Ashley 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 below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

in the

North Northamptonshire North Northamptonshire is one of two local authority areas in Northamptonshire, England. It is a unitary authority area forming about one half of the ceremonial county of Northamptonshire. It was created in 2021. Its notable towns are Ketterin ...

, England, about northeast of

Market Harborough Market Harborough is a market town in the Harborough district of Leicestershire, England, in the far southeast of the county, forming part of the border with Northamptonshire. Market Harborough's population was 25,143 in 2020. It is the adm ...

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...

and west of

Corby Corby is a town in North Northamptonshire, England, located north-east of Northampton. From 1974 to 2021, the town served as the administrative headquarters of the Borough of Corby. At the 2011 Census, the built-up area had a population of 5 ...

. The population of the

at the 2011 census was 224. The village is near the

River Welland The River Welland is a lowland river in the east of England, some long. It drains part of the Midlands eastwards to The Wash. The river rises in the Hothorpe Hills, at Sibbertoft in Northamptonshire, then flows generally northeast to Market ...

, which forms the border with Leicestershire. The

Roman road Roman roads ( la, viae Romanae ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Re ...

called ''

Via Devana Via Devana is the name given to a Roman Road in England that ran from Colchester in the south-east, through Cambridge in the interior, and on to Chester in the north-west. These were important Roman military centres and it is conjectured that the ...

'' in the part from '' Ratae'' (now

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city l ...

) to ''

Duroliponte Duroliponte or Durolipons was a small town in the Roman province of Britannia on the site of what is now the city of Cambridge. The site of Roman Cambridge is located on Castle Hill, just northwest of the city centre. The fort ( la, castrum) was ...

'' (now

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

) ran just north of the village. The village's name means '

ash-tree ''Fraxinus'' (), commonly called ash, is a genus of flowering plants in the olive and lilac family, Oleaceae. It contains 45–65 species of usually medium to large trees, mostly deciduous, though a number of subtropical species are evergreen ...

wood/clearing'.

Demographics

The 2001 census shows a population of 217.Office for National Statistics: Ashley CP: Parish headcounts
Retrieved 6 December 2009

Notable buildings

The village church is dedicated to St Mary the Virgin and was mostly rebuilt by Sir

George Gilbert Scott Sir George Gilbert Scott (13 July 1811 – 27 March 1878), known as Sir Gilbert Scott, was a prolific English Gothic Revival architect, chiefly associated with the design, building and renovation of churches and cathedrals, although he started ...

at a cost of £2,000 in 1867 for the Rev Richard Pulteney, rector 1853-74 and also the

Squire In the Middle Ages, a squire was the shield- or armour-bearer of a knight. Use of the term evolved over time. Initially, a squire served as a knight's apprentice. Later, a village leader or a lord of the manor might come to be known as a " ...

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

was also remodelled for Pulteney by

Edmund Francis Law Edmund Francis Law, usually referred to as 'E. F. Law', (26 April 1810 – 14 April 1882, in Northampton) FRIBA was an English architect during the 19th century, notable for a large number of projects, particularly restorations, in th ...

in 1865. Pulteney also got Scott to build a

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

village school (1858) and Masters House (1865)

Roman villa

The remains were found in Alderstone field in the 19th century during railway construction of the line from

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

and Stamford just north of the village, which had its own station (

Ashley and Weston railway station Ashley and Weston railway station was a station in Northamptonshire, serving the settlements of Ashley and Weston. It was located just east of Welham Junction.British Railways Atlas.1947. p.16 History The station opened in 1850 on the Rugby ...

). The site was close to the Roman Road from Leicester to Cambridge. Excavations in 1969-71 show a villa and outbuildings close to the road.

Village events

Every Easter Monday there is a

tug of war Tug of war (also known as tug o' war, tug war, rope war, rope pulling, or tugging war) is a sport that pits two teams against each other in a test of strength: teams pull on opposite ends of a rope, with the goal being to bring the rope a certa ...

match against the neighbouring villages of

Hallaton Hallaton is a village and civil parish in the Harborough district of Leicestershire, England. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 523, which had increased to 594 at the 2011 census. History and description The village' ...

and

Medbourne Medbourne is a village and civil parish in the Harborough district, in the county of Leicestershire, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 473. Each year it competes with nearby Hallaton during the Bottle-kickin ...

References

External links

* Villages in Northamptonshire Roman villas in Northamptonshire North Northamptonshire Civil parishes in Northamptonshire {{Northamptonshire-geo-stub