Ashley 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 Kettering

Kettering (borough)

Kettering is a local government district and borough in Northamptonshire, England. It is named after its main town Kettering where the council is based. It borders onto the District of Harborough in the neighbouring county of Leicestershire, the Borough of Corby, the District of East...

 district of Northamptonshire

Northamptonshire

Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...

, 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...

, about 4 miles (6.4 km) northeast of Market Harborough

Market Harborough

Market Harborough is a market town within the Harborough district of Leicestershire, England.It has a population of 20,785 and is the administrative headquarters of Harborough District Council. It sits on the Northamptonshire-Leicestershire border...

, 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...

 and 5 miles (8 km) west of Corby. The village is near the River Welland

River Welland

The River Welland is a river in the east of England, some long. It rises in the Hothorpe Hills, at Sibbertoft in Northamptonshire, then flows generally northeast to Market Harborough, Stamford and Spalding, to reach The Wash near Fosdyke. For much of its length it forms the county boundary between...

, which forms the border with Leicestershire. The Roman road

Roman Britain

Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...

 called Via Devana

Via Devana

The Via Devana was a Roman Road in England that ran from Colchester in the south-east to Chester in the north-west. Both were important Roman military centres and it is conjectured that the main reason the road was constructed was military rather than civilian. The Latin name for Chester is Deva...

in the part from Ratae (now Leicester

Leicester

Leicester is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...

) to Duroliponte

Duroliponte

Duroliponte was a small town in the Roman province of Britannia. Today it is known as Cambridge, located in the English county of Cambridgeshire.The site of Roman Cambridge is located on Castle Hill, just northwest of the city centre...

(now Cambridge

Cambridge

The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...

) ran just north of the village.

Notable buildings

The village church is dedicated to St Mary and was mostly rebuilt by Sir G G Scott at a cost of £2,000 in 1867 for the Rev Richard Pulteney, rector 1853-74 and also the Squire

Squire

The English word squire is a shortened version of the word Esquire, from the Old French , itself derived from the Late Latin , in medieval or Old English a scutifer. The Classical Latin equivalent was , "arms bearer"...

.

The Manor House

Manor house

A manor house is a country house that historically formed the administrative centre of a manor, the lowest unit of territorial organisation in the feudal system in Europe. The term is applied to country houses that belonged to the gentry and other grand stately homes...

was also remodelled for Pulteney by E F Law in 1865. Pulteney also got Scott to build a Gothic

Gothic Revival architecture

The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...

 village school (1858) and Masters House (1865)

Roman villa

The remains were found in Alderstone field in the 19th century during railway construction of the line from Market Harborough to Peterborough

Peterborough

Peterborough is a cathedral city and unitary authority area in the East of England, with an estimated population of in June 2007. For ceremonial purposes it is in the county of Cambridgeshire. Situated north of London, the city stands on the River Nene which flows into the North Sea...

 and Stamford

Stamford, Lincolnshire

Stamford is a town and civil parish within the South Kesteven district of the county of Lincolnshire, England. It is approximately to the north of London, on the east side of the A1 road to York and Edinburgh and on the River Welland...

 just north of the village, which had its own station (Ashley and Weston railway station

Ashley and Weston railway station

Ashley and Weston railway station was a station in Northamptonshire, serving the settlements of Ashley and Weston. It was located a few miles east of Market Harborough....

)
. The site was close to the Roman Road from Leicester to Cambridge. Excavations in 1969-71 show a villa and outbuildings close to the road.

Village events

Every Easter Monday there is a tug of war match against the neighbouring villages of Hallaton

Hallaton

Hallaton is a village and civil parish in the Harborough district of Leicestershire, England. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 523....

 and Medbourne

Medbourne

Medbourne is a village in Leicestershire.Each year it competes with nearby Hallaton during the Bottle-kicking event on Easter Monday. It is believed that Medbourne, which lay on the Gartree Road was a large market settlement at the time of Roman Britain....

.