Repton and its neighbourhood

by F. C. Hipkins

ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH.

What reader of “Ivanhoe” does not remember one scene, at least, in that well-known romance, “The Gentle and Joyous Passage of Arms of Ashby,” which has shed such a lasting halo of chivalry over that town? Sir Walter Scott had often stayed with Sir George Beaumont, at Coleorton Hall, and, no doubt, had visited all the places connected with the history of the locality. The Castle of Ashby in which “Prince John held high festival,” as Sir Walter writes, “is not the same building of which the stately ruins still interest the traveller,” but the description given of the field in which the tournament was held, corresponds, in a most minute manner, with the “Tournament Field,” still so called, at the neighbouring village of Smisby, and has for ages been identified with that famous “Passage of Arms.” Eight miles south-east of Repton this very interesting “habitation among the ash trees” is situated.

The first authentic mention we have of it is about the year 1066, when William the Conqueror granted the Manor to Hugh de Grentemaisnel, one of his most valiant captains at the battle of Hastings. In Domesday Book we read of its having a priest and church. Soon afterwards it fell into the hands of Robert de Beaumeis, another Norman, whose successor, Philip, granted “the church of St. Helen of Ashby, with the church of Blackfordby,” &c., &c., to the Abbey of Lilleshall, Salop. Philip de Beaumeis, having no son to succeed him, left his estates to his daughter Adeliza, who married Alan la Zouche, a descendant of the Earls of Brittany. Alan settled at Ashby, and added the family name to it, to distinguish it from the other towns of that name. Alan was succeeded by his son Roger, who was succeeded by his son Alan, the last of the real Zouches, in the male line, who held the Manor of Ashby, he granted it to Sir William Mortimer, a distant relative, who assumed the name, and passed it on to his son Alan, who fought at the battle of Creçy, 1346, and died in that year, he was succeeded by his son Hugh, who died in 1399, leaving no heir, with him the name, finally, became extinct.

Plate 16.

Ashby Castle. ([Page 92.])

Staunton Harold. ([Page 135.])

The property was held by Sir Hugh Burnett for about twenty years, when James Butler, Earl of Ormond (a Lancastrian noble), by some means or other, obtained possession of the land, he was executed at Newcastle after the battle of Towton Moor in 1461. In that year Edward, Duke of York, became King, and rewarded his partisans with titles and grants of land. Among them was Sir William Hastings, whom he created Baron Hastings of Ashby, &c., Steward of Leicester, and ambassador, with the Earl of Warwick, to treat for peace with Louis XI., King of France, who gave him a pension of 2000 crowns per annum. The first payment was made in gold, which Lord Hastings is said to have received with these words, “Put it here into my sleeve; for other testimonial (receipt) you shall get none: no man shall say that King Edward’s Lord Chamberlain hath been pensioner to the French King.” This may be the origin of the crest of the Hastings’ family, a maunch or sleeve. King Edward also gave him “licence to enclose and impark 3000 acres of land and wood at Ashby-de-la-Zouch,” and to erect and fortify houses, &c., there and elsewhere. In the year 1474 he built Ashby Castle, nine years later the Protector (Richard, Duke of Gloucester) accused him of high treason, and, without trial, had him beheaded on a log of wood on Tower Green. His remains were interred in Windsor Castle, where a splendid monument was erected to his memory.

As we are not writing a history of the Hastings family, we must confine ourselves to those members of that family connected with the history of the place, which for two centuries centred round its castle and church. Ashby Castle was, as we have seen, built by the first Lord Hastings in 1474. It stands on the south side of the town. Judging by its ruins, it must have been indeed a stately pile. Entering from the west we see the remains of the kitchen, with its fire-places, &c.; it had a groined roof, over which were rooms, with another storey over them, access to these was obtained by a spiral staircase in the north-east corner of the kitchen. The west front of this block has been destroyed, so nothing can be written about its chief entrance, its height is about seventy feet, the dimensions of the kitchen are fifty feet long, by twenty-seven broad, and thirty-seven feet high.

In the kitchen are two doorways leading into the “servants hall,” from this two doorways lead into the Great Hall, and from this admission was obtained to a “drawing room.” At the end of this room, a little to the south, is the chapel, lit by four windows, on either side, and an east window. At the west end, over the west door, is a gallery, to which a spiral staircase leads. Adjoining the east end, to the south of it, were rooms for the chaplain. On the south is a courtyard formed by the chapel, chaplain’s rooms, a thick wall, and the Great Tower. This tower must have been an imposing building of, at least, four storeys, with cellar, kitchen, dining hall, drawing room, and sleeping apartments. Its southern half is destroyed, but what is left on the north side—turrets, windows, fire-place, armorial bearings, &c., prove how richly the fabric was sculptured over. Very probably there was a wall from the Great Tower on its west side, like that on its east side, which met a wall built out from the kitchen. The ground plan of the Castle would form a parallelogram with kitchen, servants’ hall, great hall, drawing room, and chapel on the north side, chaplain’s room at the east end, Great Tower, with walls on the south side, and a wall and kitchen at the west end. A subterraneous passage connects the kitchen with the Great Tower.

The chief historical events connected with the Castle are the visit of Mary, Queen of Scots, in November of the year 1569. She was on her way from Tutbury to Coventry. Anne, wife of James I., and Prince Henry were entertained at the Castle in June, 1603, and King James himself paid the Earl a visit in the year 1617. The expenses of this visit were so great, the Earl’s income became seriously diminished, as one of his descendants, Lady Flora, daughter of the 1st Marquis of Hastings wrote, a propos of the visit,

The bells did ring,

The gracious King

Enjoyed his visit much;

And we’ve been poor

Ere since that hour

At Ashby-de-la-Zouch.

Again in May, 1645, another Stuart was a guest at Ashby. Charles I., flushed with the success of his army at Leicester, spent a short time at the Castle. Fifteen days later, June 14th, he came again, this time a fugitive from the fatal and final battle of Naseby Field. The Royalist garrison yielded Leicester, and marched out, the Governor Hastings (Lord Loughborough) to Ashby, the officers and men to Lichfield. For months the Parliamentary army, under Sir Thomas Fairfax, beseiged the town and castle, which held out bravely for the Royal cause. On the 28th February, 1646, articles of agreement were drawn up, and signed by Lord Loughborough, and Colonel Needham. The articles consisted of eleven “items.” The officers and soldiers were “to march away to Bridgenorth or Worcester, with their horses, arms, and ammunition, bag, and baggage, trumpets sounding, drums beating, colours flying,” &c., or they might “lay down their arms, and have protection to live at home if they please,” “and the works and fortifications of the town and garrison should be sleighted,” “after which the sequestrations of Colonel General Hastings, the Earl of Huntingdon, should be taken off,” or “the Colonel General, with the said gentlemen, could go to Hull or Bristol to have a ship provided to transport them to France or Holland, whither they please.” In 1648 the “sleighting” of the Castle was performed, only too well, by one William Bainbrigg, of Lockington, in the county of Leicester. On the north side of the Castle was a green, on the south a garden, a wall, still existing, surrounded it with towers of brick, with stone facings, used as summer-houses, or “look outs.” On the east of the Castle is a triangular tower, triangular in shape, called the “Mount House,” it is said to be connected with the kitchen by a subterraneous passage. The “Manor House” on the north-east side, occupies the site of a suite of apartments made to accommodate King James I. in the year 1617.

Ashby Church, dedicated to St. Helen, occupies the site of an earlier building, probably Norman. During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries it was rebuilt, and consisted of chancel, nave, north and south aisles, with tower at the west end. During the last twenty-three years nearly £16,000. have been spent in enlarging and restoring it. Now it consists of nave with two aisles on its north and south sides, all the galleries have been removed, and the old pews have been replaced by well-designed oak seats. The choir stalls are placed at the east end of the nave, leaving the chancel unoccupied. Over the altar there is a fine reredos of oak, ascribed to Grinling Gibbons. On the south side of the chancel is the mortuary chapel of the Huntingdon family. A most magnificent tomb of Francis, 2nd Earl of Huntingdon, and his wife Katherine, occupies the centre of it. Every detail of it is well worth a very close inspection. There are also many mural tablets in the chapel.

Within a sculptured recess in the north wall of the church is a finely executed figure of a pilgrim. Lying on his back, the head rests on a cushion, just above the right shoulder a portion of a pilgrim’s hat with scallop-shell is seen. Round the shoulders, and over the breast, is the collar of SS. The figure is clothed with a long cloak, the feet, which rest on a dog, are shod with laced boots with pointed toes. Across the body is a pilgrim’s staff, clasped by the left fore-arm, the hands meet over the breast, pressed together in the attitude of prayer, his scrip, ornamented with scallop-shells, is suspended, diagonally, from his right shoulder. The statue is supposed to be a Hastings, at least the family claim it, and have had their badge—the maunch—sculptured on the wall of the recess. Among other monuments in the church are those to Robert Mundy and his two wives, a very curious one to Mrs. Margery Wright with high-crowned hat, ruffles and ermine muff! and many modern ones. The most curious relic of mediæval days is an old finger pillory, formerly used for the punishment of disorderly-behaved persons in church. It is in front of the screen which separates the nave from the tower. The windows of the church are nearly all of stained glass, and illustrate scenes in the life of our Lord.

The town of Ashby is well known for its baths. In the year 1822 they were opened, but the great expectations of converting the town into a fashionable health resort have not been realized. The water is not found at Ashby, but is pumped from deep coal pits at Moira, some three miles distant, and conveyed to the baths in tanks specially constructed for that purpose.

Ashby received quite an unusual class of visitors in the year 1804. During the prolonged wars between England and France many thousands of prisoners were landed on our shores. According to Sir Archibald Alison there were no less than 50,000 French prisoners in Great Britain. For the accommodation of “the rank and file” such places as Dartmoor prison were erected, but the officers were quartered in different towns. On Friday, September 26th, 1804, the first detachment, consisting of forty-two officers, arrived in Ashby, other detachments followed, till about two hundred found lodgings there, among them were officers of the army and navy, and about thirty others described as merchants. They lived on excellent terms with the good people of Ashby for ten years, they were allowed liberty to walk a mile in any direction out of the town. Some escaped, and some were exchanged for English officers imprisoned in France.

Canon Denton, Vicar of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, has written a most interesting account of its castle, and this French occupation in “Bygone Leicestershire.” He obtained the information about the latter, from the lips of one of his parishioners (Mrs. Whyman), who lived at the time, and saw them. He also had access to a diary kept by an Ashby physician (Dr. Kirkland). The church registers contain entries of marriages contracted between the officers and residents, also entries of baptisms and burials, which, as the Canon writes, “show, among other things, that the prisoners of war, who were quartered at Ashby, did not allow national prejudices to prevent them forming the closest ties with the inhabitants of the place of their captivity.”

Little more remains to be written about this interesting town. Its Grammar School, founded in 1567 by the Earl of Huntingdon and others, augmented about thirty years after its foundation, by an inhabitant who is said to have lost his way, and was guided to his home by the sound of the church bell. In gratitude for this he conveyed to the trustees of the school certain property on condition that the bells “should be rung for a quarter of an hour at four o’clock in the morning.” This custom was kept up till 1807, when it was discontinued. The property is still known as the “Day Bell Houses.” One of the Headmasters was Dr. Samuel Shaw, son of Thomas Shaw, of Brook End, Repton, blacksmith, and was at Repton School under Dr. Ullock. At the age of 15 Samuel Shaw was admitted as a sizar at St. John’s College, Cambridge. In 1658 he was Rector of Long Whatton, ejected in 1661, and was elected Headmaster of Ashby Grammar School in 1668.

Plate 17.

Barrow-on-Trent Church. ([Page 99.])

Swarkeston House. ([Page 101.])

On Thursday, July 24th, 1879, a memorial cross, in design like Queen Eleanor’s cross at Northampton, was unveiled. It bears the following inscription, written by the late Earl of Beaconsfield: “In memory of Edith Maud Countess of Loudoun in her own right, Baroness Botreux, Hungerford, De Moleyns and Hastings, who sprung from an illustrious ancestry herself possessed their noblest qualities, the people of Ashby-de-la-Zouch and the neighbourhood have raised this cross as a tribute of admiration and of love.” The cross was designed by the late Sir Gilbert Scott, R.A., and executed by Messrs. Farmer and Brindley at a cost of £4,500.