Houghton House is a ruined mansion house in the parish of

Houghton Conquest Houghton Conquest is a village and civil parish located in the Central Bedfordshire district of Bedfordshire, England. The parish also includes the hamlet of How End. History Historically in the hundred of Redbornestoke, the name of the villag ...

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council ...

. It is a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

, positioned above the surrounding countryside, and commands excellent views. Built from 1615 to 1621, it is said that the house was the model for ''House Beautiful'' in

John Bunyan John Bunyan (; baptised 30 November 162831 August 1688) was an English writer and Puritan preacher best remembered as the author of the Christian allegory ''The Pilgrim's Progress,'' which also became an influential literary model. In addition ...

's ''

The Pilgrim's Progress ''The Pilgrim's Progress from This World, to That Which Is to Come'' is a 1678 Christian allegory written by John Bunyan. It is regarded as one of the most significant works of theological fiction in English literature and a progenitor of t ...

'' (1678). It was abandoned in 1794 and stripped (by the owner) of its interiors and roof for sale as building supplies. Today the property is owned by

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

, and is open to free public access during daylight hours.

Descent

Herbert

The estate of Houghton was granted by King

James I of England James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until ...

(1603-1625) to Mary Herbert, Dowager Countess of Pembroke (1561-1621), a.k.a. Mary Sidney, a

courtier A courtier () is a person who attends the royal court of a monarch or other royalty. The earliest historical examples of courtiers were part of the retinues of rulers. Historically the court was the centre of government as well as the official ...

, writer, translator, and literary patron, who commenced the building of the existing house in about 1615. Two architects were very likely responsible for the design,

John Thorpe John Thorpe or Thorp (c.1565–1655?; fl.1570–1618) was an English architect. Life Little is known of his life, and his work is dubiously inferred, rather than accurately known, from a folio of drawings in the Sir John Soane's Museum, to whi ...

, who worked in the Jacobean tradition, and

Inigo Jones Inigo Jones (; 15 July 1573 – 21 June 1652) was the first significant architect in England and Wales in the early modern period, and the first to employ Vitruvian rules of proportion and symmetry in his buildings. As the most notable archit ...

, who introduced the Classical style of architecture into England. The Countess of Pembroke was visited there by King James I in 1621, soon after its completion. Shortly afterwards, on 25 September 1621, she died of the

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...

. The surviving Jacobean-style

frieze In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...

on the western side of the house displays heraldic elements relating to the Sidney family and to the Countess's relations, the Dudley family.

Bruce

Two years after the death of the Countess of Pembroke, the house reverted to King James I by the Countess' brother, the King then granted the estate to Thomas Bruce, 1st Earl of Elgin (1599–1663) in 1624, which became the main residence of the Bruce family for three generations. King

Charles I of England Charles I (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649) was King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. He was born into the House of Stuart as the second son of King James VI of Scotland, but after ...

later granted him nearby Houghton Park to preserve game for the royal hunt, but persistent hunting and hawking by the local Conquest family forced the King's subsequent intervention. In the churchyard of nearby Maulden Church, the

advowson Advowson () or patronage is the right in English law of a patron (avowee) to present to the diocesan bishop (or in some cases the ordinary if not the same person) a nominee for appointment to a vacant ecclesiastical benefice or church living, a ...

of which was owned by the Bruce family, is the Ailesbury Mausoleum, the earliest free-standing

mausoleum A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be cons ...

in England, built in 1656 by Thomas Bruce, 1st Earl of Elgin in memory of his 2nd wife, Lady Diana Cecil. The Bruce family resided in the house until Thomas Bruce, 3rd Earl of Elgin, 2nd Earl of Ailesbury went into exile on the Continent in 1696 on account of his loyalty to the deposed King

James II of England James VII and II (14 October 1633 16 September 1701) was King of England and King of Ireland as James II, and King of Scotland as James VII from the death of his elder brother, Charles II, on 6 February 1685. He was deposed in the Glorious Re ...

(1685-deposed 1688, died 1701).

Russell

Thomas Bruce, 3rd Earl of Elgin, 2nd Earl of Ailesbury never returned to Houghton and in 1738 sold the house to

John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford, (30 September 17105 January 1771) was an 18th-century British statesman.G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peer ...

, whose principal seat was

Woburn Abbey Woburn Abbey (), occupying the east of the village of Woburn, Bedfordshire, England, is a country house, the family seat of the Duke of Bedford. Although it is still a family home to the current duke, it is open on specified days to visitors, ...

, about seven miles from Houghton. His son and

heir apparent An heir apparent, often shortened to heir, is a person who is first in an order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person; a person who is first in the order of succession but can be displaced by the b ...

Francis Russell, Marquess of Tavistock Francis Russell, Marquess of Tavistock (27 September 1739 – 22 March 1767) was a British politician and the eldest son of the John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford, 4th Duke of Bedford and his second wife Gertrude Russell, Duchess of Bedford, Lady G ...

(d.1767), lived at Houghton from 1764 until he died in a hunting accident in 1767. Thus the 4th Duke's estates, including Houghton, and titles passed to his grandson,

Francis Russell, 5th Duke of Bedford Francis Russell, 5th Duke of Bedford (23 July 1765 – 2 March 1802) was an English aristocrat and Whig politician, responsible for much of the development of central Bloomsbury. Life Francis Russell, eldest son of Francis Russell, Marquess of ...

(d.1802), who having let the deerpark to a neighbour found he was unable to let the house without its grounds. Considering the house as a liability, in 1794 he ordered Houghton to be dismantled, and accordingly the furnishings were stripped out and the roof removed to be sold as building materials. The staircase survives in The Swan Hotel in

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population of the Bedford built-up area (including Biddenham and Kempston) was 106,940, making it the second-largest settlement in Bedfordshire, behind Luton, whilst t ...

, roughly north of Houghton House. The 5th Duke never married and thus did not produce a legitimate male heir. He died in 1802 by which time the house, by then long open to the elements, was already in decay.

21st century

The ruins were acquired by

, and is open to free public access during daylight hours. Conservation work was undertaken in 2006 to help maintain safety and improve the understanding of the site and new visitor information boards were installed. By 2007 several of these had been vandalised leaving empty boards behind.

Gallery

References

External links

Houghton House at britainexpress.comHoughton House at Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service
Includes an illustration of what the West and North side of the house would have looked like.
Mary Sidney Herbert, the Countess of PembrokeEnglish Heritage page
{{The Pilgrim's Progress Country houses in Bedfordshire Tourist attractions in Bedfordshire Ruins in Bedfordshire Grade I listed houses Grade I listed buildings in Bedfordshire English Heritage sites in Bedfordshire Ampthill Ruined houses Grade I listed ruins