Houghton House

Houghton House: A Free Attraction!

Tourism is big business today. The industry takes billions of dollars every single year so it is extremely rare that you find a tourist and visitor’s attraction that is completely 100% free to enter and thoroughly look at from the inside out. Houghton House is the free attraction to go to in Bedfordshire. It can be found in Ampthill and is actually a Grade I listed building so you can get a good look at the history of the county for absolutely nothing!

Before you go into Houghton House, you will be able to take a good look at the view from the hill it is situated on. You can see for miles around on a clear day so you get a breathtaking view of rolling fields, the surrounding countryside and all of the towns and villages nearby.

Houghton House itself was built in the 17th Century for the Dowager Countess of Pembroke, Mary Sidney Herbert. It was designed in the popular Jacobean style of the day and so will give you something different to look at because the architecture makes it stand out from the rest of the houses and manors in the area. It does have a lot of the original features because the only work that has been completed on it in recent years has come in the form of restoration projects.

The house actually switched hands many times in the ensuing years because the Countess died only a few months after Houghton House had been completed. However, it was the 5th Duke of Bedford, Francis Russell that had the most impact on the way it looks today. He removed the roof and removed any extras such as furnishings before leaving it to rot. Luckily for us, he was not very successful! The building is still standing and now we have the pleasure of enjoying what has been left behind!