Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for ASHWELL

ASHWELL, a village and a parish in Royston district, Herts. The village stands at the source of the river Rhee, an affluent of the Cam, 2 miles N of a station of its own name on the Hitchen and Cambridge railway, and 4½ NNE of Baldock. It is thought to have been of Roman origin; it bore anciently the name of Escewell; and it was a seat of the Saxon kings, a borough, and a market-town. It now consists of several scattered streets; and has a post office‡ under Baldock. The parish comprises 3,852 acres. Real property, £7,509. Pop., 1,507. Houses, 293. The manor was given, before the time of Edward the Confessor, to Westminster Abbey; and passed, at the dissolution, to the see of London. The Roman road, Icknield-street, passes ½ a mile S of the village; and the Roman camp of Arbury occurs there, covers an area of 12 acres, and has yielded Roman coins, and other Roman relics. A small dell adjacent to the village leads up to a steep rocky bank, from the foot of which a number of springs gush out to form the river Rhee. Building-stone is quarried. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Rochester. Value, £513.* Patron, the Bishop of Rochester. The church is ancient and good: consists of nave, aisle, and chancel; has a tower at the W end, surmounted by a spire 175 feet high; and contains several old slabs, formerly inlaid with brasses. There are Independent, Baptist, Wesleyan, and Quaker chapels, an endowed school with £17 a year, and other charities with £55. Cudworth was vicar till his death in 1688.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a village and a parish"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: Ashwell CP/AP       Hertfordshire AncC
Place: Ashwell

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