The old Houghton House, located near Ampthill, Bedfordshire, sits atop a grand hill that overlooks the countryside, hilly landscapes and takes in a breath of the cloud covered sky. Walking through the dilapidated house, I couldn’t help but wonder what stories were told in this manor, history had been told in these walls, narratives unspoken to the average person that strolls by. This remaining shell of a building from the 17thcentury must have hundreds of tales to tell, carved deep in its stone walls of buried deep into its surface. Your mind questioned, who sat in the houses dining room table? What occurred in the towers on the top? There is obvious signs of wealth from this land, a beautiful location with inspiring landscapes, a grand design and acres of fields surrounding. As I stood, looking out the empty window frame, I wondered who stood here before me? Who looked out into the world through this portal from the past, glaring out into the land of beauty before them?
I wanted to find some form of escapism for my Folklore photography project for my final year of university, little did I know that going through these collapsing walls and broken stones, I would find great wonder of history and looking for signs of a livelihood within. my project, Folklore, looks at going back to a traditional living before wifi, mobile phones and modern technology, bringing the old back into the new because of the pandemic, finding a place like this, just on my doorstep, brought this way of living to real life for me, this land was telling me a story, throwing me into the past and seeing the way a community live in the 17th century, this is Folklore.
The ruins of the house are owned by the English Heritage and is open to the public during daylight hours
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