Houghton House

Houghton House stands above the Bedfordshire countryside near Ampthill as the roofless remains of a once grand Jacobean mansion. Built between 1615 and 1621 for Mary Herbert, Dowager Countess of Pembroke, it was designed by John Thorpe in the Jacobean style with Classical touches added by Inigo Jones. The house became a model for House Beautiful in John Bunyan’s 1678 allegory *The Pilgrim’s Progress*. After the Countess’s death in 1621, King James I granted the estate to Thomas Bruce, 1st Earl of Elgin, who lived there for three generations. The house passed to the Russell family in 1738 when John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford, purchased it. His son Francis Russell, Marquess of Tavistock, lived there until his death in a hunting accident in 1767. The 5th Duke later ordered the house stripped of its interiors and roof in 1794, leaving it to decay. The staircase was removed to The Swan Hotel in Bedford, while the ruins remained open to the elements for over a century. Today the property belongs to English Heritage and is freely accessible during daylight hours. Conservation work in 2006 stabilised the structure and added visitor information boards, though some were vandalised before being restored. From the site, visitors can see sweeping views over the surrounding countryside, while the surviving Jacobean frieze on the western wall still bears the heraldic symbols of the Sidney and Dudley families.