Ashby Parva is a village and civil parish

Civil parish

In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...

 in the Harborough

Harborough

Harborough is a local government district of Leicestershire, England, named after its main town, Market Harborough. Covering , the District is by far the largest of the eight district authorities in Leicestershire and covers almost a quarter of the County....

 district of Leicestershire

Leicestershire

Leicestershire is a landlocked county in the English Midlands. It takes its name from the heavily populated City of Leicester, traditionally its administrative centre, although the City of Leicester unitary authority is today administered separately from the rest of Leicestershire...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. The parish had a population of 211 according to the 2001 census. The village is in the west of the district, west of the M1 motorway

M1 motorway

The M1 is a north–south motorway in England primarily connecting London to Leeds, where it joins the A1 near Aberford. While the M1 is considered to be the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the United Kingdom, the first road to be built to motorway standard in the country was the...

, and nearby Ullesthorpe

Ullesthorpe

Ullesthorpe is a small village in south Leicestershire, England. It has a population of 868.It is known for its windmill which is currently undergoing restoration. Its name comes from the Scandinavian personal name Úlfr...

, Leire

Leire

Leire is a village in Leicestershire, England. The name is thought to originate from the old British name for the river Soar, which has a tributary with a source south of the village.Present day Leire has a population of around 500....

 and Bitteswell

Bitteswell

Bitteswell is a small village and civil parish in the Harborough district of Leicestershire in England. It is close to Lutterworth, and situated just to the north of that town, and in the 2001 census had a population of 454. It was recorded in the Domesday Book as Betmeswelle.It was the site of...

. It is about 3 miles away from Lutterworth

Lutterworth

Lutterworth is a market town and civil parish in the Harborough district of Leicestershire, England. The town is located in southern Leicestershire, north of Rugby, in Warwickshire and south of Leicester. It had a population of 8,293 in the 2001 UK census....

. The village was recorded in the Domesday Book

Domesday Book

Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

.

The Civil War

During the English Civil War

English Civil War

The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...

 parliamentary troops from Warwickshire

Warwickshire

Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...

garrisons visited Ashby Parva and the surrounding villages in Guthlaxton Hundred, stealing horses and availing themselves of "free quarter". In May, 1642 a hundred men from the Coventry garrison stayed three hours at Ashby Parva to avail themselves of "meat, drink and provinder". In 1646 the inhabitants claimed ten pounds from the Warwickshire County Committee for a visit by Captain Wells and sixty men from Warwick in 1644, during which the troops quartered for two days and consumed "diet and horsemeat" worth an estimated ten pounds.