Hanging Houghton
| Hanging Houghton | |
| Northamptonshire | |
|---|---|
 Hanging Houghton | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SP753737 |
| Location: | 52°21’24"N, 0°53’43"W |
| Data | |
| Post town: | Northampton |
| Postcode: | NN6 |
| Dialling code: | 01604 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | West Northamptonshire |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Kettering |
Hanging Houghton is a small village in Northamptonshire, found beside the A508 road between Brixworth and Lamport.
The name 'Houghton' means 'hill-spur farm/settlement', while 'Hanging' indiocates a steep slope.[1]
Great house and gardens
Hanging Houghton was the location of a great house and gardens, which although no longer present is listed as a scheduled monument. This monument encompasses the now buried and the earthwork remains of the house and gardens, and is in the south west area of the village.[2]
From 1471 until it was abandoned in 1665 the house was owned by the Montague family.[3] It is shown on a map in 1655 as having highly elaborate formal gardens including a knot garden and several terraced walks. The ruins of the house survived into the late 18th century, but all that now remains is a rectangular building platform measuring 40 metres by 30 metres in the north east corner of the land. Contemporary illustrations suggest the house was of typical late-16th-century design with three bays and a symmetrical south elevation with central porch. Nothing of the gardens remain other than a series of rectangular areas noticeable by shallow banks and earthworks measuring less than 1 metre in height.[2]
The Domesday Book
Hanging Houghton appears as a settlement in the Domesday Book of 1086.[4] It is recorded as having a population of 30 households. The book recorded the households, owners, resources and land value as follows:
| Owner | Number of Households | Land & Resources | Land Value in 1086 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bury St Edmunds Abbey | 3 freemen, 12 smallholders | 2 ploughlands. 2 men's plough teams | 12 shillings |
| Count Robert of Morton | 3 villagers, 2 smallholders | 4 ploughlands. 1½ lord's plough teams. 1½ men's plough teams | 1 pound |
| Walter of Flanders | |||
| 4 shillings | |||
| Countess Judith | 6 freeman, 4 smallholders | 2 ploughlands. 2 men's plough teams. | 13 shillings and 2 pence |
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Hanging Houghton) |
References
- ↑ "Key to English Place-names". http://kepn.nottingham.ac.uk/map/place/Northamptonshire/Hanging%20Houghton.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 National Heritage List 1017185: Great house and gardens at Hanging Houghton (Scheduled ancient monument entry)
- ↑ Richard Mountigewe, of Hongyng Houghton, Nhants, appears in a legal record; CP 40/797; as a husbandman, in 1460; http://aalt.law.uh.edu/AALT1/H6/CP40no797/aCP40no797fronts/IMG_0420.htm
- ↑ Houghton Hanging Houghton in the Domesday Book
