Canons Ashby House is a Grade I listed

Elizabethan The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personifi ...

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 held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...

located in the village of

Canons Ashby Canons Ashby is a small village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in West Northamptonshire, England. The population of the village is included in the civil parish of Preston Capes. Its most notable building is Canons Ashby House, a N ...

, about south of the town of

Daventry Daventry ( , historically ) is a market town and civil parish in the West Northamptonshire unitary authority in Northamptonshire, England, close to the border with Warwickshire. At the 2021 Census Daventry had a population of 28,123, making ...

in the county of

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

, England. It has been owned by the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

since 1981 when the house was close to collapse and the gardens had turned into a meadow. "The Tower" of the building is in the care of the

Landmark Trust The Landmark Trust is a British building conservation charity, founded in 1965 by Sir John and Lady Smith, that rescues buildings of historic interest or architectural merit and then makes them available for holiday rental. The Trust's headqua ...

and available for holiday lets.

Design

The interior of Canons Ashby House is noted for its

wall paintings and its Jacobean plasterwork. It has remained essentially unchanged since 1710 and is presented as it was during the time of Sir Henry Edward Leigh Dryden (1818–1899), a Victorian antiquary with an interest in history. The house sits in the midst of a formal garden with colourful

herbaceous border A herbaceous border is a collection of perennial herbaceous plants (plants that live for more than two years and are soft-stemmed and non-woody) arranged closely together, usually to create a dramatic effect through colour, shape or large scale. ...

s, an

orchard An orchard is an intentional plantation of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit- or nut-producing trees which are generally grown for commercial production. Orchards are also sometimes a feature of larg ...

featuring varieties of fruit trees from the 16th century, terraces, walls and gate piers from 1710. There is also the remains of a medieval priory church (from which the house gets its name).

History

The house had been the home of the

Dryden '' John Dryden (; – ) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate. He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the peri ...

family since its construction in the 16th century; the

was built in approximately 1550 with additions in the 1590s, in the 1630s and 1710. One John Dryden had married Elizabeth Cope in 1551 and inherited, through his wife, an L-shaped farmhouse which he gradually extended. In the 1590s his son, Sir Erasmus Dryden completed the final north range of the house which enclosed the Pebble Courtyard. John Dryden and Elizabeth Cope had a daughter, Bridget Dryden (1563-1645),born at Canons Ashby. She became the second wife of cleric and teacher

Francis Marbury Francis Marbury (sometimes spelled Merbury) (1555–1611) was a Cambridge-educated English cleric, schoolmaster and playwright. He is best known for being the father of Anne Hutchinson, considered the most famous English woman in colonial Ame ...

; their daughter

Anne Hutchinson Anne Hutchinson (née Marbury; July 1591 – August 1643) was a Puritan spiritual advisor, religious reformer, and an important participant in the Antinomian Controversy which shook the infant Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1636 to 1638. Her ...

(1591-1643) emigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634. Anne's strong religious convictions were at odds with the established Puritan clergy in the Boston area, and her popularity and charisma helped create a theological schism that threatened to destroy the Puritans' religious community in New England. She was eventually tried and convicted, then banished from the colony with many of her supporters. To 19th century America, she was a crusader for religious liberty; in the 20th century, she became viewed as a feminist leader for her staunch defence of individual freedom of thought. Today, a statue of Anne Hutchinson stands in front of the State House in Boston, Massachusetts. Sir Henry Edward Leigh Dryden's daughter, the historian and photographer Alice Dryden (1866–1956) was born in the house and lived there for 33 years. She moved away after her father died, since a woman could not inherit the estate and it went to her uncle, Sir Alfred Erasmus Dryden (1821–1912).

Louis Osman Louis Osman (30 January 1914 – 11 April 1996) was an English artist, architect, goldsmith, silversmith and medallist. He is notable for the gold coronet he designed and made for the investiture in 1969 of Charles, Prince of Wales. His work as a ...

(1914–1996), an architect and accomplished British goldsmith lived at Canons Ashby from 1969/70 to 1979. Whilst there, Osman made the crown, with his enamellist wife, Dilys Roberts, which was used at the investiture of

Charles, Prince of Wales Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person to ...

in 1969. They also made the gold enamelled casket that held the

Magna Carta (Medieval Latin for "Great Charter of Freedoms"), commonly called (also ''Magna Charta''; "Great Charter"), is a royal charter of rights agreed to by King John of England at Runnymede, near Windsor, on 15 June 1215. First drafted by the ...

which was on view in the United States Capitol, Washington, DC in 1976 for the

United States Bicentennial The United States Bicentennial was a series of celebrations and observances during the mid-1970s that paid tribute to historical events leading up to the creation of the United States of America as an independent republic. It was a central event ...

.Washington Post: ''Original Magna Carta and replica get a cleaning'' 20 August 2010, accessed 23 May 2013
/ref> During World War 2, the London offices of 20th Century Fox films were evacuated to Canons Ashby House; the evacuee staff lived in the nearby village of Moreton Pinkney.

Gervase Jackson-Stops Gervase Frank Ashworth Jackson-Stops (26 April 1947 – 2 July 1995, in London) was an architectural historian and journalist. Education He was educated at Harrow School, Harrow and later won an exhibition (scholarship), exhibition to Christ ...

, who was the Architectural Adviser to the National Trust for over twenty years, broke fresh ground when he fought for the rescue of the then decaying manor-house in the 1980s. This was the first time that the Trust used government funds rather than the traditional family endowment to save a historic house.

References

External links

{{commons category-inline, Canons Ashby House
Canons Ashby House information at the National Trust
Gardens in Northamptonshire Country houses in Northamptonshire Historic house museums in Northamptonshire National Trust properties in Northamptonshire Grade I listed buildings in Northamptonshire Grade I listed houses Landmark Trust properties in England