Repton and its neighbourhood

by F. C. Hipkins

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.