Huntingdonshire
Contents
Nearby Places
Nearby churches
Houlton (x cent.), Hocturne (xi cent.), Hocton (xiii cent.), Houton by St. Ives (xiii cent.), Hoghton (xiii - xiv cent.), Houghton (xiv cent.), frequently Houghton with Wyton.
The parish of Houghton lies immediately west of St Ives and has its southern base upon the River Ouse, and its northern apex upon the road from Huntingdon to Ramsey. The road from St. Ives to Huntingdon traverses the southern part of the parish from east to west rising the slight incline of Houghton Hill (120 ft above sea-level) near the eastern boundary. Houghton and Wyton, which adjoins it on the west, practically form one village. The road from Huntingdon to St. Ives passed through both of them, although both are now by-passed. The village of Houghton is traversed from the north by a road from White Bridge on the upper road to St.Ives, to the Ouse. At the crossing of these two roads is the Green on which a shelter supporting a clock was erected in 1902 in memory of George W Brown (d. 1901). Around the Green are some picturesque old houses, particularly the 'George and Dragon' public house, a half-timbered building of two stories which was built about 1500.
The church stands in the south-west corner of the parish near the River Ouse. West of it were the parish school and a chapel for Congregationalists and Baptists built in 1840. The chapel was erected by Joseph Goodman and Potto Brown (d. 1871), whose monument stands in the village. To the south-east of the church is Houghton Mill, which was given by Earl Ailwin to Ramsey Abbey at its foundation in 969, and from an early date has been presented as an obstruction to the river. It has long been famous as a picturesque building and is now in the hands of the National Trust. The Mill House is probably of the 17th century and is timber-framed covered with boards. It is of three stories with an attic and has a tiled roof.
The finding of arrowheads and other small flint implements suggests the possibility of early settlement. Definite evidence of Romano-British settlement exists in the cemetery found on Houghton Hill in 1843, where burials took place for at least a century. The southern part of the village has been liable to flood, and suffered particularly badly from flooding in 1725 and 1947.
The soil is clay and loam upon a sub-soil of gravel. The civil parish of Houghton was abolished in 1935 to help create the present Houghton and Wyton civil parish.
Monumental Inscriptions for Houghton have not yet been recorded by the Huntingdonshire FHS.
Census information for this parish (1841 - 1891) is held in the Huntingdon Records Office.
The full 1841 Census of Houghton Parish is available as fiche set C100.
The full 1851 Census of Houghton Parish is available as fiche set C50.
A surname index of the 1881 Census of the St. Ives Registration District, in which Houghton was enumerated (RG11/1609, Folios 69a - 79b), and which took place on 3rd April 1881, is available as fiche set C4.
A full transcription of the 1891 Census of the St. Ives Registration District (RG12/1234) in which Houghton parish was enumerated, and which took place on 5th April 1891, is available as fiche set C12.
The above mentioned fiche are available from the Huntingdonshire FHS.
OS Grid Square TL 282721.
The church is dedicated to
St. Mary the Virgin; it consists of a chancel, nave, north aisle, west tower and
south porch. The walls are of pebble rubble with stone dressings, except for the
19th century north wall of the aisle which is of brick. The roofs are covered
with tiles and lead.
The church is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086,
however nothing remains of this Church. The earliest part of the present Church
is the chancel built in the mid 13th century. About 100 years later, the nave
was rebuilt and possibly lengthened, and the north aisle added. The west tower
and spire were built around 1380, and the porch was added in 1664. The chancel
was restored in 1851 and the whole church was refurbished in 1870-1, when the
north wall of the aisle was rebuilt.
Baptisms:
1605-1838 (indexed transcriptions), 1813-1883, 1884-1974.
Banns: 1754-1817
(indexed transcriptions), 1846-1980, 1980-1992.
Marriages: 1607-1836 (indexed
transcriptions), 1837-1959,1960-1964, 1964-1968, 1968-1971, 1971-1979, 1979-1988.
Burials: 1605-1838 (indexed transcriptions), 1813-1969.
Bishop's Transcripts:
1605, 1607-8, 1612, 1617-20, 1625-7, 1629/1681-3, 1685-7, 1690-2, 1694-5, 1697,
1699-1702, 1704-8, 1710-16, 1718, 1720, 1722-1749/1750-75, 1777-1813/1813, 1815/1852-5.
(See also Wyton BTs 1678-1813).
These are available in the Huntingdon Records Office. The Huntingdonshire Marriage Indexes include marriages from this parish. These are at present, issued in alphabetic listings in series: 1601-1700, and 1701-1754, and are available from the Huntingdonshire FHS.
Houghton is now in the Registration District of Huntingdon but its former Registration District was St Ives.
A GENWEB page for Houghton is available.
An old map of the parish of Houghton in the 19th century is available.
The war memorial, which includes Houghton and Wyton, with detailed information about those who fell, is available on Genweb Huntingdonshire.
Population in 1801- 306
Population in 1851 - 519
Population
in 1901 - 328
Population in 1951 - 2937
Population in 1971 - 4114
Population
in 1991 - 3555.
(NOTE: from 1951, includes Wyton)
Houghton was part of the St. Ives Union (for Poor Law
administration).
Births and deaths registered in the St Ives Union Workhouse
(1836 - 1913) are available, as fiche set D9, from the Huntingdonshire FHS.
The parish consists of 1549 acres of which meadows and pasture near the River Ouse make up one-third. The arable land stretching northwards from the St. Ives Road form the other two-thirds.
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