Ashby Museum, North Street, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire.
Religious Houses.

The monastic houses of North-West Leicestershire were situated where land was of relatively low value and distant from other settlements, such as in woodland or on waste.

Grace Dieu Priory was founded as an Augustinean religious house for nuns c1239-41 by Roesia de Verdon. She endowed the priory with the manor of Belton and, over the years, other grants of land followed. In 1244 Henry lll gave the priory the right to hold a Wednesday market and yearly fair at Belton. This was confirmed in 1403 by Henry lV.

Breedon Priory was founded c675 on the hill which dominates the surrounding countryside. This Anglo-Saxon monastery closed during the 9th century Danish invasions.

Langley Priory was founded c1150 for Benedictine nuns. Bishop Gynewell visited c1354 and found good order amongst the ten nuns. When visited by Bishop Alnwick in 1440, there were only eight nuns. The priory was £50 in debt, the nuns only receiving food and drink, and nothing for clothes and fuel.

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Ashby Museum, North Street, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire.
The Zouche.

One of the most asked questions here is why the town has such a strange name.

Ashby is either Aski's by (Danish word for settlement) or "the place of the ash trees". Zouch means of the Zouch family who settled in the town. They originally came from Brittany after the Norman Conquest.

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Ashby Museum, North Street, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire.
Medieval Landscape.

The basis of the economy of the medieval manor was agriculture. This meant arable (ploughed land) for cereals, and pasture for grazing and winter fodder. Land was also left fallow (uncultivated) to allow the soil's fertility to recover naturally.

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Ashby Museum, North Street, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire.
Ashby's Fields.

Ashby's medieval fields were not enclosed by the time the 1735 Hastings Estate Map was drawn. Thus, we have valuable evidence as to their shape and size.

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Ashby Museum, North Street, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire.
Domesday Book.

In 1085 William the Conqueror decided on a survey of all the new lands in England to find out who owned what before and after the Norman conquest and what each of their holdings was worth.

Nearly the whole of the country was surveyed during 1086. The returns were gathered together at Winchester where they were recorded, in abbreviated Latin, in two volumes.

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