Tour

Here is a brief guide to how the website is structured and how you can make the most of using it.

How the Website is Structured

View Buildings is divided into three main categories; Buildings, Objects, and People. Searches take place relative to one of these categories.

As you might expect, Buildings relates to actual three dimensional structures that define a hollow space. This includes houses, churches, bridges, windmills, etc.

Objects relates to things which do not fit into the Building category. Usually they are the contents of buildings (e.g.: monuments, wall paintings, pulpits, etc) or have some relationship to the building (e.g.: churchyard crosses). Occasionally they have no associated building (e.g.: village crosses).

People relates to anybody who is in some way associated with a Building or Object. This includes artists, architects, sculptors, people commemorated on monuments, benefactors, etc.

Adding New Counties

As View Buildings expands more and more counties and areas will become available. You are free to subscribe to these at any time by selecting Add Counties from the main menu at the top of the page. This will take you to a page that is divided into two sections. At the top is a list of counties you are currently subscribed to and the dates the subscription expires. Underneath is a list of counties, subscription lengths, and prices for counties you aren't subscribed to.

When you have decided on a county and subscription length, clicking the blue arrow on the right hand side will take you to the payment system. Once you've purchased the subscription you'll be emailed a receipt followed by notification of subscription to the new county. Normally this takes only a few minutes. Once you have been notified, that county will become available for use in searching.

Buildings

There are three main ways to find and view buildings; by Location, by Type, and by Keyword. When you select Find Buildings from the main menu you will be presented with these three choices.

Choosing to search by Location allows you to find the buildings by selecting a county and a place within that county. If you already know the place you want to search then this is a quick and easy way to find results.

Type represents the most sophisticated and flexible search mechanism. With this choice you can look for buildings in one or more counties that match a range of criteria. The search facility allows you to select buildings by physical type (e.g.: schools, houses, town halls, etc) and date ranges (so you could, for instance, find all the buildings put up in the 17th Century). If you select Churches then the an optional search feature allows you to find churches matching a given denomination, their building materials, and their physical form (e.g.: whether they have a spire or not).

Keyword allows you to provide one or more keywords to search on. The search returns all buildings for which one or more keywords appear in the description of the building. For example, searching for "thatched" will generally return all buildings which have that word in their description; usually buildings with thatched rooves.

In all three cases a table of results will be returned (or nothing if the search did not match anything). You can then page through the results. To examine the details of a particular building, click on the blue arrow on the right hand side of the table.

Objects

Like Buildings, there are three main ways to find and view objects; by Location, by Type, and by Keyword. When you select Find Objects from the main menu you will be presented with these three choices.

Choosing to search by Location allows you to find the objects by selecting a county and a place within that county. If you already know the place you want to search then this is a quick and easy way to find results.

Type represents the most sophisticated and flexible search mechanism. With this choice you can look for objects in one or more counties that match a range of criteria. The search facility allows you to select objects by physical type (e.g.: benches, crosses, pulpits, etc) and date ranges (so you could, for instance, find all the wall paintings of the 13th Century).

Keyword allows you to provide one or more keywords to search on. The search returns all objects for which one or more keywords appear in the description of the object. For example, searching for "cartouche" will generally return all objects which have that word in their description; usually monuments.

In all three cases a table of results will be returned (or nothing if the search did not match anything). You can then page through the results. To examine the details of a particular object, click on the blue arrow on the right hand side of the table.

People

Selecting Find People from the main menu allows you to provide firstnames and a lastname to look for. Both fields are optional and both allow you to specify a partial name to look for.

The search is performed over all people listed in the database and the results are presented in a table which you can page through. The blue arrows on the right hand side take you to the building or object associated with that person.

Results Pages

The results are listed in tabular format and can be paged through using the navigation control at the top. The Buildings or Objects are shown in thumbnail images along with basic information on what they are and where they are located. Any column with a blue hyperlink for a heading can be sorted by clicking on it. Further details and larger images are obtained by clicking on the blue arrow(s) to the right of the page.

Details Pages

Any of the Buildings or Objects returned by the searches can be examined in more detail by clicking on the blue arrow on the right hand side of the returned results. The details pages show a large image of the subject, a write-up on it, and additional views in thumbnail form (all of which can be shown at full size by clicking on them). In addition, the Buildings details page displays the contents of the building (if any are listed) and these can be examined by clicking on the blue arrows on the right hand side of the page. Any people associated with the subject matter are also shown; usually these are architects, scultors or people commemorated on monuments.

Blue underlined hyperlinks on the page will take you to additional information. For instance, clicking on the Place name on the details page of a building will show you all other buildings in the same place (town or village) as what you are viewing.

Further information about how to use the site can be found on the individual search pages and in the FAQ.