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Houstone, Houghton.

The Parish of Houghton Regis, to the north of Dunstable, contains about 4,390 acres, of which some 3,162 are arable land and 843 permanent grass. The soil is loam and chalk, and the subsoil chalk with cllay in parts. The principle crops are wheat, barley, beans and peas.

Houghton, owing to the fact of it being Crown Property, early became known as ‘saelig Houghton or ‘fortunate Houghton,’ and later as Houghton Regis or Kings Houghton, to distinguish it from the parish of Houghton Conquest in Redbornstoke Hundred. At the time of the Domesday Survey a great part of what is now Dunstable was included in Houghton parish.  At the present day the northern part of Dunstable extends into Houghton parish and is known as Upper Houghton Regis, and includes the two railway stations, as well as a Wesleyan chapel off the Watling Street and a mission church in Union Street  served from Dunstable parish Church.

The village of Houghton Regis is in the main uninteresting, though a few old timbered cottages and barns are still standing among the modern red brick houses. At the east end there is a large village green, on the southside of which is Houghton Hall, the seat of the Brandreth family since the 17th century. it is a low red brick building and a fine example of late 17th century architecture, standing in extensive and beautiful ground. The staircase hall is a good specimen of the type of work prevalent at that period. The principle rooms are are wainscoted. Some tapestry panels are still in situ. The joinery throughout is in excellent preservation. The exterior has been robbed of its original appearance by alterations made about 50yr’s ago . On the north side of the green is the site of the old manor-house, where there is a stone dovecote in a ruinous condition, about 26ft by 17ft outside measurement, standing about 15ft high.

The church, with vicarage, lies away from the green on the outskirts of the village, at the junction of the roads from Dunstable and Streatley. In the village are also Baptist, wesleyan and Primitive Methodist Chapel. At the west end of the straight village street a path leads across a field to the rising ground on which a mill, still in use, is placed. The path continues to the hamlet of Pudele or Podele. It is known as Chalk Hill. Here is a small Wesleyan chapel. From here the road leads south-west to Sewell, another hamlet, which is the subject of a seperate entry in the Domesday Book. It now consists of five or six farms near the Dunstable branch of the London and North-Western railway, and is very picturesque.

The  little hamlet of Thorn (la Thorne, Thornbury) lies a half a mile north of Puddlehill.

Bidwell is a picturesque hamlet lying to the north-west of Houghton village and separated from it by a hill. It is said to take its name from a holy well dedicated to St Bridget that formerly existed there, though local tradition does not corroborate this.

Calcutt Farm, about half a mile north of Bidwell, is surrounded by a moat. The house itself appears to be mainly of late 17th or early 18th-century date. There is a good semicircular-headed doorway of gauged brickwork.

When Henry 1st founded Dunstable he gave in compensation to the men of Houghton a wood called Buckwood.