A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



balusters and square newels with tall shaped finials.* 

 The Wliite Lion Hotel in North Street, another 

 gabled three-story house with mullioned windows, 

 has a panel with the initials ' E.H., I.H.,' but another 

 inscribed ' A.H., B.H. mdcxli ' appears to be 

 modern, though probably marking the position of 









Oundle: The White Lion Hotel 



one of that date. The Anchor Inn, a low two- 

 story building, at the corner of St. Osyth Lane and 

 East Road, with a panel inscribed ' 1637 IM.,' forms 

 the end of a row of small houses in St. Osyth Lane, 

 which were apparently built at the same time.** 



A gabled house on the north side of West Street, 

 near Chapel End, is dated ' W.H. 1650,' and in the 

 same street are two stone gabled 17th-century houses 

 forming a single property known since 1801 as Paine's 

 Almshouses,^ built on either side of a small court- 

 yard and connected by a high wall with moulded 

 coping, in which is a small but charming gateway 

 with four-centered arch in a square frame, circular 

 pediment, and tall obelisk finials.'^ 



Latham's Hospital and School*' in North Street, 

 built in l6ll, though much restored and wholly 

 modernised internally, preserves generally its original 

 appearance, and is of two stories with mullioned 

 windows, and three gabled wings towards the street 



Latham. Or a chief 



indented azure {barged 

 zvith three roundels ar- 



inclosing two small courtyards entered by stone gate- 

 ways. There was a restoration in 1837 and a more 

 extensive one in 191 2, when railings took the place of 

 the high stone wall to one of the courtyards. The 

 inscriptions over the gateways were obliterated in 

 Bridges' time, but over the 

 school door was ' a rude pic- 

 ture of a schoolmaster in a 

 chair, with a cap on his head 

 and his scholars around him, 

 but much defaced.'** The 

 ' hall ' of the hospital, for- 

 merly on the ground floor, is 

 now in the upper story : it 

 contains some good 17th-cen- 

 tury furniture and the prayer 

 which Nicholas Latham' pen- 

 ned by himself ' painted on 1 

 board above the fireplace.*^ 



The house known as The Berrystead,** now the 

 property of Oundle School, is a large building of 

 two stories with lofty basement and dormered attics, 

 originally of 17th century date, but apparently rebuilt 

 from the ground floor in the century following. The 

 basement has mullioned windows, and a stone dated 

 1670 has been reused in a later wing, but the main 

 elevations have tall sash windows, central doorway 

 with pedimented head, dressed quoins, and bold 

 cornice. The house is under parallel roofs with two 

 gables at each end. The garden extends down to 

 East Road, where there is a small square 17th century 

 pavilion, or garden-house, with pyramidal stone 

 slated roof. The vvrought-iron gates adjoining the 

 lower ro?d have been erected at the entrance to East 

 Haddon Hall. Another house, known as Cobthorne,*'in 

 West Street, is of the same type, with mullioned 

 windows in the basement, central doorway, and barred 

 sash windows on the ground floor, and a range of 

 five similar windows above. It was built by William 

 Butler, commander of the Parliamentary forces, who 

 used the timber from Lyveden House in its construc- 

 tion. '^ A 17th-century oak staircase with turned 

 balusters with ball tops runs from basement to attic, 

 and is a good specimen of the period, built round a 

 central well-hole.*' 



Bramston House, at the corner of the Market Place 

 and St. Osyth Lane (formerly St. Sithe's Lane or 

 Lark Lane) is an early 18th-century building of three 

 stories, the front elevation of which is of ashlar with 

 tall flanking pilasters, plain central doorway, sash 

 windows, cornice and balustraded parapet. York's 

 House, on the south side of West Street, has a lead 

 head dated 1715, and attached to a large i8th century 

 house on the opposite side of the street is a garden- 

 house of the same period facing Milton Road, which 

 has round-headed sash windows and low domed 

 stone slated roof. 



•The 'tradition' that the house wai 

 built with itonci from Fothcringhay 

 Cattle and that the staircase came from 

 there is unsupported by evidence, and 

 ai regards the staircase it obviously 

 without foundation. 



'•They may be of 16th century date, 

 and the panel marks a rebuilding or 

 reitoration. 



*' Or the ' Chapel Almshouses,' from 

 the bequest of John Paine in 1801. The 

 wing next to the Congregational Church 



forms the minister's house and is known 

 as the Manse ; the other contains five free 

 tenements called the 'almshouse.' 



*■ The gateway is said locally to have 

 come from Kirby Hall. 



'•The school is no longer held here. 



'* //ii(. o/jVor(Aa«/), ii, 410. The in- 

 scription over the almshouse was ' Quod 

 dcdi acccpi ' and over the school ' V.x 

 ore infantium pcrfecisti laudcm.' 



'• The prayer is given in Smalley Law, 

 op. cit. 7J. 



86 



" In N'orth Street, opposite the cast 

 end of the church. The original Bury 

 Stead was to the north-west of the 

 church, between the rectory and the 

 vicarage. 



*' From Cobthorne furlong in St. 

 Sithc'a field ; Sniallcy Law, op. cit. 30. 



" \V. Smalley Law, Outflle's Story^ 8$. 



*• It appears not to have been designed 

 for the house. There is a local ' tradition * 

 that it came from the Lyveden New 

 Building. 



