Ashford-in-the-Water

History

The name Ashford derives from the Old English æsc and ford, and means a ford where ash trees grow. In 926, the village was known as Æscforda and in the Domesday Book of 1086 it was Aisseford. The addition of "in-the-Water" occurred in the late 17th century, and reflected the proximity of the village to meanders of the River Wye.

In the Domesday Book, Ashford was described as one of the locations in the area where lead was refined.

In 1786, Ashford had mills for carving and polishing the local black marble. By 1848, it had 950 inhabitants.

The village passed to the Cavendish family in the 16th century (from the Nevilles) and was finally sold off in the 1950s to pay death duties.

Culture

The tradition of well-dressing continues in Ashford as in many other villages in the Peak District. Each year slabs of clay are decorated by village volunteers using petals, leaves and other plants to create a picture. The finished designs are then displayed at the six wells around the village and the event is marked by a church service and procession through the village to bless the wells. The event takes place around Trinity Sunday.

Transport

The village is bypassed by the A6 road.

Notable buildings

Within Ashford's civil parish are 62 structures that are listed by Historic England for their historic or architectural interest. None are listed as Grade I, but there are two structures (Ashford Hall and Sheepwash Bridge) that are Grade II*. All the others, including Thornbridge Hall and the parish church, are Grade II.

Ashford Hall dates from 1785, though alterations were made in about 1840. It is a five-bay, three-storey building of gritstone and ashlar, with a balustered parapet around its slate roof. It has an early-19th-century conservatory.

The Sheepwash Bridge, which dates from the 17th century, is a packhorse bridge with an attached stone sheepwash: lambs were placed in the pen on one side of the river and the ewes swam across the river to get to them, while being pushed underwater by the shepherds to clean the fleece before shearing. Large trout inhabit the waters of the Wye around the bridge. It is a Scheduled Monument as well as a listed building.

Ashford's parish church of the Holy Trinity was mostly rebuilt in 1868–70 but has a partly 13th-century tower, a 14th-century north arcade and a recovered Norman tympanum above the south doorway. In the churchyard lies the base and stump of a Grade-II-listed churchyard cross, variously dated to the 14th or 15th century. Behind the church are traces of a moat, all that remains of a fortified house which was the home of Edmund Plantagenet, brother of Edward II.

Thornbridge Hall dates from the 18th century, but was enlarged in 1871 and radically altered in a neo-Tudor style in 1897.

Within the parish, but nearer Sheldon village, is Magpie Mine, a disused but well-preserved Derbyshire lead mine complex.

Demography

In the 2011 census, Ashford-in-the-Water was 99.5% White, and 0.2% Asian.

Notable people

Robert Armitage Sterndale, naturalist, artist, writer and statesman who worked in India before becoming Governor-general of St. Helena, was born in the village.

References

References

1. (1980). "AA Book of British Villages". Drive Publications Limited.
2. (13 August 2012). "Church history and the architecture of Holy Trinity Church, Ashford in the Water". Holy Trinity Parish Church.
3. "Civil Parish population 2011". Office for National Statistics.
4. Mills, David. (2011). "A Dictionary of British Place Names". Oxford University Press.
5. (1975). "The Peak District". Eyre Methuen.
6. "Ashcombe - Ashill Pages 85-88 A Topographical Dictionary of England. Originally published by S Lewis, London, 1848.".
7. "Listed Buildings in Ashford in the Water, Derbyshire, England". britishlistedbuildings.co.uk.
8. {{National Heritage List for England
9. {{National Heritage List for England
10. {{National Heritage List for England
11. (1980). "AA Book of British Villages". Drive Publications Limited.
12. (1978). "The Buildings of England: Derbyshire". [[Penguin Books]].
13. {{National Heritage List for England
14. Sharpe, Neville T.. (2002). "Crosses of the Peak District". Landmark Collectors Library.
15. (1980). "AA Book of British Villages". Drive Publications Limited.
16. {{National Heritage List for England
17. {{NHLE