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

about ¾ mile east of

Oundle Oundle () is a market town on the left bank of the River Nene in North Northamptonshire, England, which had a population of 5,735 at the time of the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 census. It is north of London and south-west of Peterborough ...

in the east of the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

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 ...

forming part of the unitary authority of

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 ...

. 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 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 ...

farm/settlement'. Commemorative Stone at Chapel, Ashton, E Northants

Ashton was re-built in 1900 by the

Rothschild family The Rothschild family ( , ) is a wealthy Ashkenazi Jewish family originally from Frankfurt that rose to prominence with Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744–1812), a court factor to the German Landgraves of Hesse-Kassel in the Free City of F ...

for estate workers. Since 1965 it has hosted the World Conker Championship traditionally on the second Sunday of October. This is now held in Southwick. The village is the birthplace of Dame

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 Wold, near Oundle in No ...

a noted 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.

Notable buildings

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

was built in 1900 for

the Honourable ''The Honourable'' (British English) or ''The Honorable'' (American English; see spelling differences) (abbreviation: ''Hon.'', ''Hon'ble'', or variations) is an honorific style that is used as a prefix before the names or titles of certain ...

Charles Rothschild Nathaniel Charles Rothschild (9 May 1877 – 12 October 1923), known as "Charles", 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 acros ...

(d. 1923,

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

). 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 type of mostly self-contained community, built from the late 18th century onwards by landowners and business magnates to house their workers. Although the villages are located close to the workplace, they are generally phys ...

. 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 and adjacent school building date from 1705, 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 ...

from the 15th century. Chapel and Schoolhouse, Ashton, E Northants

Cottage at Ashton, Northants, E Northants

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