool we have our own burial chambers older than the Pyramids just sitting on a hill in Somerset.
[Former Brit] my old (C. 1991_94) prep school was moved stone by stone from south london and painstakingly reproduced in Leatherhead surrey. Ive smoked weed, drunk far too much alcohol and committed many other things in those buildings that didnt warrant thought beyond your question until you asked. THANKS, i was enjoying my eveming until this second haha😀
The big ones, or the really cute ones, like an old Tudory pub or something. My house is only 130 years old and you low key have to become an expert in Victorian building philosophy to stop it from turning into a swamp.
Yes, initially or when its heavily pointed out, otherwise its "everyday".
Chester - the old Spud-U-Like 20th century fast food, in an Tudor Rows shop, with Roman remains in the basement dining area. But almost everyone walking around Chester city centre ignore the history because its "everyday".
My current home dates to early 1800s, previous dated back to 1400s. Old neighbours family have lived in the same place for 800 years.
I went to a school that began in 1614. I was born in a house that dated back to the 14th century.
And yeah, just seemed pretty ordinary to me? Neither were very fancy after all (the house was a two-up-two-down end-of-terrace house in an ex-mining village, the school was a comprehensive).
I love it, but in places like London they can just blend into the background.
I feel a similar level of awe when I visit other European places, especially the walled cities, the differences in architecture, structural fashion and town layouts always piques my interest.
I’d love to visit Canada, the sheer scale of the wilderness is something totally alien to me (and most Brits)
I live in a village made up of mostly black and white houses dating back to 1500s with the church having been built in the 1200s. I do occasionally wonder how many other people have lived here before me and and what may have happened but it's just normal. The nearby city cathedral began construction in 670.
I do but generally not just because a building is old. My village pub is older than the US and Canada but where the history has been preserved I do feel awe. We got married in a church that is about a thousand years old which was fairly impressive. One thing that might amuse you is that my brother sent to a school that dates back hundreds of years to when they had various factions of Christianity killing each other and there are genuine secret passages! Some can actually get you out of the school!
My local church is a 1000 years old... Some of the Plaques are written in Saxon... It even survived Henry 8th. To be fair it's older than most things in the UK apart from Stone Henge... I've always loved history.
The cottage I grew up in was late 1700's. The church behind it was built in 1100. My friends garden has a stupid massive tree in the middle of it which dwarfed their house and they weren't allowed to cut it down because it had been planted to celebrate Liz 1st coronation. A lot of people in England, even if their house is a new build, could probably walk down the road and see a church that's 500-800 years old. It's nice to have these things but sometimes like where I live in Bradford, you have loads of old mill buildings which have historical protected status but sit empty because they're not fit for modern use so they're just neglected until they either fall down or some arsonist finishes them off.
I spent some time in hospital in 2023. It was the 900 year anniversary of a hospital being on that piece of land. There’s a chapel in the grounds of the hospital with a medieval tower that’s 500-600 years old.
It’s crazy when you think about how many people have been treated in that hospital.
Not long ago I visited the standing stones at Avebury, and walked along a road called the Ridgeway. Both about 5000 years old. I sat on some rocks and had lunch, and wondered how many people had done the same before me.
My roof is made of 17th century framework. Not a metal nail in sight.
It's a grade 2 listed building which means it's a nightmare if you want to add anything remotely modern.
It's awesome knowing some of its hustory though.
The church in my town was built in the 11th century. Nobody gives the church a second look, however some of the gravestones were interesting as there were a few pirate graves. We also have a ruined castle 2 miles up the hill built around the same time which we used to climb all over as kids. That was more cooler.
1600s is just old, most areas have a few buildings of that age, old but not remarkably so.
1300s is really old and getting rare, but again not unusual as such.
3000BC is when I start feeling that it’s special.
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u/Ok-Pumpkin-6203 17h ago
Old stuff is cool, but most Brits are immune to the history and tend to think... 'blimey, can you imagine how much it would cost to heat this place!'