Building record 816/3/1 - Boughton House

Great house, arranged around several courtyards. A substantial house stood on this site in the 15th century but no fabric dating from before 1500 has been identified within the present structure. By the early 16th century the house comprised a large open hall, two cross wings, a service court to the east and a detached lodging wing to the south. Various alterations were made between 1528 and the early 17th century but much of the present house dates from the period immediately after 1685. The medieval buildings north of the hall were demolished and a new north front was constructed, with pavilions to the north east and north west. The medieval ranges adjacent to the hall were restored and the east range extended to the south. A detached kitchen was built to the east of the house. Further work was carried out between 1703 and 1708, mainly on the service rooms, and in 1735 the kitchen was converted to a brewhouse. A young black man called Charles worked here, identified in the family cash books as `ye Black of her Grace', and 'the boy Charles', he was paid wages as a servant, educated and clothed. He is portrayed in the painting of Lady Mary Churchill, Duchess of Montagu.

{1} Great house. Early C16th origin, with extensive late C17th alterations and additions, including north range, for Ralph, 1st Duke of Montagu. Limestone ashlar, with some squared stone and coursed rubble and some red brick to rear and internal courtyard faces. Collyweston stone slate roofs with numerous moulded stone stacks. Planned round several courtyards, with half-H plan north range in French style. North range of 2 storeys and attic, with mansard roofs. Main block 9-windows wide, wings 4 windows deep with ends 3 windows wide. Banded rustication to basement and ground floor, plain pilasters above carrying full entablature with deep eaves cornice. Main block has arcaded loggia containing round-headed panelled double doors at centre and ends, and 8 round windows. First floor has 9/9 sash wiundows in plain raised architraves. Attic has 2-light leaded casement dormers with pediments alternately segmental and triangular. Wings have segment-headed basement windows (many blind) and dormers similar to main block. West front: a long 2-storey range stretching away from the north-west wing and stepping forward, has moulded string course above ground and first floor, and crowning balustrade. Windows mostly cross casements with glazing bars. 4 sets of French windows with round heads and 2 double part-glazed doors with overlights. East range: 2 storeys and attic, 7-windows wide, roof hipped to left, has band between storeys. Leaded cross casement windows with gauged heads and keystones to ground floor and in raised plain architraves to first floor. 6 pedimented dormers. Rainwater head dated 1704 in angle. Recessed block, 2 windows wide, linking east range to north-east wing, has 2 pairs of French windows reached by a generous flight of steps. Interior: early C16 great hall behind north range retains collar and tie beam roof with queen posts and wind braces, but concealed by ceiling painted by Louis Cheron with the marriage of Hercules and Hebe. One C16 doorway with 4-centred head and caved spandrels also survives. Several mid-C16 chimney pieces are to be found in the house, mostly reset, but the character of the interior is now overwhelmingly late C17 and early C18. Many rooms, are panelled and a number have ceilings painted by Cheron, who also painted the main staircase hall, west of the loggia. The main stair which leads to the suite of state apartment on the first floor of the north range is of stone with an elaborate wrought-iron balustrade. The interior of the -east wing was never completed and it now contains a late-C18 Chinese style tea tent brought from Montagu House, London.

{8} Summary of history and building development. Plan of Boughton House (ground floor)1746, from estate achives, Fig.2.

{9} This former open hall was given a barrel ceiling in the late seventeenth century, with ornate painting by Louis Cheron. As is to be expected, the status and wealth of the owner is reflected in the display of timberwork of the hall roof in which both fashion and the development of the carpenter's art is evident. Boughton hall, I5.2m by 7.6m (50ft by 25ft) with a roof of five equal bays, is the largest of the three. As at Upton four sets of moulded purlins are butted into the principal rafters and the ridge timber is unmoulded and diagonally set. Common rafters, pegged from the outside, pass over the purlins and ridge. There is no tie-beam. Principal trusses are provided with two cambered collars, the lower of which has arched braces descending to corbelled wall-posts now hidden by the seventeenth-century plaster barrel ceiling. Two pairs of braces between the two collars form decorative cusps or a broad trefoil. A pair of curved struts is fitted between the upper collar and principal rafters. Intermediate trusses rise from the lowest purlin and have a single, steeply cambered and almost angular collar, above which stand eight chamfered mullions. All but the outer openings have a shaped plank slotted into the top to form a four-centered head. On each intermediate truss an extraordinary decoration of eight curved braces forms four great cusps below the collar. A principal characteristic is the strengthening of the roof longitudinally by windbraces in three tiers between ridge and lateral purlins.

{11}1780's Boughton House verging on ruin, neglected and left to desolation. 5th and 6th Duke stayed occasionally at house.

{13}"By the middle of 1938, Boughton House, Drayton House and Deene Park, all in what was regarded as the relatively safe county of Northamptonshire, had been settled on as suitable places to store material from the British Museum….. Once the house was earmarked on the Central Register, they were ineligible for requisitioning by the War Department. The Buccleuch art collections were thus saved from the military." Evacuation got under way from the British Museum in August 1939 and by the end of the first day some "twelve tons of perishable antiquities" had been dispatched to Boughton House and Drayton House. Material also taken to Boughton from Westminster Abbey (p149). In late 1940 the proposal to construct an airfield nearby (at Grafton Underwood) lead to some of the collections being moved to other safer locations. Other material continued to arrive via the Ministry of Works and included painted panels from the House of Commons and material from the Science Museum. By the spring of 1942 remaining antiquities had been removed to other locations.

{14}Spacious and beautiful house.

{15}Rot.pat.anno 13th year of reign of Edward 4th Rich Whetehill of Gysnes obtained grant of free warren in the manor of Boughton with licence to inclose a park and embattle his mansion house.

{16}Description of State Room and High Pavilion and their contents.

{17} A young black man called Charles worked here, identified in the family cash books as `ye Black of her Grace, and `the boy Charles, he was paid wages as a servant, educated and clothed. He is portrayed in the painting of Lady Mary Churchill, Duchess of Montagu.

{19} A very fine house, the country seat of the Duke of Buccleuch.

{7, 20, 21} I Boughton House
c.1540 and early C18. Survivals of the earlier house are several fireplaces with mantelpieces elaborately carved with coats-of arms, and a fine small doorway with four centre arch head in the Great Hall. Otherwise it is completely enveloped by the later building which is a vast limestone range, most of it about a long quadrangle. The entrance front, facing North is half Y in plan. The ground floor is rusticated and from a light cornice above it to the heavy eaves cornice a plain pilaster rises between each of the second storey windows. Paired pilasters on the corners. In the fine mansard roof are pedimented dormers alternating triangular and segmental pediments. The ground storey of the inner section of this front consists of an arcade of nine bays corresponding to the windows above. The long West front is clearly visible from the Main Kettering road across the end of a great wide double avenue of elms and presents a beautifully proportioned array of fine tall windows. Everywhere above the house rise the tall stone chimney stacks. The interior, which has been little altered since early C18 is lavishly decorated; there are several painted ceilings, and much fine panelling and cornice work.

Great house, arranged around several courtyards. A substantial house stood on this site in the 15th century but no fabric dating from before 1500 has been identified within the present structure. By the early 16th century the house comprised a large open hall, two cross wings, a service court to the east and a detached lodging wing to the south. Various alterations were made between 1528 and the early 17th century but the majority of the present house dates from the period immediately after 1685. The medieval buildings north of the hall were demolished and a new north front was constructed, with pavilions to the north east and north west. The medieval ranges adjacent to the hall were restored and the east range extended to the south. A detached kitchen was built to the east of the house. Further work was carried out between 1703 and 1708, mainly on the service rooms, and in 1735 the kitchen was converted to a brewhouse.

In 1473, Richard Whetehill was granted a licence to empark 100 acres and crenellate a house on this site.

<1> Clews Architects, 1980s, Database for Listing of Historic Buildings of Special Architectural Interest: Northamptonshire, 5/221 (Digital archive). SNN102353.

<2> 1976, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest ("Greenback"), J12 (unchecked) (Catalogue). SNN100754.

<3> Brasier, 1715, Boughton Estate Map (NRO Map 1382), (unchecked) (Map). SNN72662.

<4> STEANE J.M., 1977, The Development of Tudor and Stuart Garden Design in Northamptonshire, (unchecked) (Article). SNN69732.

<4> Jenkins S., 2003, England's Thousand Best Houses, p.538-39 (unchecked) (Extract). SNN104722.

<5> CORNFORTH J., Boughton House, Northamptonshire, (unchecked) (Series). SNN105162.

<5> Mowl T.; Hickman C., 2008, The Historic Gardens of England: Northamptonshire, (unchecked) (Series). SNN106082.

<6> Lees Milne A.; Verey R., 1982, The Englishman's Garden, p.124-27 (unchecked) (Book). SNN59339.

<7> Heward J.; Taylor R., 1996, The Country Houses of Northamptonshire, p.94 (part checked) (Book). SNN41757.

<8> Richards G., 2014, Archaeological Standing Building Inspection and Recording: The Stable Block, Boughton House, Geddington, Northamptonshire, p.2-3 (unchecked) (Report). SNN109708.

<9> Moir J.; Moir M. (Editors), 1995-2005, Vernacular Architecture, vol. 18/p. 38 (Journal). SNN102633.

<10> 1991, WEEKEND TELEGRAPH, (unchecked) (Article). SNN54649.

<11> MURDOCH T., 1992, THE ENGLISH VERSAILLES, (unchecked) (Book). SNN44194.

<12> Cadman G., 2014, 20th Century Military Archaeology in Northamptonshire: Logs 1, 2 & 3, p.11 (unchecked) (Report). SNN104868.

<13> Seebohm C., The Country House, A Wartime History 1939-45, p.145-152 (unchecked) (Chapter). SNN39863.

<14> CAMDEN, 1802, Britannia, 281 (unchecked) (Series). SNN42332.

<15> Bridges J., 1791, The History and Antiquities of Northamptonshire, p.349 (unchecked) (Book). SNN77326.

<16> BOUGHTON HOUSE STATE ROOMS AND HIGH PAVILION, (unchecked) (Uncertain). SNN44198.

<17> ENGLISH HERITAGE, 2008, Sites of Memory: The Slave Trade and Abolition, (unchecked) (Leaflet). SNN106244.

<18> Booth, J., 1715, Boughton Estate Map (NRO Map 2834), (unchecked) (Map). SNN108045.

<19> Baird, J, 1969, Field Investigators Comments, F1 JB 22-JUL-1969 (Note). SNN111452.

<20> Emery, A, 2000, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales 1300-1500, Volume II: East Anglia, Central England and Wales, p. 183 (Book). SNN115140.

<21> Pevsner N.; Cherry B., 1973, The Buildings of England: Northamptonshire, p.110-114 (unchecked) (Series). SNN1320.

<22> Historic England, Boughton House: photographs and plans (Archive). SNN115141.

<23> Historic England, BOUGHTON HOUSE, WEEKLEY, BF061849 (Archive). SNN115139.

Record last edited

May 31 2023 3:03PM