Little Houghton House And Attached Office Wing

Country house, built around 1825 with alterations in the later 19th century. Constructed from limestone ashlar with a hipped slate roof and white brick ridge stacks, the house is L-shaped. It is built in a Late Georgian style. The main, three-storey, five-window elevation faces east towards the park, featuring a central, slightly projecting, pedimented bay. This bay contains double-leaf doors with a moulded stone lintel, a fanlight, and side-lights, all within a Venetian window-style stone surround. A 16-pane sash window above the doors has a moulded stone surround and cornice hood on brackets. Another 16-pane sash window is situated above this, also with a moulded stone surround. Horned sash windows are found on the ground floor, all with moulded stone surrounds, and 16-pane sashes on the first and second floors have flat-arched heads. Storey bands are present at the first and second floor levels; the band at the first floor is continuous, while the one at the second floor is broken by the central bay. A moulded stone eaves cornice tops the building. The four-window south elevation has similar detailing to the windows and storey bands. A large, later 19th-century stone entrance porch is located to the rear. A two-storey office wing extends from the rear of the main range to the left of the porch, with a projecting wing connecting to a stable block.

Inside, a flying staircase rises in a curved well, featuring round-headed niches at intermediate levels, turned balusters, scrolled tread ends, a ramped and wreathed handrail. Ornamental plaster cornices decorate the ground floor rooms. The Drawing Room contains a statuary marble chimneypiece, while the Library has a grey veined marble chimneypiece. The Dining Room features a veined black marble chimneypiece at one end and square, unfluted piers with acanthus capitals at the other. Grey veined marble chimneypieces are also found in the first-floor rooms, with Victorian cast iron grates. One large bedroom, formerly an upstairs sitting room, is located above the Drawing Room. Stone and brick-vaulted cellars lie beneath the house. It is believed that the house incorporates an older structure. The building is faced with Kingsthorpe stone and was constructed for Christopher Smyth or his nephew, William Tyler Smyth. The house served as the seat of the Smyths, passed down through the family to the present owner.