Listed Building: Little Houghton House and Attached Office Wing (11/129)

Country house. C.1825 with later C19 alterations. Limestone ashlar, hipped slate roof and white brick ridge stacks. L-plan. Late Georgian style. 3-storey, 5-window range. Principal elevation facing park to east has central pedimented bay which breaks forward slightly and has part-glazed, double-leaf doors with moulded stone lintel, fan-light and side-lights in Venetian window style stone surround. 16-pane sash window to 1st floor above has moulded stone surround and moulded cornice-hood on brackets. 16-pane sash window to 2nd floor above with moulded stone surround. Otherwise horned sash windows to ground floor with moulded stone surrounds and 16-pane sashes to 1st and 2nd floors with flat-arched heads. Storey bands at ist and 2nd floor levels, that to 1st continuous, that to 2nd floor broken by central bay. Moulded stone eaves cornice. 4-window elevation to south with similar detailing to windows and storey bands. Large later C19 stone entrance porch to rear. 2-storey office wing to rear of main range to left of porch with projecting wing extending to stable block (q.v.). Interior: flying staircase in curved well with round-headed niches at intermediate levels, turned balusters, scrolled tread ends, and ramped and wreathed handrail. Ornamental plaster cornices to ground floor rooms. Drawing Room has statuary marble chimneypiece. Grey veined marble chimneypiece to Library. Dining Room has veined black marble chimneypiece to one end and square, unfluted attached piers to other end with acanthus capitals. Grey veined marble chimneypieces to 1st floor rooms with Victorian cast iron grates. The large bedroom over drawing room was formerly used as an upstairs sitting room. Stone and brick-vaulted cellars. The house is said to incorporate an older house. The house is faced with Kingsthorpe stone and was built for Christopher Smyth or his nephew William Tyler Smyth. Seat of the Smyths and by descent to present owner. (Buildings of England: Northamptonshire: 1973, p294; Little Houghton Coronation Scrapbook, 1953)

Record last edited

Oct 30 2012 4:39PM