Recent walks have taken me through Hemingford Abbots and Houghton. Both have a fascinating mix of houses, one on the most intriguing being the rather forbidding Manor at Houghton. The Listing (grade II) text describes it as: ‘Dated 1905 on rainwater head…. Vernacular Revival style. Two-storeys, red brick, plain tile roofs. Moulded brick cornice, stone-capped parapets and gable facades with finials. Central, flat-roofed, projecting two-storey porch with rusticated quoins and flat canopy to panelled double doors with detailed ironwork… Casement windows at both floor levels with stone, ovolo-moulded mullions and transoms… Interior: rich in detail. Galleried hall, large inglenook hearths, and changes in floor levels. Locally forged iron fittings to windows and doors.
It was built to designs by Rev F J Kingsley-Backenbury Oliphant, Rector of Houghton 1901-1930, who also designed Diss Cottage in Hemingford Grey. Who was he? Google draws a blank.
Photo: The Manor, Houghton, May 2017