Boughton House (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Weekley.
In the historic county of Northamptonshire and the Soke of Peterborough.
Modern Authority of Northamptonshire.
1974 county of Northamptonshire.
Medieval County of Northamptonshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SP89998152
Latitude 52.42432° Longitude -0.67809°

Boughton House has been described as a probable Fortified Manor House.

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains.

This is a Grade 1 listed building protected by law*.

Description

Boughton House. Great house. Early C16 origin, with extensive late C17 alterations and additions, including north range, for Ralph, 1st Duke of Montagu. (Listed Building Report)

Great house, arranged around several courtyards. A substantial house stood on this site in the 15th century but no fabric dating from before 1500 has been identified within the present structure. By the early 16th century the house comprised a large open hall, two cross wings, a service court to the east and a detached lodging wing to the south. Various alterations were made between 1528 and the early 17th century but the majority of the present house dates from the period immediately after 1685. The medieval buildings north of the hall were demolished and a new north front was constructed, with pavilions to the north east and north west. The medieval ranges adjacent to the hall were restored and the east range extended to the south. A detached kitchen was built to the east of the house. Further work was carried out between 1703 and 1708, mainly on the service rooms, and in 1735 the kitchen was converted to a brewhouse.
In 1473, Richard Whetehill was granted a licence to empark 100 acres and crenellate a house on this site. (PastScape ref. Emery; Heward and Taylor; Pevsner)

A Royal licence to crenellate was granted in 1473 April 14 (Click on the date for details of this licence.).

Comments

Nothing survives of the late medieval house although it seems it was a great hall with cross wings with further service and lodging ranges around several courtyards. Nothing to suggest a moat. The licence mentioning 'loupes', probably gun loops is unique in English licences to crenellate (although the tannelatos mentioned in the 1540 licence for Hengrave Hall may have been keyhole loops). Gun loops do occur in late medieval houses but usually in the context of gatehouses. There is no record of a gatehouse at Boughton but one may have existed or may have been intended to be built.

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1192643
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 346028.
Further information may be available from the holder of the county Historic Environment Record.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Boughton House
  Historic Houses Association
  Wikipedia entry (useless when accessed 31-7-2013)
Books
- Salter, Mike, 2002, The Castles of the East Midlands (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 72
  Emery, Anthony, 2000, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales Vol. 2 East Anglia, Central England and Wales (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) p. 183
  John Heward and Robert Taylor, 1996, The country houses of Northamptonshire p. 94-109
  Pevsner, Nikolaus; revised by Bridget Cherry, 1973, Buildings of England: Northamptonshire (Penguin) p. 103-7, 110-114
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Maxwell Lyte, H.C. (ed), 1900, Calendar of Patent Rolls Edward IV. Henry VI (1467-77) p. 392 online copy

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The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

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*The listed building may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site of, or incorporating fragments of, the described site.

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