Achurch
| Achurch | |
| Northamptonshire | |
|---|---|
 The village well, Achurch | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TL021830 |
| Location: | 52°26’8"N, 0°29’58"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 421 (2011) |
| Post town: | Peterborough |
| Postcode: | PE8 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | North Northamptonshire |
Achurch (formerly Asenciran sometimes referred to as Thorpe Achurch) is a village in Northamptonshire. It stands on a small rise above the River Nene, five miles south of the market town of Oundle.
The parish includes the Grade I listed property Lilford Hall and the Grade II* listed Church of St John the Baptist, an early and late 13th-century Anglican church restored and enlarged by architect William Slater in 1862.
History
The name of the village means 'Asa's church' or 'Asi's church'.[1]
Settled successively since the Iron Age the village was named after the site of the nearby church as 'Aas-kirk', meaning Church by the Water. Subsequently named Asechirce in the Domesday Book of 1086 with land held mainly by Ascelin de Waterville, a Norman knight after whom the adjoining village of Thorpe Waterville is named. Ownership of the land passed through the Dukes of Exeter in the 14th century with Henry VII granting them to his mother Lady Margaret Beaufort. On her death the two manors of Thorpe Waterville and Achurch remained the property of the Crown until Henry VIII granted them to his illegitimate son Henry FitzRoy.[2]
Edward VI awarded the manors to Sir William Cecil, later Lord Burghley, and they remained in the possession of his descendants the Earls of Exeter, until 1773, when the estates were sold to Thomas Powys of Lilford. Thomas Powys’ grandson was to be raised to the peerage as the first Lord Lilford in 1797.
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Achurch) |
- Achurch in the Domesday Book
References
- ↑ Gover, J. E. B.; Mawer, A. & Stenton, F.M.: 'Place-Names of Northamptonshire , Part' (English Place-Names Society, 1933)
- ↑ A History of the County of Northampton - Volume 3 pp 135-139: @ (Victoria County History)