Houghton House, Houghton Conquest & St. Mary's Old Church, Clophill 2025

Описание: Houghton House is a ruined mansion house in the parish of Houghton Conquest, Bedfordshire. It is a Grade 1 listed building, positioned above the surrounding countryside and commands excellent views. Built from 1615 to 1621, it is said that the house was the model for 'House Beautiful' in John Bunyan's 'The Pilgrim's Progress'. It was abandoned in 1794 and stripped by it's owner of it's interiors and roof. The staircase survives in The Swan Hotel in Bedford. By 1802, the house had been long open to the elements and was already in decay. Acquired by English Heritage, conservation work was undertaken in 2006.

Also known as The Church Of St.Mary The Virgin, the church at Clophill was probably built around 1350. By the 1820's the church's seating capacity had become insufficient, so a new church was built (1848-1849) in the village and the old one was used, for a while, as a mortuary chapel for the graveyard, which remained in use. After the lead was stolen from the roof in 1956, the building fell into ruin.
In the 1960's the church became a focus of media attention after a widely reported incident of graveyard desecration. The graves of six females were tampered with and a coffin had been broken open.
Stories about the church continued, with reports of numerous graves being broken into and 'some sort of rite performed'.
Acquired by Central Bedfordshire Council in 1977, the site continued to suffer vandalism, as well as fly-tipping under council ownership. In 2012, English Heritage and Heritage At Risk agreed to fund resoration work on the church, stabilising the ruin and putting in a gravel pathway inside the church; and restoring a spiral staircase and providing a viewing platform.