Houghtons

House

Houghtons is a timber-framed house dating from the mid-16th century with significant alterations and additions through to the 20th century. It is a late medieval hall house of U-plan form, with a solar wing to the west and service wing to the east, without projecting front cross-wings. The house retains exposed timber-frame construction with stout studding and peg-tiled roofs with a rear dormer.

Exterior

The front elevation is a two-storey, four-window range. All windows are 20th-century wooden casements with lattice leaded lights. A 20th-century porch projects off-centre to the west, built in brick and gabled with a glazed upper section of lattice leaded lights and a boarded door. The ground floor features two areas of 20th-century herring-bone brickwork at both ends of the hall.

The timber-framing of the front shows the site of the original hall window, the original hall top plate, and evidence of the later raising of the hall wall with primary braced framing sitting upon earlier work. The cross-wing framing matches the hall construction but is considerably rebuilt in its upper parts. The cross-wing roofs display side purlins projecting. A red brick chimney-stack stands to the east of centre in front of the hall apex, with some burnt bricks and dating to the 17th century.

Interior

Ground floor evidence is the most complete, as rebuilding of the upper floor and roof in the 17th and 20th centuries has removed much original detail. At the high end of the hall, a ground floor cross wall contains two original doorways to the solar, each with depressed four-centred arched heads and central post with single stud brace nailed to verticals. The hall has an inserted floor and ceiling with common joists laid flat, featuring step stops to chamfers and diminished haunched soffit tenons to the bridging joist. Supporting clamps pegged to outer walls have grooves on their undersurfaces. A rising brace from the rear principal post of the hall central truss survives in part. An inserted stack dating to around 1600 virtually fills the low end of the hall, and no cross entry evidence survives.

At first-floor level, the hall tie-beam was removed when the roof was raised in the late 16th century; the present tie-beam at upper level is probably the original, simply lifted. Roof evidence is slight, but a number of reused joists with skew joints, probably from the original roof of collar rafter type supported by crown posts and collar purlin, remain. In the roof space are two reused window mullions with rolls and hollow chamfers, possibly from original hall windows.

In the solar cross-wing rear bay at ground floor, flat-laid ceiling joists feature diminished haunches and step-stopped chamfers. A stair trap leads from the original hall doorway, with stairs partly original, constructed with triangular section block treads nailed to strings. The service cross-wing is much rebuilt from reused material. The wall frame, however, retains on first floor a late medieval window with cyma and hollow mouldings. The exterior of this wing shows one normal stud brace and one with reverse curve (up-swinging). The stack serving this cross-wing appears to have been added in the 18th or 19th century onto a 17th-century example inserted into the hall. A 19th-century fireplace is present on the first floor.

The rear of the house has cross-wings projecting and a 20th-century lean-to addition to the west. Original house framing is partly preserved, with remains of stud bracing and evidence of the raising of the roof of the hall with primary bracing. Windows match those at the front. A rear door in the hall is glazed with lattice leaded lights and has a simple hood above. A second door to the west is boarded in stable style, also with a hood.

Dating and Development

The building shows four distinct phases of development:

Phase One (circa 1550): Stud bracing, the window in the service cross-wing and hall doors.

Phase Two (circa 1600): Inserted hall floor, raising of hall walls, major stack insertion, and possibly new floors to the rear of the solar cross-wing.

Phase Three (18th-19th centuries): Stack added to the service cross-wing and roof reworked over the hall.

Phase Four (20th century): Porch, extensive refurbishment, incorporation of new wood and timber from old buildings, repositioning of members, and new windows.