Ashby Folville, Leicestershire
Historical Description
Ashby-Folville, a lordship and a parish in Leicestershire. The lordship lies on an affluent of the river Wreak, 2½ miles NW of John-o'-Gaunt station on the G.N. and L. & N.W. Joint railways, and 6½ SW of Melton-Mowbray. Acreage, 1796; population of the civil parish, 115; of the ecclesiastical, 316. The parish includes also the chapelry of Barsby, and its post town is Melton-Mowbray; money order office, Twyford; telegraph office, John-o'-Gaunt railway station. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Peterborough; value, £250. The church is of the 14th century, and unusually large and fine, and was restored in 1875. The Carington mortuary chapel contains handsome altar tombs with recumbent effigies. The almshouses here were founded by Lord Carington 200 years ago, and have an income of £100 per annum.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
| Ancient County | Leicestershire | |
| Ecclesiastical parish | Ashby-Folville St. Mary | |
| Hundred | East Goscote | |
| Poor Law union | Melton-Mowbray |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register dates from the year 1653.
Findmypast, in association with the Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester & Rutland, have the following parish records online for Ashby Folville:
| Baptisms | Banns | Marriages | Burials |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1653-1916 | 1759-1940 | 1654-1838 | 1653-1975 |
Churches
Church of England
St. Mary (parish church)
The church of St. Mary is an ancient and remarkably large and handsome building of stone in the Decorated and Perpendicular styles, consisting of chancel with south chapel, clerestoried nave of five bays, aisles, south porch, and a massive embattled western tower containing 8 bells, dated 1626, 1637, 1652, 1653 and 1739, and three others added in 1901: in the Carington chapel, south of the chancel, are monuments to Sir Eustace Folville, who died in the 14th century, George Smith, ob. 1607, and Sir Francis Smith, ob. 1629: Francis, 2nd Baron and Viscount Carrington, of Wootton Wawen, co. Warwick, and of Ashby Folville, and Charles, 3rd Viscount, were buried in this chapel; on the death of the latter the titles became extinct: in the chancel of the church is a mural monument to Sir Ralph Woodford, ob. 1471: the ancient rood stairs remain in a good state of preservation, and there are two hagioscopes, one in the north aisle and the other in the Carington chapel: the church was restored in 1875, at a cost of £740, and from 1894 to 1908 various restorations and repairs were made, including the pointing of the walls inside and outside, a new roof to the south aisle and porch, and repairs to the roofs of the nave and north aisle; new roof, pinnacles, west window, and floors to the tower; 3 new bells and re-casting 4 of the old cracked ones; new organ and vestry screens, and new choir stalls, all defrayed at a cost of £2,150 by Herbert Hanbury Smith-Carington esq. then lord of the manor: the church affords 140 sittings.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Ashby Folville from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Ashby-Folville (St. Mary))
Land and Property
A full transcript of the Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Leicestershire is online.
Maps
Online maps of Ashby Folville are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Leicestershire newspapers online: