The Nineteenth Century
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By the beginning of the nineteenth century many of the houses that make up today’s village had been long-built and the common lands had been enclosed and hedges grown such that much of the village then was as it remains today.  The most obvious difference though was the road system.  The road from Horsebridge used to run to the south of Houghton Mill, continuing on to Bossington almost at the very side of Bossington House and then branching to the north west and passing through Houghton and on to Stockbridge.  The road to Broughton from the south end of Houghton did not then exist.  At the beginning of the nineteenth century that it was decided to build a bridge on the north east side of Houghton Mill so that the road then passed in front of the mill as it does today.  At the other end of the village, the road to Stockbridge did not turn sharply to the left as it does now, but continued to follow the river and passed on the eastern side of Houghton Lodge.  The road was moved in about 1820.  

There were three working mills for much of the nineteenth century.  Houghton Mill had been rebuilt at the latter part of the eighteenth century after it was destroyed by fire on the night of Tuesday 9th February 1768.  Millers were widely resented and disliked at this time and it would appear that the fire at Houghton Mill was an act of arson as a “Reward and His Majesties pardon” was offered for the “discovery and bringing to justice” of the “malicious persons responsible.”   Houghton Mill continued as a working mill for much of the nineteenth century.  After it ceased to grind corn it was used to generate electricity for Bossington House until the watermill was finally removed in 1960.   

There were two other mills in Houghton: one at North Houghton and the other at Horsebridge.