Ashwell

ASHWELL (formerly called Exwell) is a small parish and village, with a station on the Syston and Peterborough and Nottingham and Kettering branches of the London, Midland & Scottish railway, 3 miles north from Oakham, 10 south-east from Melton Mowbray and 96 from London, in the hundred of Alstoe, union and county court district of Oakham, rural deanery of Rutland (first portion), archdeaconry of Oakham and diocese of Peterborough. The church of St. Mary the Virgin is a building of stone in the Norman and Decorated styles, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, south porch and an embattled western tower with small turret containing a clock and 6 bells: the chancel retains three sedilia and a small piscina: the stained east window is a memorial to the Hon. and Rev. Thomas Dawnay, rector of Ashwell from 1803, d. 8 Jan. 1850: the west window, a memorial to William Henry, 7th Viscount Downe, d. 26 Jan. 1857, was inserted by the parishioners in 1858, and there are other stained windows : in the chancel is an altar tomb of stone, supporting a large upper slab of marble, with incised effigies and marginal inscription to John Vernam and Rose his wife, ob. c. 1470 : there are also two other altar tombs, one of which bears the recumbent figure of a knight carved in wood : the stone font has a spired cover of carved oak, hung from the roof: the church was restored in 1851, under the direction of Mr. W. Butterfield, architect, at the sole expense of the 7th Viscount Downe; there are 200 sittings. The register dates from the year 1595. The living is a rectory, net yearly value £700, with residence in the gift of Viscount Downe C.M.G., D.S.O. and held since 1923 by the Rev. Robert Edwin Roberts M.A. of Hatfield Hall, Durham, and hon C.F. The poor have £28 17s. 2d. yearly from Wilcox's charity, in coals, clothing and money. Ashwell Hall, the seat of Col. Frederick Gordon Blair C.B., C.M.G., T.D., D.L., J.P. standing about three-quarters of a mile south of the village, and erected in 1879, at a cost of about £30,000, is a beautiful mansion of Pickwell stone with mullioned windows in the Elizabethan style, and has an extensive range of stabling with a clock tower, in the same style and of the same material, and forming a large courtyard at the back of the mansion. The chief crops are wheat, barley, oats, hay and roots. The area is 1,835 acres; the population in 1921 was 216.

Parish Clerk, Frank Bailey.

Post, M. O., T. & T. E D. Office.—Letters through Oakham Railway Station, L. M. & S

PRIVATE RESIDENTS.
Blair Col. Frederick Gordon C.B., C.M.G., T.D., D.L., J.P. Ashwell hall
Duncombe Miss, Old hall
Lowther Capt. Hon. Lancelot Edward O.B.E., D.L., J.P. Ashwell hill
Newton Capt. C. Noel M.C. AshwelI grange
Roberts Rev. Robert Edwin M.A., Hon. C.F. [rector], Rectory
Whaley Major Herbert Egerton J.P. The Lodge

COMMERCIAL.
Marked thus ° farm 150 acres or over.

°Ashwell (Oakham) Farming Co. Ltd. farmers, Manor ho. T N 6
Baines Clarence H. farmer
Ellam John & Son, thrashing machine owners
Ellis & Everard Ltd. corn merchants
Hawkins Wm. John, shopkeeper, Post off
Newton Capt. C. Noel M.C. farmer, Westfield farm
Rippin John Robert Slater, farmer
Sharpe Mark, grazier
Whaley Major Herbert E. J.P. poultry breeder
Williamson Walt. W. grazier, Woodside