Canons Ashby, Northamptonshire
Historical Description
Canons-Ashby, a village and a parish in Northamptonshire, 1 mile N from Morton Pinckney station on the East and West Junction railway, and 6 miles W from Towcester. Post town, Byfield (R.S.O.); money order and telegraph office, Byfield. Acreage, 1830; population, 38. Here is the seat of the Dryden family, an ancient quadrangular building enclosing a court which stands in a well-stocked deer park of 37 acres. The living is a chaplaincy in the gift of Sir H. E. L. Dryden, Bart., and in the diocese of Peterborough. The church is a building of stone in the Transition style between Early English and Decorated, and it contains portions of the old monastic church founded in the time of Henry II.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
Ancient County | Northamptonshire | |
Ecclesiastical parish | Canons Ashby St. Mary | |
Hundred | Greens-Norton | |
Poor Law union | Daventry |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The register of baptisms and burials dates from 1708; marriages, 1755.
Ancestry.co.uk, in association with the Northamptonshire Record Office, have images of the Parish Registers and Bishop's Transcripts for Northamptonshire online.
Churches
Church of England
Priory church of the Blessed Virgin (parish church)
The priory church of the Blessed Virgin is a building of stone in the Transition style between Early English and Decorated, and consists of the western portion of the nave of the monastic church, together with part of the north aisle and the massive north-west tower, which is supported by ornamental buttresses, and has pinnacles at the angles: in the church are various monuments and hatchments to the Dryden family, and a brass with effigy and arms to John Dryden esq. ob. 1584; another to Sir Erasmus Dryden bart. ob. 22 May, 1632, and Frances (Wilkes) his wife, ob. 1630; a third to John Dryden esq. ob. 1631: there are mural monuments to Sir John Edward Turner Dryden bart. d. 29 Sep. 1818, to Sir John Dryden bart. d. 16 Ap. 1797, the Rev. Sir Henry Dryden bart. M.A. vicar of Ambrosden, Oxon and rector of Wooton, Warw. d. 17 Nov. 1837, and Elizabeth, his wife, d. 1851; and a flat stone inscribed to Sir Robert Dryden bart. d. 19 Aug. 1708: there are 30 sittings.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Canons Ashby from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Ashby, Canons (St. Mary))
- Kelly's Directory of Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Northamptonshire, 1914
Land and Property
The mansion is a quadrangular building, inclosing a courtyard of 52 by 37 feet; the early part of it was erected in the middle of the 16th century, but it has undergone alterations at several subsequent periods: the hall is decorated with armour and other antiquities; adjoining the house is a picturesque park of 37 acres; well stocked with deer and containing two fish ponds.
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Northamptonshire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Canons Ashby 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 Northamptonshire papers online: