Historical and descriptive sketches of the town and soke of Horncastle [1822] / in the county of Lincoln and several places adjacent

by George Weir

WEST ASHBY,

In Domesday called Aschebi, and in old writings Askeby, is a parish adjoining to the north boundaries of that of Horncastle, from which town the village is about two miles distant. In this parish is the manor of Ashby Thorpe, now belonging to the devisees of the late Mr. Joseph Rinder; but the possessor of that of Horncastle claims manorial rights over the other parts of the parish. Previous to the dissolution of monasteries in the reign of Henry the eighth, the abbey of Kirkstead had a grange in this parish, which, in the fifth year of Edward the sixth, was granted amongst other estates to William Cecil Lord Burghley, Lord High Treasurer of England; and now forms part of the Ashby Thorpe estate. The church consists of a tower, a nave with a north aisle, and a chancel. [42b] The benefice is a curacy, in the presentation of the Bishop of Carlisle.