Ashton is a village and

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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

about ¾ mile east of

Oundle Oundle () is a market town and civil parish on the left bank of the River Nene in North Northamptonshire, England, which had a population of 6,254 at the time of the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census. It is north of London and south-wes ...

in the east of the English county of

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...

forming part of the unitary authority of

North Northamptonshire North Northamptonshire is a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Northamptonshire, England, and was created in 2021. The council is based in Corby, the district's la ...

. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 219.

History

The villages name means '

ash-tree ''Fraxinus'' (), commonly called ash, is a genus of plants in the olive and lilac family, Oleaceae, and comprises 45–65 species of usually medium-to-large trees, most of which are deciduous trees, although some subtropical species are evergr ...

farm/settlement'. The Manor of Ashton is mentioned in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of 1086. The manor house was rebuilt by the Marriott family c1600. Ashton was re-built in 1900 by the

Rothschild family The Rothschild family ( , ) is a wealthy Ashkenazi Jews, Ashkenazi Jewish noble banking family originally from Frankfurt. The family's documented history starts in 16th-century Frankfurt; its name is derived from the family house, Rothschild, ...

for estate workers, to designs by William Huckvale. The village is the birthplace of

Miriam Rothschild Dame Miriam Louisa Rothschild (5 August 1908 – 20 January 2005) was a British natural scientist and author with contributions to zoology, entomology, and botany. Early life Miriam Rothschild was born in 1908 in Ashton, North Northamptonshire ...

, natural scientist and author. In 1952 George and Lillian Peach were murdered at their home in the village. The crime remains Northamptonshire's oldest unsolved murder case. The World Conker Championships was founded at Ashton in 1965 when a group of anglers held a conker contest at the Chequered Skipper pub when the weather was too bad to go fishing. The event was held in Ashton for 45 years before moving to a larger venue in Southwick, Northamptonshire in 2009.

Notable buildings

Ashton Wold Ashton Wold is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) east of the market town Oundle in Northamptonshire. History It is part of the Ashton Estate, which was purchased in 1860 by Lionel de Rothschild, a banker and politician. Hi ...

house was built in 1900 for

Charles Rothschild Nathaniel Charles Rothschild (9 May 1877 – 12 October 1923) was an English banker and entomologist and a member of the Rothschild family. He is remembered for 'the Rothschild List', a list he made in 1915 of 284 sites across Britain that he c ...

(d. 1923). The

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

was William Huckvale and the house is in the Tudor style. Many of the cottages in the village date from 1900–01 and were designed by Huckvale. Two more cottages were added in 1945 in the same style; Pevsner refers to Ashton as a

model village A model village is a mostly self-contained community, built from the late 18th century onwards by landowners and business magnates to house their workers. "Model" implies an ideal to which other developments could aspire. Although the villages ...

. The cottages are Tudor style and

thatched Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge ('' Cladium mariscus''), rushes, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. Since the bulk of ...

. Almost all of the buildings the village are Grade II or II* listed. The Creed Chapel (or the Chapel of St Mary Magdalene) and adjacent school room date from circa 1705 and is Grade II listed. The

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were usually held the lord's manorial courts, communal mea ...

is from the 15th century.

References

External links

Listed Buildings in Ashton, Northamptonshire, England from British Listed Buildings websiteA short history of Ashton and the Rothschild Family from the Estate websiteDetails of the World Conker Championship organised by Ashton Conker ClubA short history of the village and the pub from the Chequered Skipper website
*
The Parish Church of Oundle with Ashton
{{authority control Villages in Northamptonshire Civil parishes in Northamptonshire North Northamptonshire