Ashley is a village and former
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...
in the
Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme
The Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme is a local government district with borough status in Staffordshire, England.
It is named after the town of Newcastle-under-Lyme, where the council is based, but includes the town of Kidsgrove and village ...
of
Staffordshire
Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...
, England. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 508. The village is close to the border of
Shropshire
Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...
, adjacent to
Loggerheads, and is 4 miles (6 km) North East of
Market Drayton
Market Drayton is a market town and electoral ward in the north of Shropshire, England, close to the Cheshire and Staffordshire borders. It is on the River Tern, and was formerly known as "Drayton in Hales" (c. 1868) and earlier simply as "D ...
. At the 2011 census the population had been incorporated in Loggerheads.
History
The name means "land once cultivated and left fallow(Ley) in the near ash trees" Ashley Dale and Jugbank. Mainly sandstone cottages now mixed in with modern housing. From medieval times men have indiscriminately hacked clearings in the forests, then linked them with tracks and lanes following no specific pattern.
The church of St John the Baptist possesses a 17th-century tower with the remainder built in 1860-62 by J. Ashdown of London in a style representative of the 13th-14th century. The church is notable for its collection of
funerary art
Funerary art is any work of art forming, or placed in, a repository for the remains of the dead. The term encompasses a wide variety of forms, including cenotaphs ("empty tombs"), tomb-like monuments which do not contain human remains, and comm ...
from several centuries. The spectacular tomb of
Sir Gilbert Gerard
Sir Gilbert Gerard (died 4 February 1593) was a prominent lawyer, politician, and landowner of the Tudor period. He was returned six times as a member of the English parliament for four different constituencies. He was Attorney-General for more t ...
(d. 1592) and his wife Anne Radcliffe (d. 1608) was later supplemented by free-standing, kneeling figures of their son,
Thomas Gerard, 1st Baron Gerard
Thomas Gerard, 1st Baron Gerard (c. 1564 – 15 January 1618) was a Staffordshire and Lancashire landowner and politician, a member of six English parliaments for three different constituencies. Although a prominent member of the Essex factio ...
and his son, Gibert 2nd
Baron Gerard. This composite family group dominates the Gerard Chapel, on the north side of the church. This is balanced on the south side by the Kinnersley Chapel, containing the memorials of the Kinnersleys of
Clough Hall
Clough Hall is a suburb of Kidsgrove in the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme, North Staffordshire
The federation of Stoke-on-Trent was the 1910 amalgamation of the six Staffordshire Potteries towns of Burslem, Tunstall, Stoke-upon-Trent, ...
. Most impressive is the sculpture of Thomas Kinnersley I, by
Francis Leggatt Chantrey
Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey (7 April 1781 – 25 November 1841) was an English sculptor. He became the leading portrait sculptor in Regency era Britain, producing busts and statues of many notable figures of the time. Chantrey's most notable w ...
. His son and successor is commemorated by a large and elaborate structure, the work of
Matthew Noble
Matthew Noble (23 March 1817 – 23 June 1876) was a leading British portrait sculptor. Carver of numerous monumental figures and busts including work memorializing Victorian era royalty and statesmen displayed in locations such as Westminster Ab ...
.
Near to the church is a mound as yet unexcavated but thought to be a burial ground from the time of the
Black Death
The Black Death (also known as the Pestilence, the Great Mortality or the Plague) was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Western Eurasia and North Africa from 1346 to 1353. It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causi ...
.
The Roman Catholic chapel of Our Lady and St John is not far from St John the Baptist. The church and rectory are just one building with a hint of gothic-like adornments on a colour washed stucco. The chapel was designed by the same architect priest, Fr James Egan, as
Holy Trinity Church in
Newcastle-under-Lyme.
Historic England
Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked w ...
Ashley - Our Blessed Lady and St John the Baptist
''Taking Stock'', retrieved 13 June 2022
See also
*
Listed buildings in Loggerheads, Staffordshire
References
External links
Loggerheads (and Ashley) Parish Council website*
{{authority control
Villages in Staffordshire
Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme
Former civil parishes in Staffordshire