Thanks for your answer. Some of the older houses have a "floor plan" available in archives that we could buy copies of. Trouble is I don't know which archives to contact to see if it would be available, I know I'm "spitting into the wind" but one can only try. As far as I know the building I am after has not been declared of Historical Interest. The only glimmer of hope I have on the horizon is that an act of Parliament was passed c. 1730 declaring the building to belong to the crown (and thus sold) in payment of arrears of rent of a meadow. Perhaps there would be something in that avenue? Cheers Justine Justine Orme Sch. L.H.K. Hons. BITE ME MANGO CHILLI SALSA - iTQi Superior taste AWARD 2007 ** Passionate about Chilli - ITQI Superior taste AWARD 2006 ** Innovative Creators of fine Foods for the International Table www.innovativefoods.co.nz > Hi > > It's been a long time since I've partaken in the discussions, but here's > one > for you all. > I would like to know where or even IF I can get hold of a building floor > plan, built c.1590 and rebuilt c.1790. Do you mean a contemporary plan, prepared in 1590/1790? Or do you mean a more recent plan - possibly drawn up by a modern historian - giving a retrospective impression of what a particular building would have looked like at those dates? If you mean the former, then you have virtually no chance - contemporary architectural drawings or ground plans are simply not going to exist for the overwhelming majority of buildings dating from that time. If you mean the latter, it will obviously depend on the particular building, and whether any historian has ever found it of sufficient interest to study in so much detail (and then to publish the results). In many areas, the current general requirement to submit plans for approval by local building inspectors would date in its modern form from some time around the 1870s. However, whether a particular local authority's collection has survived intact from that far back will vary considerably from place to place. Nor are there many private firms of architects likely to have retained plans from any earlier date. > Today it would be so easy, just go to the local council and get a copy, > but I guess there weren't those provisions all those years ago. I don't think that is correct - councils in the UK today won't necessarily have a permanent blanket policy of always supplying copy plans of private dwellings to all and sundry (including to non-neighbours) if the applicant doesn't actually own the building. However, the exact nature of any such restrictions has traditionally been a matter of individual discretion. AJ