A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



among the arches of the bridge. The town hath a very 

 good market and is all builded of stone. The parish 

 church is very fair. One Robert Wiat, a merchant, 

 and Joan his wife made a goodly south porch . . . 

 They also made on the south side of the churchyard a 

 pretty almshouse of squared stone, and a goodly 

 large hall over it for the brotherhood of that church. 

 And at the west end of the churchyard they made 

 lodgings for two chantry priests founded there by 

 them. The scripture in brass on the almshouse door 

 beareth the date of the year of our Lord 1485 as I 

 remember. At the west-northwest end of Oundle 

 churchyard is the farm or parsonage house^ impro- 

 priated to Peterborough. It is a £50 by year. Peter- 

 borough was lord also of the town, and now the king 

 hath allotted it to the queen's dowry. . . . The 

 river of Avon so windeth about Oundle town that it 

 almost insulateth it, saving a little by west-northwest. 

 Going out at the town end of Oundle towards Fother- 

 inghay I rode over a stone bridge through which the 

 Avon passeth. It is called the North bridge, being of 

 a great length because men may pass when the river 

 overfloweth, the meadows lying on every side on a 

 great level thereabout. I guessed there were about a 



^-^n..:tt 



Oundle : Laxton's School 



thirty arches of small and great that bare up this 

 causey. From Oundle to Fotheringhay a two miles 

 by marvellous fair corn ground and pasture, but little 

 wood.' 



An elaborate extent was made in 1565.'° The 

 whole main street now called West Street and North 

 Street was then High Street, and New Street was 

 Bury Street ; St. Sithe's (or Osith's) Lane, leading 

 down to her meadow, was then Lark Lane. Leland's 

 description of the Guildhall is borne out : ' A very 

 fair hall, builded with freestone.' The lord's ' stock- 

 house and cage for punishment ' stood at the turn 

 from the Market Place to Bury Street.''" The 

 Burystcde is thus described : ' A general hall with 

 cook-house adjoining and several little garrets under 



one roof, a tiled stable and the malthouse thatched 

 with straw. '*^ Near by was the Drumming Well, 

 which was one of the curiosities of the town. In a 

 letter of Feb. 1667-8 occurs this account of it : 



' There is much discourse of a strange well at 

 Oundle, wherein a kind of drumming, in the manner 

 of a march, has been heard. It is said to be very 

 ominous, having been heard heretofore, and always 

 precedes some great accident. I wrote to the town 

 for an account of it and was informed . . tliat it beat 

 for a fortnight the latter end of last month and the 

 beginning of this, and was heard in the very same 

 manner before the [late] King's death, the death of 

 Cromwell, the King's coming in, and the fire of 

 London.'*" 



V\'illiam Butler commanded the Parliamentary forces 

 here ; he destroyed the house of the Ferrars at 

 Little Gidding and also Lyveden.*^ The district 

 seems to have been on the Parliamentary side, but a 

 letter writer in 1655 speaks of ' this disaffected 

 corner,' and states that there were persons enlisting 

 horses and men at Oundle and promising fourteen 

 days' pay.*' 



In 1666 there was again an outbreak of the plague, 

 brought from London ; there were over 

 J 200 deaths.** Several tradesmen's tokens 



were issued about that time, sixteen being 

 recorded by Williamson between 1657 and 

 1669.** A project for making the Nene 

 na\igable from Peterborough to Oundle 

 occurs in 1692, but docs not seem to liave 

 been carried through.*' Sir Matthew 

 Dudley about 1700 tried to establish the 

 manufacture of serges, etc., bringing 

 weavers over from Flanders ; but the 

 effort did not succeed.*' A view of the 

 town was engraved in 1710.** In 1722 

 there was a complaint that the postmistress 

 of Oundle was notorious for opening 

 letters.*' Soldiers were stationed in the 

 town in the l8th century.^" 



A curious scheme for the relief of the 

 unemployed was tried here a century ago. 

 At a Vestry meeting on 9 Feb. 1820, 

 it was resolved that a levy of Sd. in the pound 

 should be paid by every occupier of land and other 

 property in the parish who was assessed above a 

 certain amount and considered competent to employ 

 his quota of men and boys, or pay the amount 

 assessed to the Overseers according to a plan outlined 

 in a pamphlet printed at Oundle by T. and E. Bell. 

 The plan was that if a farmer spent an amount equal 

 to the levy in employing men and boys (men at 

 iSd. a day and boys at 6d.) he would be relieved alto- 

 gether ; if not, he would be relieved of so much as 

 he had so spent. 



Sir William Laxton, founder of the school and 

 almshouses, was a native of Oundle, who acquired 

 wealth in London, becoming an alderman and mayor 



'* Hearne notci that Stow «ay8 : 

 'Called the Bery-itede, for that it wat a 

 beriege in time of pcit.' 



•• .Many extract! are given in Canon 

 W. Smalley Law'i Oundle'i Story 24-46 

 from which the text it taken ; liiti of the 

 freeholderi and copyholderi are printed, 

 pp. 45-'i- The lurvey it kept at Biggin. 



*• Dr. Law tayi the itocki were later 



moved to the wcit end of the town, by 

 Jeiui Church. 



*' The houie now called Berryitede it 

 on a different lite. 



"'Cal. S. P. Dom. 1667-8, p. 255. 

 See Moreton, Nal. Hiii. 0/ Norlhanti. 

 310-313; Norlhcnii. N. and p, i, 102; 

 Dr. Law (op. cit. 41) give i later inttancet. 



*• W. Smallry Law, op. cit. 85. 



88 



*• Cal. S. P. Dom. 1655, p. 149. 



" Ibid. 1666-7, p. 53. 



" G. C. Willianiton, Traders' Tokens, 



893- 



" Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv (6), 282-3 



*' W. Smalley Law, op. cit. 108. 



" Ibid. 100. 



«" //.)/. MSS. Com. Rep. x (4), 31. 



•" W. Smalley Law, op. cit. 1 14. 



