Page 6 - Oundle Life Issue 1

PARSON
LATHAM’S
LEGACY
buildings for education and social welfare in early 17th-Century Oundle
I kindled my love for historic buildings in the late ‘80s – early ‘90s while studying architecture in Oxford before joining a local Oxford practice that specialised in the conservation and refurbishment of historic buildings for
the world’s second-oldest University. That now feels like a lifetime ago, long before moving
to Barnwell (just 10 years ago). Even then we found Oundle quite by chance, so I guess it was serendipity that brought us to this beautiful and historic market town.
With its rich social, commercial, educational, and architectural history, Oundle is quite the place for a history-lover like me. With almost every step along its ancient streets, Oundle proudly presents a range of charming buildings – large and small – all constructed using the golden Oolitic stone found locally in the Jurassic limestone belt that runs across the country from Dorset to the Yorkshire coast.
One such gem in Oundle’s architectural crown is Parson Latham’s Hospital. Located on the eastern-side of North Street, Latham’s has a
story to tell which is as compelling and heart- warming as it is beautiful to behold because it was entirely funded by a local clergyman who worked tirelessly to care for those who could not care for themselves; his name was Parson Nicholas Latham.
For 51 years, and until his death in 1620, Latham passionately served the parish of Barnwell near Oundle. In an unparalleled
time of ostentatious and self-congratulatory construction by the ruling class, Parson Latham ploughed an alternative furrow. Preferring to build infrastructure for others, rather than monuments to himself, he invested his money in new schools, hospitals, roads, bridges, and land to forever endow free education for poor boys and free care for his poor, elderly, and infirm parishioners. Today, exactly 400 years’ after his death, his legacy of social welfare continues, but it didn’t start in Oundle.
Building work for Parson Latham’s first Hospital in Barnwell commenced in 1600 and was completed one year later in 1601. Very soon
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