Ideas for finding the age of a very old house
 

I've bought a lovely cottage
The seller says she thinks it was built in the 1600's but she's only guessing
There's nothing in the parish records about this cottage
Is there a way to find out when it was built?

Old maps at the local library are a good source of info.

Land registry maybe

Church records, addresses for births, deaths etc?

Is there a local history society ?
Most areas now have bygone days fb groups which might get you some info too.
Census records are a good source
Try your local parish church , even if the vicar doesn’t know much, they know who the regular researchers of the local parish records are .

The structural surveyor should have given you a good indication of when the house was built.

If the property is located in what was a Hamlet then sad to say the 1841 Census and certainly the next 4 or 5 Censuses won't have much information as it will be no specific address just the Hamlet name or just the word 'cottage'

However old Church records are a great starter for ten.

House titles pre Land Registry were recognised by a Deed of ownership. Each change then required a Deed of Conveyance.

These bundles of documents giving details of dates, names and costs, were archived when land started to be registered.

Some bundles still exist in the hands of the new owners and are passed from seller to buyer for interest purposes only at each sale. The solicitor will receive them and pass to you.

Many were retained by the Land registry, and whilst they may now be destroyed, a permanent record via photographic record (fische) should be available on request by the owner to the Land Registry.

Disney332

Ooh absolutely no helpful suggestions but is it a project or ready to move in, please can we see pictures?

If this is in England then this is kind of true. However good root of title when moving from unregistered to registered is only 15 years of title. Older documents only needed to be provided if they were referred to in that 15 year root of title. Anything older but not relevant to registration would be retained with the deeds which may or may not have been passed owner to owner. Once registration was made the documents became irrelevant other than historical.