169 listed buildings, 4 of them Grade I

Parish Church of St PeterGrade I listedOundle School Memorial ChapelGrade II* listedThe Town HallGrade II listedRose and Crown Public HouseGrade II listedEast Wall to Premises Occupied by Welland and Nene River AuthorityGrade II listed+9See all photos

Photos from Wikimedia Commons and Geograph, copied to our own server, each credited to its photographer with its licence; names open the building’s page or its official list entry.

c. 1903

Public domain, from Wikimedia Commons, copied to our own server. Each credit opens the image’s page with its full description and history.

Historic England lists buildings in three grades: Grade I for buildings of exceptional interest (about 2.5% of all listed buildings), Grade II* for particularly important buildings of more than special interest (about 5.8%), and Grade II for buildings of special interest (about 91.7%). Listing protects the whole building, inside and out.

Every entry on the National Heritage List for England whose point lies inside the ONS 2022 built-up-area boundary. One list entry can cover a terrace or a group of buildings.

Of the 169 entries, 106 are named by a street address; the rest are named buildings such as churches, halls and bridges.

Search the rest on Historic England’s list →

Historic England’s conservation areas layer, supplied by councils (incomplete in places, so a page fact, never graded). Hectares are the part of each area inside the built-up area.

The first 71 entries were listed in 1955, 4 of the 4 Grade I buildings among them. 89 came in 1974, in the national resurvey of the 1970s and 80s. Only 0 have been added in the last 15 years.

1 scheduled monument

Nationally important archaeological sites and monuments, protected by law; work on them needs consent from the Secretary of State, advised by Historic England.

Two measures, each ranked against every UK town of 1,000 or more, with protected heritage counting twice as much as the age of homes. Protected heritage counts each listed building by its grade (Grade I three points, II* two, II one), each scheduled monument and battlefield two, and each registered park or garden by its grade; it is ranked both per 10,000 residents and as a total, so a village with one fine church doesn’t outrank a historic city. The second measure is the share of homes built before 1919, from the Valuation Office Agency’s council tax records. History is a character grade: it describes the town and isn’t part of the overall grade.

William Laxton

John Griffin, 4th Baron Howard de Walden

James Yorke Bramston

Benjamin Greene

Ebenezer Prout

Victor Branford

Alfred Edward Taylor

1500165018001950

Ebenezer Prout1835–1909 · English musical theorist, writer, teacher and composer

Alfred Edward Taylor1869–1945 · British philosopher (1869–1945)

John Griffin, 4th Baron Howard de Walden1719–1797 · British nobleman and soldier (1719-1797)

James Yorke Bramston1763–1836 · English prelate of the Roman Catholic Church

Victor Branford1863–1930 · Sociologist (1863–1930)

WL

William Laxton1500–1556 · Master of the Worshipful Company of Grocers and Lord Mayor of London

BG

Benjamin Greene1780–1860 · Founder of Greene King breweries

Everyone born in Oundle → Birthplaces from Wikidata; portraits from Wikimedia Commons.

For its size, Oundle has more listed heritage than 93% of UK towns. In all there are 169 listed buildings, 4 of them Grade I. Berrystead sits at the heart of it all, with 4 of the town’s Grade I buildings within 400 m. Only 21 of the 865 towns nearest its size have more Grade I buildings.

On West Street alone there are 42 listed buildings. A conservation area has protected part of it since 1970. Of the whole list, 76% are houses, terraces and villas. The rest is about typical: it also has a scheduled monument; and 17% of its homes were built before 1919, close to the 15% in the typical UK town.