IF WALLS COULD TALK …

by Ellie Tennant

Home historians uncover fascinating details about a property and its past inhabitants, but their findings also reveal hidden layers of stories that can shape our lives today

In the garden of a rectory in Kent, there's a rustic brick outbuilding, its window panes covered with green algae. At first glance, they look slightly scratched but, on closer inspection, the marks are long-forgotten names and dates inscribed by Victorian gardeners. 'E Thomas, April 17th, 1874' is etched carefully, deliberately but secretly, into the glass. Perhaps it was a rainy spring day. Imagine the gardener sheltering among the flowerpots and tools in the damp darkness, the gentle drum of raindrops on the roof, the scent of petrichor in the air, his tea steaming. Absentmindedly, he picks up a pin and makes his mark on the glass - graffiti for the future, a tiny but reassuringly permanent human imprint in the vast ephemeral transience of life. 'E Thomas' was here. He still is here, in a way, and always will be...

This is just one of many small, yet revealing, details uncovered on a site visit by photographer Carol Fulton and her team of intrepid house historians at Benchmark House Histories. Hired by curious homeowners, they investigate and record the rich histories of heritage properties and use the resulting narratives to compile heirloom-style coffee table tomes. 'We started the business in 2010 and since then we've worked on a vast spectrum of houses. The youngest property we've researched was built in 1939, but we've done little Victorian terraced homes, farm cottages, vicarages, townhouses and schoolhouses. It's fascinating work,' enthuses Carol. 'We're currently researching the history of a house in Eaton Square, where royalty and aristocracy …’.