Page 7 - Oundle Life Issue 1

after, Latham acquired more land just around the corner to build a free school for boys which he completed in 1604. For around 250 years thereafter, poor young boys of Barnwell received free education in that same building.
After his school for boys was up and running in Barnwell, Latham turned his attentions to nearby Oundle. Writing to the Vicar of Oundle in December 1608, Latham made clear his intentions to support their poor with annual financial assistance. Then in November 1610 Latham acquired land on North Street in Oundle where upon he constructed ‘a hospital and abiding place for the finding sustentation and relief of certain aged, poor, needy, or impotent people to have continuance forever’. Completed in 1611 ‘Parson Latham’s Hospital in Oundle’, as it became known, is described
by Pevsner (the great architectural historian) as being in ‘the ‘Jacobean style with mullioned windows and gables’.
In the nine years that followed, Latham added a free school alongside his hospital in Oundle
to provide a bridge for the poor children of Oundle to enter the prestigious William Laxton School and later advance to the University of Cambridge. His work in Oundle was completed just months before his death in late 1620 at which time the Latham School and Hospital were united.
What a man! What a building! What a legacy! If you find yourself with a few minutes spare, take a stroll along North Street and stop to ponder the generosity and the beauty behind this humble yet magnificent historic building.
Joe Croser, first studied architecture in Oxford, and later completed postgrad research into historic buildings in Cambridge. Today he leads Oundle Architecture with a particular
focus on residential design and historic building conservation and refurbishment. www.oundlearchitecture.com
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