Oundle, Northamptonshire

Description
Oundle, a market and union town and a parish in Northamptonshire. The town is situated on a gentle declivity, half a mile W from the Northampton and Peterborough section of the L. & N.W.R., on which it has a station 13 miles SW from Peterborough, 27 NE by N from Northampton, and about 80 by road and 97 1/2 by rail from London. It is engirt on three sides, at a short distance, by the river None. It is a very ancient place, and was undoubtedly the site of a Roman settlement Roman coins and relics have been found in every part of the town, the coins ranging from those of the Emperor Claudius to the latest period. It was known at Domesday as Undela, and afterwards as Oundale; has been supposed by some antiquaries to have taken the latter name by corruption from Avondale, with allusion to the Nene as the " avon " or river. It is a polling-place, a seat of petty sessions and county courts, and the seat of courts for the manor of Oundle, the rectory manor of Onndle, and the liberty and hundred of Polebrooke. The town, which is well built, well paved, and remarkably clean, stands amid a beautiful tract of country, pleasantly diversified in contour, finely ornamented with woods and water, and richly studded with mansions, including Apethorpe Hall, the seat of the Earl of Westmorland, Deene Park, the seat of the Countess of Cardigan, Lilford Hall, the seat of Lord Lilford, Farming Woods, the seat of Lord Lyveden, and Biggin Hall, a seat of the Watts-Russells. It is governed by an urban district council consisting of fifteen members. The town has a head post office, two banks, a town-hall, a police station, two bridges, a market-house, two churches, Roman Catholic, Baptist, Congregational, and Wesleyan Methodist chapels, a cemetery, a grammar school, a Blue-coat school, two suites of almshouses, a workhouse, and some valuable and useful charities. The Chapel of St Mary Magdalene was built in 1893 for the use of the inmates of the workhouse. The N bridge is a handsome structure, and is approached by a raised causeway across adjacent low grounds. The S bridge was rebuilt in 1570, after destruction by a freshet of the river, and was repaired about 1834. The parish church, dedicated to St Peter, is a large and ancient building built of the local oolite, consisting of chancel, with chantry chapels, nave, aisles, transepts, S and W porches, and an embattled western tower surmounted by an octagonal crocketed spire rising to a height of 208 feet. The nave and aisles are Early English, with Decorated windows inserted. The transepts and chancel are Early Decorated, and the tower and S porch Perpendicular. The church contains some good stained windows, an ancient brass eagle lectern, an alabaster reredos, and a fine pulpit. Jesus Church, at the W end of the town, erected in 1878-79, is a cruciform building of Casterton, Corsham, and Hol-lington stone, consisting of chancel, nave, transepts, and a central lantern. The living is a vicarage, with Ashton annexed, in the diocese of Peterborough; gross value, £443 with residence, in the gift of the Bishop of Peterborough. The Congregational chapel was built in 1865 at a cost of £1620, is in the Early Decorated English style, of cut stone, with Bath stone facings, and contains 500 sittings. The cemetery is at a short distance from the town, on the Stoke road, has an area of 3 acres, and has a mortuary chapel of stone. The grammar school was founded in 1544 by Sir W. Laxton, lord mayor of London, is united with an alms-house for seven men, also founded by Sir W. Laxton, and draws support from an estate in London, formerly yielding about £267 a year, but now yielding several thousand pounds. The Blue-coat school was founded in the time of Elizabeth by the Rev. N. Latham; stands connected with an hospital for eighteen aged women, founded also by the Rev. N. Latham; affords gratuitous education and clothing to thirty boys; and, together with the hospital, has an endowed income of about £600. Under the care of the Worshipful Company of Grocers, who are trustees of the charity, it is now administered in the support of two schools of the first and second grades respectively. The school buildings are modern, and include all modern appliances and improvements, and the schools possess some valuable exhibitions and scholarships. The workhouse stands a quarter of a mile out of the town, and has accommodation for 178 persons. A weekly market is held on Thursday; fairs are held on 25 Feb. for horses and cattle, and on Whit-Monday and 12 Oct. for pleasure. There are several mineral springs in the parish, the waters of which are strongly impregnated with iron, and are useful for their tonic properties. Hansted, a clergyman who fought for Charles I., and Dr. J. Newton the mathematician were natives. The parish of Ashton is ecclesiastically consolidated with Oundle. It has an endowed school called Creed's Chanty. Area of Ashton, 1848 acres; population, 206. Area of Oundle, 3144 acres, population, 2680; of the ecclesiastical parish, 2886.