Houghton is a village in

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to t ...

, England, approximately east of

Huntingdon Huntingdon is a market town in the Huntingdonshire district in Cambridgeshire, England. The town was given its town charter by John, King of England, King John in 1205. It was the county town of the historic county of Huntingdonshire. Oliver Cr ...

on the

A1123 road List of A roads in zone 1 in Great Britain beginning north of the River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longe ...

, and south of

RAF Wyton Royal Air Force Wyton or more simply RAF Wyton is a Royal Air Force station near St Ives, Cambridgeshire, England. The airfield is decommissioned and is now home to the Joint Forces Intelligence Group. History Flying station Wyton has b ...

. It lies on the north bank of the

River Great Ouse The River Great Ouse () is a river in England, the longest of several British rivers called "Ouse". From Syresham in Northamptonshire, the Great Ouse flows through Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk to drain into the W ...

, by

Houghton Mill Houghton Mill is a water mill located on the Great Ouse in the village of Houghton, Cambridgeshire, England. It is a National Trust property and a Grade II* listed building. History Mills have been recorded here since 974. The mill was own ...

. Houghton is in the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

of Houghton and Wyton. It is within

Huntingdonshire Huntingdonshire (; abbreviated Hunts) is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire and a historic county of England. The district council is based in Huntingdon. Other towns include St Ives, Godmanchester, St Neots and Ramsey. The popu ...

, a

non-metropolitan district Non-metropolitan districts, or colloquially "shire districts", are a type of local government district in England. As created, they are sub-divisions of non-metropolitan counties (colloquially ''shire counties'') in a two-tier arrangement. Non- ...

of Cambridgeshire and a historic county of England. It was named one of the "Best Places to Live in the East" by the ''Sunday Times'' in 2016.

History

Houghton is mentioned in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

and described as "Hoctune".

Government

Houghton is part of the civil parish of 'Houghton and Wyton', which has a parish council. The parish council is the lowest tier of government in England and is elected by the residents of the parish on the

electoral roll An electoral roll (variously called an electoral register, voters roll, poll book or other description) is a compilation that lists persons who are entitled to vote for particular elections in a particular jurisdiction. The list is usually broke ...

. The parish council has nine councillors and meets approximately every two weeks through the year. Houghton was in the historic and

administrative county An administrative county was a first-level administrative division in England and Wales from 1888 to 1974, and in Ireland from 1899 until either 1973 (in Northern Ireland) or 2002 (in the Republic of Ireland). They are now abolished, although mos ...

of Huntingdonshire until 1965. From 1965, the village was part of the new administrative county of

Huntingdon and Peterborough Huntingdon and Peterborough was a short-lived administrative and geographical county in East Anglia in the United Kingdom. It existed from 1965 to 1974, when it became part of Cambridgeshire. Formation The Local Government Act 1888 created ...

. Then in 1974, following the

Local Government Act 1972 The Local Government Act 1972 (c. 70) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974. It was one of the most significant Acts of Parliament to be passed by the Heath Gov ...

, Houghton became a part of the county of Cambridgeshire. The second tier of local government is

Huntingdonshire District Council Huntingdonshire District Council is the local authority for the district of Huntingdonshire in Cambridgeshire, England. Based in Huntingdon, it forms the lower part of the two tier system of local government in the district, below Cambridgeshi ...

which is a

of Cambridgeshire and has its headquarters in Huntingdon. Huntingdonshire District Council has 52 councillors representing 29 district wards. Houghton is a part of the district ward of 'The Hemingfords' and is represented on the district council by two councillors. District councillors serve for four-year terms following elections to Huntingdonshire District Council. For Houghton the highest tier of local government is

Cambridgeshire County Council Cambridgeshire County Council is the county council of Cambridgeshire, England. The council consists of 61 councillors, representing 59 electoral divisions. The council is based at New Shire Hall at Alconbury Weald, near Huntingdon. It is a me ...

. The county council consists of 69 councillors representing 60 electoral divisions. Houghton is part of the electoral division of 'The Hemingfords and Fen Stanton', represented on the county council by one councillor. At Westminster, Houghton is in the parliamentary constituency of

. Houghton is represented in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

Jonathan Djanogly Jonathan Simon Djanogly (born 3 June 1965) is an English politician, solicitor and Conservative Party Member of Parliament (MP) for Huntingdon since 2001. Djanogly has been Trade and Industry Spokesman shadowing the Department for Business, En ...

(

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

). The previous MP

John Major Sir John Major (born 29 March 1943) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1997, and as Member of Parliament ...

(Conservative) represented the constituency between 1983 and 2001.

Demography

Population

In the period 1801 to 1901 the population of the separate parishes of Houghton and Wyton was recorded every ten years by the

UK census Coincident full censuses have taken place in the different jurisdictions of the United Kingdom every ten years since 1801, with the exceptions of 1941 (during the Second World War), Ireland in 1921/Northern Ireland in 1931,https://www.nisra.gov. ...

. During this time the population was in the range of 467 (the lowest was in 1901) and 818 (the highest was in 1871). From 1901, a census was taken every ten years with the exception of 1941 (due to the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

). All population census figures from report ''Historic Census figures Cambridgeshire to 2011'' by ''Cambridgeshire Insight''. The separate parishes of Houghton and Wyton were combined into a single parish in 1935. Part of this parish's area was separated as a new parish of

Wyton on the Hill Wyton on the Hill is a village and civil parish in Cambridgeshire, England. Wyton on the Hill lies approximately north-east of Huntingdon and north of Houghton. Wyton on the Hill is situated within Huntingdonshire which is a non-metropolitan d ...

in 2010. In 2011, the parish covered an area of and so the population density of Houghton and Wyton in 2011 was 716.5 persons per square mile (276.6 per square kilometre).

Notable buildings

is an old watermill owned by the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

that is used for demonstrating flour milling. It had previously been operated as a

youth hostel A hostel is a form of low-cost, short-term shared sociable lodging where guests can rent a bed, usually a bunk bed in a dormitory, with shared use of a lounge and sometimes a kitchen. Rooms can be mixed or single-sex and have private or shared ba ...

Garner headstone with eitaph, Houghton, Cambridgeshire

Houghton's Church of England parish church dates from the Norman era and is dedicated to St Mary. It now serves as the church for the combined parish of Houghton and Wyton. Near the church sits a former United Reformed Church that has been converted into a residential retreat centre.

Other places of interest

At the centre of the village is an area known as the village green, although it is completely paved. The centrepiece of the green is a thatched clock tower. Adjacent to the tower is a monumental bust of former village resident Potto Brown (1797–1871), a miller and nonconformist philanthropist. Also on the green are an old water pump and a traditional

red telephone box The red telephone box, a telephone kiosk for a public telephone designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, is a familiar sight on the streets of the United Kingdom, Malta, Bermuda and Gibraltar. Despite a reduction in their numbers in recent years, ...

It is possible to walk from Houghton to

Hemingford Abbots Hemingford Abbots is a village and civil parish in Cambridgeshire, England. Hemingford Abbots lies approximately east of Huntingdon, and is almost continuous with neighbouring Hemingford Grey. Hemingford Abbots is situated within Huntingdonshir ...

across the flood meadows, and to St Ives along the Thicket Path. There is a nature reserve (Wildlife Trust) along the Thicket Path known as Houghton Meadows ("Far Close") that shows markings of traditional

ridge and furrow Ridge and furrow is an archaeological pattern of ridges (Medieval Latin: ''sliones'') and troughs created by a system of ploughing used in Europe during the Middle Ages, typical of the open-field system. It is also known as rig (or rigg) and fu ...

farming. In the village centre there is a war memorial hall. On Houghton Hill there is a cemetery. There used to be two veterinary poultry research centres, one on Houghton Hill and the other in "The Elms". There are a number of old houses of interest, particularly in the village green and near the playing field. The playing field is used for

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

, tennis and

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

. On the field there is a

bowling Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). The term ''bowling'' usually refers to pin bowling (most commonly ten-pin bowling), though ...

club,

pavilion, tennis courts, football pitch and a scout hut. At the village green is the former home of artist

Charles Whymper Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was "f ...

(1853–1941). He was a relative of

Edward Whymper Edward Whymper FRSE (27 April 184016 September 1911) was an English mountaineer, explorer, illustrator, and author best known for the first ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865. Four members of his climbing party were killed during the descent. W ...

who, in 1865, led the

first ascent of the Matterhorn The first ascent of the Matterhorn was a mountaineering expedition made by Edward Whymper, Lord Francis Douglas, Charles Hudson, Douglas Hadow, Michel Croz, and two Zermatt guides, Peter Taugwalder and his son of the same name, on 14 July 1865. ...

; a model of the

Matterhorn The (, ; it, Cervino, ; french: Cervin, ; rm, Matterhorn) is a mountain of the Alps, straddling the main watershed and border between Switzerland and Italy. It is a large, near-symmetric pyramidal peak in the extended Monte Rosa area of the ...

is in the garden and just visible from the green. The disused railway line runs through Houghton near the river.

Feast week

Every summer (normally the first fortnight of July) there is a week of community events, entitled "feast week". This has included a fun run, fayre and other sporting and fancy dress events.

Education

The only school in the village is Houghton Primary School for children aged five to eleven. The school straddles the boundary between Houghton and Wyton. Children from the school normally feed into

St Peter's School, Huntingdon St Peter's School is a co-educational secondary school and sixth form located in Huntingdon in the English county of Cambridgeshire. History St Peter's traces its origins back to a British School, established in 1871 on Grammar School Walk in ...

, although others go to St Ivo Academy,

Hinchingbrooke School Hinchingbrooke School is a large secondary school situated on the outskirts of Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire, historically in Huntingdonshire. Originally all of the surrounding land—including what is now Huntingdon Town—comprised the grounds ...

, or Abbey College, Ramsey.

Notable residents and people associated with Houghton

* Christopher Biden (c. 1789 – 1858) was an officer in the East India Company Mercantile Marine * Potto Brown (1797–1871), miller and philanthropist * George Christopher Burder MC (died 17 April 1945 in Germany) formerly of Wyton Rectory and son of Revd. Claud Vernon Burder and Mary Gabrielle Fielding Burder. He has been described by the museum in

Geffen, Netherlands Geffen had been an independent municipality in the Dutch province of North Brabant until 1993, when it became a part of the newly formed municipality Maasdonk. This lasted until 2015, when Maasdonk was dissolved and Geffen became part of Oss. Ar ...

as the 'hero of Geffen' * Charles Whymper (1853–1941), artist * John Leslie Green who was one of the nine VCs of the First Day of the Somme during the First World War *

John Galbraith Graham The Reverend John Galbraith Graham MBE (16 February 1921 – 26 November 2013) was a British crossword compiler, best known as Araucaria of ''The Guardian''. He was also, like his father Eric Graham, a Church of England priest. Career Graham ...

, crossword compiler and former minister at St Mary's Church, Houghton *

David McCandless David McCandless (born 1971) is a British data-journalist, writer and information designer. Early life and education McCandless is an alumnus of Westfield College. Career McCandless is the founder of the visual blog ''Information Is Beautiful''. ...

, author (attended Houghton primary school)

References

External links

www.hwmf.co.uk

www.houghton.cambs.sch.uk
{{authority control Villages in Cambridgeshire Huntingdonshire Populated places on the River Great Ouse