Property News · February 20, 2015

Let’s move to Oundle, Northamptonshire


History oozes from its beautiful golden stone like butter from a toasted muffinWhat’s going for it? You could set a period drama in Oundle. Something starring Penelope Wilton or Mark Rylance. With bodices, doublets and candle-snuffers. Something for a Sunday night on the sofa, after a supper of buttery toasted muffins. That’s Oundle. Comforting cosiness in three dimensions. I’m sure all sorts of evil has gone on in this old, old town on the Nene. It’s smothered in history which I imagine having soaked into its golden stone like butter into the muffins. Fotheringhay Castle lies just outside, where Richard III was born (boo, hiss), and where Elizabeth I imprisoned and executed Mary Queen of Scots. Though its stumpy foundations provide little to flesh out that evocative story. Such harrowing history has evaporated, and all we are left with to judge the town are its bones. Such beautiful bones though: coloured like a sunset, and formed into Georgian town houses, 17th-century cottages and medieval gables. It’s like an Oxbridge in miniature, its university: the eponymous private school, whose buildings are folded so thoroughly into Oundle’s fabric you are never quite sure if the town is hosting the school, or vice versa.The case against There’s a spirited cultural life, with a lit fest and the World Conker Championships, but it’s small, so some might find their attention flags. Continue reading…

Source : theguardian.com
Read more…Let’s move to Oundle, Northamptonshire

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