Description

WEEKLEY
SP88SE BOUGHTON PARK
1337-0/5/221 Boughton House
25/10/51
GV I
Great house. Early C16 origin, with extensive late C17
alterations and additions, including north range, for Ralph,
1st Duke of Montagu. Limestone ashlar, with some squared stone
and coursed rubble and some red brick to rear and internal
courtyard faces. Collyweston stone slate roofs with numerous
moulded stone stacks. Planned round several courtyards, with
half-H plan north range in French style. North range of 2
storeys and attic, with mansard roofs. Main block 9-windows
wide, wings 4 windows deep with ends 3 windows wide. Banded
rustication to basement and ground floor, plain pilasters
above carrying full entablature with deep eaves cornice. Main
block has arcaded loggia containing round-headed panelled
double doors at centre and ends, and 8 round windows. First
floor has 9/9 sash wiundows in plain raised architraves. Attic
has 2-light leaded casement dormers with pediments alternately
segmental and triangular. Wings have segment-headed basement
windows (many blind) and dormers similar to main block. West
front: a long 2-storey range stretching away from the
north-west wing and stepping forward, has moulded string
course above ground and first floor, and crowning balustrade.
Windows mostly cross casements with glazing bars. 4 sets of
French windows with round heads and 2 double part-glazed doors
with overlights. East range: 2 storeys and attic, 7-windows
wide, roof hipped to left, has band between storeys. Leaded
cross casement windows with gauged heads and keystones to
ground floor and in raised plain architraves to first floor. 6
pedimented dormers. Rainwater head dated 1704 in angle.
Recessed block, 2 windows wide, linking east range to
north-east wing, has 2 pairs of French windows reached by a
generous flight of steps. Interior: early C16 great hall
behind north range retains collar and tie beam roof with queen
posts and wind braces, but concealed by ceiling painted by
Louis Cheron with the marriage of Hercules and Hebe. One C16
doorway with 4-centred head and carved spandrels also
survives. Several mid-C16 chimney pieces are to be found in
the house, mostly reset, but the character of the interior is
now overwhelmingly late C17 and early C18. Many rooms, are
panelled and a number have ceilings painted by Cheron, who
also painted the main staircase hall, west of the loggia. The
main stair which leads to the suite of state apartments on the
first floor of the north range is of stone with an elaborate
wrought-iron balustrade. The interior of the north-east wing
was never completed and it now contains a late-C18 Chinese
style tea tent brought from Montagu House, London.
(Buildings of England: Northamptonshire: pp110-114; J.
Cornforth: "Boughton House: Northamptonshire": a series of 6
articles).

Listing NGR: SP8997681532

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Boughton House at Wikipedia
• Boughton House official website
• Wikidata Q4949432

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Old House Handbook 2 Books Bundle Collection (Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair,Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability)
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas