Building record 3434/3/1 - Little Houghton House & Attached Office Wing

Country house. C.1825 with later C19 alterations. Limestone ashlar, hipped slate roof and white brick ridge stacks. L-plan. Late Georgian style.

{1} 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. 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 1st 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 r 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. 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.

{5} Undated photo;

{6} In March 2023, archaeological investigation of the area near to this country house was undertaken for the development of a pool. The results provided some information of the land use and phases of past activity. The earliest phase of activity is considered to have been a stone-quarry. It is most likely that if there were any archaeological features that dated earlier than the 19th century, they would have been quarried out. A substantial garden building was erected on an array of brick piers, constructed at the basic of the stone pit. Notably, a row of regularly-spaced piers aligns with the front of a large glasshouse depicted on the Ordnance survey 25” map of 1884. The evidence suggests that the building may have been an orangery with a frontage of tall windows. The tall SE-facing wall of the existing garden store was undoubtedly the rear wall of the glass-house, evidenced by a row of blocked joist-mortises. An integrated part of the building was a large cistern adjacent to the front wall, for harvesting rainwater, which may have been concealed from view.The pottery assemblage from the made-up ground confirms that the building was erected in the second half of the 19th century, certainly after 1859, whilst the map evidence shows it was in existence in 1884. OS mapping shows that the large glasshouse was still in existence in 1957. Its demolition included removal of all traces of floors and paths. It is noteworthy that there was no broken window glass found during the groundwork, which suggests that the glazed frames of the glasshouse (probably cast-iron) were carefully salvaged.

<1> 1953, Coronation Scrapbook, (unchecked) (Uncertain). SNN54742.

<1> Clews Architects, 1980s, Database for Listing of Historic Buildings of Special Architectural Interest: Northamptonshire, 11/129 (Digital archive). SNN102353.

<2> List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest ("Greenback"), F12 (unchecked) (Catalogue). SNN45262.

<2> Pevsner N.; Cherry B., 1973, The Buildings of England: Northamptonshire, p.294 (unchecked) (Series). SNN1320.

<3> Pevsner N.; Cherry B., 1973, The Buildings of England: Northamptonshire, p.294 (unchecked) (Series). SNN1320.

<4> 1953, Coronation Scrapbook, (unchecked) (Uncertain). SNN105935.

<5> Photographs of buildings in Little Houghton (Photographs). SNN112603.

<6> Prentice, J, 2018, A Heritage Asset Survey of Little Houghton House, Little Houghton, Northamptonshire (Report). SNN112390.

Record last edited

Nov 17 2025 2:07PM