I love exploring…Dora the Explorer and I would be the best of pals! When I bought my car last year it gave me the sudden freedom to explore more of England; I now think nothing of driving two hours in search of the unknown but sometimes I like things to be a little closer to home hence why I explored Houghton House in Bedfordshire on the weekend.
Houghton House is located on the outskirts of Bedford, a market town in…you guessed it…Bedfordshire!
Houghton House is an English Heritage managed property situated in the middle of nowhere…along a drive that makes you think you’re trespassing on someone’s private property…it’s all very rock and roll and a bit muddy at the same time.
The property is free to enter…for English Heritage members and non members and it’s definitely worth a visit if you liked ruined old buildings or enjoy photography.
Houghton House was an old Hunting Lodge that has had various famous owners in its lifetime including the Dowager Countess of Pembrokeshire whom the lodge was built for, then the Earl of Elgin and then onto the Duke of Bedford who lives in Woburn Abbey. (The Duke of Bedford lives in Bedfordshire…unlike the Duke of Norfolk who lives in Arundel Castle in West Sussex…it’s all so confusing this English title business!)
The story goes that the Duke of Bedford emptied the contents out of the house and then ripped off the roof…apparently he was upset over the death of his father…which is a rather sad sad story (the poor man)...so let’s spin it and say he came home and found his wife in bed with his brother and in a fit of rage he demanded the house be partly destroyed…a slightly better story…he never married or had any children.
The staircase is now located inside the The Swan Hotel in Bedford which is a rather pretty hotel but with pretty appalling customer service at times…and don’t get me started about the dry gluten free cake that almost made me choke to death…seriously it was almost death my cake!
I adore columns so I got my column injection in the nick of time…I haven’t visited Athens this year you see.
Even though I almost got blown away while exploring Houghton House, we did manage to get a little bit of sunshine…
…and enjoy the beautiful rolling hills of Bedfordshire in the distance…oh wait there are no hills…it’s pretty flat in Bedfordshire and never trust anyone when they mention a hill in this county…they’re talking about a slight incline!
I can’t wait to head back when there is a blanket of snow on the ground to photograph Houghton House…and I can’t understand how I didn’t know about this place sooner.
Don’t you just love finding places like this right on your back door step.
What hidden gems do you have dotted around you that you like exploring?
xx
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