Using archaeology to look again at ancient buildings
We assume that if a historic building is listed then we must know all about it. However, the vast majority of buildings have never been meaningfully researched. Approximately 50% of listed buildings are dated inaccurately and there are numerous unlisted buildings which surveys have revealed to be genuinely ancient. Historic houses are hidden in plain sight across the landscape.
Listings of ancient buildings were primarily carried out by teams of underfunded, overstretched, and under-resourced investigators during the mid-twentieth century. In many cases the listing considered only the street front, took no more than 15 minutes, and may have been the only time that the building was looked at by a professional researcher. The result is that there are case studies of buildings listed as eighteenth century which subsequent surveys have revealed to be 400 years older.
This talk will look at the development of listings, the working conditions of the investigators, why they arrived at their conclusions, the clues buried in the structures, and how modern buildings archaeology has been able to challenge long-held assumptions about ancient buildings.
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