Mears Ashby
| Mears Ashby | |
| Northamptonshire | |
|---|---|
 Hardwick Lodge, Mears Ashby | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SP838666 |
| Location: | 52°17’36"N, -0°46’19"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 473 (2011) |
| Post town: | Northampton |
| Postcode: | NN6 |
| Dialling code: | 01604 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | North Northamptonshire |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Wellingborough |
Mears Ashby is a village in Northamptonshire, standing between the county town, Northampton, and Wellingborough. At the time of the 2011 census, it had a population of 473.
Mears Ashby Hall and Estate
Mears Ashby Hall stands to the south of the village. It is a fine Jacobean manor house,[1] and now a Grade II* listed building.[2]
The Hall was built in 1637 and was owned by the Stockdale family, who descend from the Yorkshire landowning family of the same name.[3] In 1859 Henry Stockdale added the East Wing of the building, designed by Anthony Salvin.
During the 1980s the Hall became known for performances of operatic music organised by Frederick Stockdale.
The long association of the Stockdale family at Mears Ashby Hall ended when in the 1990s when the house was sold and Hoddington House became the principal family residence. A number of windows in the village church were commissioned by Sir Edmund Stockdale by noted stained glass artist Lawrence Lee which depict the family's links to the village.[4]
Miscellany
According to the local newspaper, it was reported in 1785 that a local inhabitant, Sarah Bradshaw, was accused of witchcraft:
Belief in witchcraft has died hard, and the Mercury, one is pleased know, helped it towards extinction. . On August 1, 1785, the Northampton Mercury said; "Thursday last, a poor woman, named Sarah Bradshaw of Mears Ashby...who was accused by some of her neighbours of being a witch, in order to prove her innocence, submitted to the ignominy of being dipped (on a ducking-stool); when she immediately sunk to the bottom of the pond; which was deemed an incontestable proof that she was no witch"![5]
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Mears Ashby) |
References
- ↑ "Mears Ashby Hall | History" (in en-GB). http://mearsashbyhall.com/history/.
- ↑ National Heritage List : Mears Ashby Hall (Grade II listing)
- ↑ Burke, Bernard (1871). A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Great ..., Volume 2. London: Burkes. pp. 1322.
- ↑ "All Saints, Mears Ashby". Church of England. http://www.mearsashbygroup.org.uk/all-saints-mears-ashby.php.
- ↑ 'Around "Mercury" Country': Northampton Mercury Friday 11 July 1913, page 9