Oundle with Ashton, Northamptonshire Family History Guide
Oundle with Ashton is an Ancient Parish and a market town in the county of Northamptonshire.
Other places in the parish include: Ashton, Biggin, Elmington, and Churchfield.
Alternative names: Oundle
Parish church:
Parish registers begin:
- Parish registers: 1625
- Bishop’s Transcripts: 1701
Nonconformists include: Baptist, Independent/Congregational, Roman Catholic, and Wesleyan Methodist.
Table of Contents
Adjacent Parishes
Parish History
Oundle
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870
OUNDLE, a town, a parish, a sub-district, and a district, in Northamptonshire. The town is situated on a gentle declivity, ½ a mile W of the Northampton and Peterborough railway, and 12¼ SW of Peterborough; is engirt, on three sides, at a short distance, by the river Nen.
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 Nen as the “avon” or river.
It is the centre of a subdivision of lieutenancy, 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 Oundle, and the liberty and hundred of Polebrooke.
It stands amid a beautiful tract of country, pleasantly diversified in contour, finely ornamented with woods and water, and richly studded with mansions, including Elton Hall, the seat of the Earl of Carysfort, Apethorpe Hall, the seat of the Earl of Westmoreland, Deene Park, the seat of the Earl of Cardigan, Lilford Hall, the seat of Lord Lilford, Farming Woods, the seat of Lord Lyveden, and Biggin Hall, the seat of J. W. Russell, Esq.
It is well-built, well-paved, and remarkably clean; and has a head post-office, a railway station with telegraph, two banking offices, one chief inn, a police station, two bridges, a market house, a church, an Independent chapel, a Baptist chapel, a Wesleyan chapel, a private Roman Catholic place of worship, a new cemetery, a grammar-school, a blue-coat school, national, British, and infant schools, two suites of alms-houses, a work-house, and charities, exclusive of school and alms-house endowments, £115.
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 church is partly early English, partly decorated, partly perpendicular; was restored in 1864, at a cost of £5,000; has a five-storied tower 105feet high, with a spire 96 feet high; and contains a very fine pulpit and a brass eagle lectern.
The Independent chapel was built in 1865, at a cost of £1,620; is in the early decorated English style, of cut stone, with Bathstone facings; and contains 500 sittings.
The new cemetery is at a short distance from the town, on the Stoke road.
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; was recently rebuilt, at a cost of nearly £5,000; is a handsome edifice, in the Tudor style; draws support from an estate in London, formerly yielding about £267 a year, but now yielding several thousand pounds; and has exhibitions at the universities, of £50 a year, and tenable for four years.
The blue-coat school was founded, in the time of Elizabeth, by the Rev. N. Latham; stands connected with an hospital for 18 aged women, founded also by the Rev. N. Latham; affords gratuitous education and clothing to 30 boys.; and, together with the hospital, has an endowed income of £441.
The workhouse stands ¼ of a mile out of the town; has accommodation for 170 persons; and, at the census of 1861, had 112 inmates.
A weekly market is held on Thursday: fairs are held on 25 Feb.. Whit Monday, 21 Aug., and 12 Oct.; and some lace-making is carried on. Pop. in 1861, 2,450. Houses, 488.
Hacket, who was executed in 1591, Hansted, a clergyman who fought for Charles I., and Dr. J. Newton the mathematician, were natives.
The parish contains also the hamlets of Ashton and Elmington, and comprises 5,300 acres. Real property, £16,620; of which £150 are in gas-works. Pop. in 1851, 3,108; in 1861, 3,217. Houses, 619. The manor belongs to J. W. Russell, Esq. A model farm is connected with Elmington House. There are several mineral springs. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Peterborough. Value, £600. Patron, the Lord Chancellor. The parsonage adjoins the church, and is a handsome edifice. An endowed school, called Creed’s charity, is at Ashton; and the school-house is used as a chapel of ease.
The sub-district contains also the parishes of Pole-brooke, Stoke-Doyle, Pilton, Wadenhoe, Thorpe-A church, Lilford-cum-Wigsthorpe, Barnwell-All-Saints, Barnwell, St. Andrew, Hemington, Lutton, Winwick, Thurning, Luddington-in-the-Brook, Great Gidding, and Little Gidding, the last two electorally in Hunts, and the previous four partly in Northamptonshire and partly in Hunts. Acres, 27,895. Pop., 6,669. Houses, 1,341.
The district comprehends also the sub-district of Weldon, containing the parishes of Great Weldon, Deene, Bulwick, Blatherwick, and Benefield, and the extra-parochial tracts of Bulwick-Short-Leys and Lodge-in-Rockingham-Forest; and the sub-district of Fotheringhay, containing the parishes of Fothering hay, Warmington, Tansor, Cotterstock, Glapthorn, Southwick, Wood-Newton, Nassington, Yarwell, Apethorpe, Kings-Cliffe, and Eltonthe last electorally in Huntsand the extra-parochial tracts of Spa-Lodge-and-Westhay, Moorhay-Lodge, Sulehay-Lodge-and-Locks-Lodge, and Crosswayham-Lodge. Acres of the district, 69,822. Poor-rates in 1863, £9,596. Pop. in 1851, 15,655; in 1861, 15,463. Houses, 3,219. Marriages in 1863, 109; births, 534, of which 54 were illegitimate; deaths, 371, of which 152 were at ages under 5 years, and 16 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 1,083; births, 5,160; deaths, 2,933. The places of worship, in 1851, were 31 of the Church of England, with 7,358 sittings; 4 of Independents, with 973 s.; 2 of Baptists, with 566 s.; 12 of Wesleyans, with 1,304 s.; 1 undefined, with 110 s.; and 2 of Roman Catholics, with 20 s. The schools were24 public day-schools, with 1,634 scholars; 32 private day-schools, with 672 s.; 32 Sunday schools, with 1,993s.; and 4 evening schools for adults, with 56 s.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
Ashton
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870
ASHTON, a hamlet in Oundle parish, Northampton; near the Peterborough railway and the Nen river, 1 mile E of Oundle. Real property, £1,984. Pop., 177. Houses, 39.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
Biggin
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870
BIGGIN, a hamlet in Oundle parish, Northampton; 2 miles WNW of Oundle.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
Elmington
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870
ELMINGTON, a hamlet in Oundle parish, Northampton; near the Peterborough railway, 2 miles NE of Oundle.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
Parish Records
FamilySearch
Administration
- County: Northamptonshire
- Civil Registration District: Oundle
- Probate Court: Court of the Bishop of Peterborough (Episcopal Consistory)
- Diocese: Peterborough
- Rural Deanery: Oundle
- Poor Law Union: Oundle
- Hundred: Polebrook
- Province: Canterbury