POLEBROOK HUNDRED 



OUNDLE 



Ashton chapel and schoolhouse, erected in 1706, is 

 a rectangular building measuring externally about 

 57 ft. by 18 ft., with diagonal angle buttresses, and a 

 bell-cote,*** containing one bell, over the west gable. 

 The schoolhouse, of two stories, occupies the east 

 end of the building, which is faced with coursed, 

 undressed stone, and has a slated roof. The entrance 

 to the chapel is at the west end by a well-designed 

 classic doorway, above which is a round-headed 

 vnndow of three lights, forming with it a single archi- 

 tectural composition. There is 

 an altar-piece of canvas painted 

 by Mrs. Creed, and two wooden 

 tablets with long inscriptions 

 relating the foundation of the 

 chapel and school.-' Two doors 

 at the east end, one on each 

 side of the altar, lead to the 

 schoolhouse, to which there is 

 also external access. The side 

 windows of the chapel are of 

 two rounded lights. There is 

 an addition to the building at 

 the east end or the north side. 



Oundle is governed by an 

 Urban District Council of 15 

 members formed in 1895, and 

 is also the head of a Rural Dis- 

 trict Council extending from 

 Yarwell to Thorpe .\church and 



from Bulwick to VVarmington, 



the town itself being excepted. 

 The Urban District Council 

 succeeded a body of Commis- 

 sioners appointed under an Act of l825,^consisting of 

 the lord of the manor, the vicar and the master of the 

 school as ex-officio commissioners, and 92 others named 

 in the Act. The number was not to fall below 40 

 and the qualification was ^^500. The streets were to 

 be improved by the removal of the Butter Cross, 

 Shambles, etc. ; the market day was changed from 

 Saturday to Thursday and a stock market added ; 

 provision was made for lighting the town with gas or 

 oil. The old Ascensiontide fair was liter represented 

 by a pleasure fair on Whit Monday ; St. Valentine's 

 fair for horses is kept on 2; February, St. Lawrence's 

 fair is discontinued, but a new fair is held on 

 12 October. The Urban Council controls the water 

 supply, but gas is supplied by a company. 



The history of Oundle begins with St. Wilfrid, 

 who established a monastery here, where he died 

 in 709 ; his body was taken to Ripon.'^' A later 

 archbishop of York (Wulfstan) was buried at Oundle 

 in 957.^ The town and the surrounding district 

 were at a very early time given to the abbey of Peter- 

 borough, being restored or confirmed to the abbey in 

 972 ; the charter shows that it then was the local 

 government centre for ' eight hundreds ' and that it 

 had a market.*^ It was probably about this time that 

 St. Ethelwold visited the place in his endeavours to 



restore the abbeys destroyed by the Danes.'* Leofsi 

 son of Bixi afterwards despoiled the abbey of Oundle 

 and other lands, and they lay waste for two years ; 

 afterwards, however, he was compelled to restore 

 them." 



As in the case of most monastic manors, the history 

 of the place was peaceful and uneventful. With 

 the district generally it suffered from the ravages of 

 earl Morcar in 1065,** and again from King John's 

 vengeance on the monks of Peterborough in 1216 ; 



Oundle : The Talbot Hotel 



the church escaped, but the granges were destroyed.** 

 In 1230 Henry III passed through on his way south 

 from Stamford to Hertford.'" Occasional outrages 

 are reported, as when the bishop of Durham's men 

 were assaulted in 1297, and despoiled of the goods 

 they had purchased for the bishop in the market ;'* 

 or when in 1 35 1 some knights and their men broke into 

 the abbot's park and carried away his goods and deer.'* 

 A series of grants of pontage for the repair of Ashton 

 bridge began in 1352 with renewals every few years 

 till 1401.'' 



Sabi-'e Johnson, a Polebrook woman, wrote in 

 1545: 'Ripen hath buried one of plague and at 

 Oundle they die still very sore. I fear this town ' 

 [Glapthorn],'^ ; and a month later : ' At Oundle they 

 die sore.''* 



In the next century Oundle seems to have been a 

 meeting place for county business, especially in con- 

 nection with the musters of men liable to serve.'* 



John Leland " gives a good description of the town 

 as he saw it about 1540, approaching from the south. 

 The river name should be noticed : ' The town 

 standeth on the further ripe as I came to it. The 

 bridge over Avon is of five great arches and two small. 

 There is a little gutter or brook coming upon the 

 causey as I entered, on the left hand, into Avon river. 



•" The vane is dated 1706. 



•' The inscriptions are given in Bridges, 

 ii, 412. " Local Act, 6 Geo. IV, Cap. 32. 



" Bede, Hut. EccUs. v, 19. 



" Angl. Sax. Cbron. 



" Birch, Cartul. Sax. iii, 582. 



"• Sparke, Hut. Angl. Script. (Hugo 

 Candidut), iii, 17. 



" Hist. Eltin. (Anglia Christ.), 122. 

 «» y.C.H. Norlhar.is. i, 262. 

 " Matth. Paris, Hist. Angl. (RoUs Ser.), 

 ii, l8g. 



" Cal. Close, 1227-31, p. 284. 

 " Cal. Pat. 1292-1301, p. 286. 

 " Ibid. 1350-54, p. 205. See also p. 



" Ibid. p. 304, &c. 



" L. and P. Hen. VIII, xx (2), 641. 



"Ibid. 855. 



" E.g. Cal. S.P. Dom. 1623-5, P- 4°^ i 

 1627-8, p. 102. See also 1629-31, p. 351 ; 

 1640, p. 164. 



" ItiH. i, 4. 



87 



