Rhubarb & Mustard Café & Shop Places of Interest Retail business Steeple Morden 1 St Marys Church 1 Crumps Butchers 18 2 URC Church 2 Days Bakers 3 Merchant Taylor's House 3 Pharmacy 4 Museum 4 Rhubarb & Mustard Café & Shop 5 Parish Room & Post Office 5 Village stores ST 9 River Cam A 6 TIO Cottage Garden 6 Sue Birch Hairdresser N 12 GREEN LANE 7 The Springs 7 Ashwell Dentist FORDHAM RO A Sue Birch Hairdresser MILL D 8 Cob Wall 8 Country Properties STR CL EET Estate Agents 9 Lock Up 9 Ashwell Garage 10 Recreation Ground 11 10 Rose & Crown Pub 11 War Memorial S 10 P 11 Bushell & Strike Pub R 12 The Cemetery IN R 12 Three Tuns Pub & Hotel ET G ES ROLLYS E 13 H Small Gains* LANE E H N P R EA A OS 13 T D L L Bradleys Hairdressers S HI 14 Village Hall S P A 14 Ashwell Gallery L C 15 Arbury Banks* L 7 U ASHWELL STREET 3 I L G Ashwell & Morden 15 Ashwell Jewellers A M 16 Bear House RD Railway Station ASHWELL 1 9 I Ashwell Garage N 11 17 Forresters Cottages for further details on HODWELL ET ER E Ashwell Retail Outlets visit 12 18 Bluegates Dairy S H STR CHURCH 17 IG https://www.ashwell.gov.uk/directory/retail-businesses/ 3 8 H S TA 1 ET 19 BluegatesT Farm* L RE LA REET IO S A ST ST N T H A NE N ALMS LA5 IG 4 20 Ashwell Primary R School T A 7 H 2 OA IO 8 SW 4 D N B 6 A 6 *(see Parish map on reverse) R JOHN SALE C O O 5 T T A N E K WOODFORDE D CLOSE 'S YD RE 2 ST TREE I S NG B CLOSE E 10 ASHWELL STREET H A R G E SL HI 16 R V T IL S 14 LA S A D OW ND EN 13 LL ST D I E A COLBRON W A M WILSONS LA 15 N E CLOSE M W 20 GELL'S BE A S Rose & Crown Pub Y P A STREET R D R IN N E ET G L ROLLYS T E E ANE LANE HE S N ASHWELL R E BACK STREET A A T D L S W S DIXIES CLOSE A L C 3 7 U G IL L EET 14 STR A M LL T RD 9 WE S C 1 Hinxworth SH LL A E LA I N 11 W ET H H Y HODWELL IN CHALK BANKS ER E XWO CLOSE A B 12 U R S H STR TH SH R CHURCH 17 IG OAD 3 8 H 1 ET PARTRIDGE E LA ET R L R STRE Pharmacy & Estate agent Y STREET A ST O H NE ALMS LA IG 4 A N 5 2 WA ASHWELL A 7 H HILL D M 8 SW 4 A B 6 K A 6 IN NH C O 5 T G NEW N ET SL WOODFORDE 'S YD TRE 2 TREE A1(M) S S A B 10 CLOSE Junction 10 H E R N G A E D HI 16 R V IL Scale 1:4,942 W 14 LA S 0 50 100 150 200 250 metres Baldock & 13 O W Letchworth S D E A A A W 15 E K ST N Y 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 yards C M A B 20 GELL'S BE A ET Crumps Butchers Days Bakers Bushell & Strike Pub Ashwell Gallery Village stores BradleysR Hairdressers ThreeRE Tuns Pub & Hotel Ashwell Jewellers ST L EL L W A SH BACK STREET N A E Lock Up 0 0 Scale 1:34,833 Hinxworth ¼ ½ ¾ ¼ ½ ¾ BEDFORDSHIRE Junction 10 CENTRAL Quarry Hills A1(M) Ashwell & QuarrySprings Newnham Farm Ashwell Quarry End 1 kilometre Hill HERTFORDSHIRE NEWNHAM WAY LOVES Spring Hart's LANE Whittington R i v e Eyeworth &Dunton 19 r HINXWORTH ROAD HINXWORTH Farm R h e e Ash Hill COMMON LANE 1 mile Bennetts Buttway End Ashwell Bear House ASHWELL Mobb's Hole Mobb's NORTHFIELD ROAD 15 Hole Farm Letchworth NORTHFIELD ROAD NORTHFIELD Farm Kirby's Manor Baldock & ASHWELL ST H IG H S T Claybush ASHWELL ROAD The Knoll Hill MILL Chalkman's CLAYBUSH ROAD CLAYBUSH STREET Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown Copyrightanddatabaserights2020 Contains OrdnanceSurveydata©Crown Knoll Designed and produced forAshwellParishCouncilbyOxfordCartographers, Designed andproduced ASHWELL ST Ashwell PARISH Cat Ditch CAMBRIDGESHIRE Morden Steeple GREEN LA Mitchell Hill Baldock 13 Broadfields Farm Pembroke Arbury Banks Cob Wall Station S T A Cottage Pembroke T I O N Redlands Other data © OpenStreetMap contributors Other data©OpenStreetMap R O A Farm Hare D Ashwell Park www.oxfordcartographers.com 98581 www.oxfordcartographers.com Farm Fields & Morden Baldock &Letchworth Ashwell Station Highley RO Y Hill S TO A505N R O A 1600 metres Railway Station Ashwell &Morden D Royston Forresters Cottages website: ashwellmuseum.org.uk Museum The Springs website: stmarysashwell.org.uk St MarysChurch Merchant Taylor'sHouse United ReformedChurch About Ashwell Post-medieval Ashwell Ashwell is an attractive, characterful village in a landscape From the sixteenth to the late nineteenth centuries Ashwell became that is much more than simply a beautiful setting for the a farming community. The marketplace filled with buildings and Ashwell buildings: the fields, paths and byways record the ways in gardens, while the inns and beerhouses served local trade. Barley which people have lived and worked here for several was a particularly important crop: malted and brewed with water thousand years. from the chalk springs it produced excellent beer. At that time farms and inns would have brewed their own beer for workers and guests; Prehistoric Ashwell commercial breweries such as Fordhams and Pages (whose malthouse is now the Village Hall) were built in the 19th century. By Roman times Ashwell Street and the Icknield Way to the south of the parish were important routes. There were other tracks and In 1863 the parish was enclosed: new farms were created on the four paths, but they and many archaeological features are now only open fields (North Field, Quarry Field, Claybush Field, and visible in aerial photographs; the Bronze Age barrow (burial mound) Redlands Field) that for centuries had been farmed in common. that stands at Highley Hill is one of many in the south of the parish. Rural industries such as the making of straw plait for hats provided Southwest of the village, Arbury Banks is an Iron Age hillfort that work, particularly for women. Most men worked on the land, or at was also used in the early Roman period. trades connected with farming. Another Iron Age settlement lay between the village and Ashwell End. Ashwell Today Roman Ashwell Most residents of Ashwell no longer work in agriculture, but farming continues to define the landscape of the parish. Fields of wheat, In the Roman period Ashwell parish was not only a prosperous barley, sugar beet, peas and oil-seed rape change colour with the agricultural landscape with villas set in well-tended fields but also a seasons. In summer dairy cattle graze the pastures of Bluegates religious centre. A shrine to the goddess Senuna stood at Ashwell Dairy, while ley grassland and maize produce silage to feed them End. Finds in Pricem’s Field suggest there was a villa there, and through the winter. There is also a pig unit and a flock of rare breeds cropmarks show another villa to the west of Claybush Hill. sheep in the parish. Saxon Ashwell Steeple Litlington In the sixth and seventh centuries Ashwell was probably the centre Morden of a large Anglo-Saxon estate. The modern village is largely the Hinxworth same as that planned and created early in the tenth century, Ashwell Royston probably for Edward the Elder. The Saxon village was centred on a A1 marketplace in the area from Ashwell Springs to Gardiners Lane, bordered by High Street and Hodwell. The boundaries of individual J10 Newnham Therfield properties, the burgess plots, set out at that time can still be traced A507 Bygrave A505 today. Arlesey Discover over 1100 years of The earliest reference to Ashwell is in the will of Aethelgifu who died Sandon A10 around 990. By 1086 Ashwell was a major settlement, one of only five Baldock history and enjoy welcoming boroughs (market towns with some rights to self-defence) in Letchworth Hertfordshire. retail services in our unique A507 J9 Medieval Ashwell A1(M) Weston village. Hitchin Buntingford Ashwell flourished as a market town in the late Anglo-Saxon and early medieval periods, but as competition with Baldock (founded c. 1140) and other towns increased, Ashwell gradually fell behind. In the 1300s the parish was still attracting people from as far afield as The paths and byways of Ashwell offer many opportunities to relax France, and was able to build the parish church of St Mary, with the while exploring the landscape and history of the parish. A leaflet largest tower in Hertfordshire. Other late medieval buildings include containing Ashwell footpaths is available from local village retailers. Ashwell the building that now houses Ashwell Museum and the Guildhouse If you have questions about Ashwell or wish to report a problem, please contact the Ashwell Parish Clerk: [email protected] or via Parish of the Brotherhood of St John the Baptist, both of which faced the Council marketplace. Kirby Manor Farmhouse, Bear House and Dixies Farm the website www.ashwell.gov.uk were the homes of prosperous farmers. This leaflet has been produced by Ashwell Parish Council..