Castle Ashby is the name of a civil parish, an estate village and an English country house in rural Northamptonshire. Historically the village was set up to service the needs of Castle Ashby Manor, the seat of the Marquess of Northampton. The village has one small pub-hotel, The Falcon. At the time of the 2001 census, the parish's population was 134 people. The village contains many houses rebuilt from the 1860s onwards. These include work by the architect E.F. Law of Northampton, whose work can also be seen nearby at Horton Church. The castle is the result of a license obtained in 1306, for Walter Langton, Bishop of Coventry, to castellate his mansion in the village of Ashby.
Famous quotes containing the word castle:
“If, in looking at the lives of princes, courtiers, men of rank and fashion, we must perforce depict them as idle, profligate, and criminal, we must make allowances for the rich men’s failings, and recollect that we, too, were very likely indolent and voluptuous, had we no motive for work, a mortal’s natural taste for pleasure, and the daily temptation of a large income. What could a great peer, with a great castle and park, and a great fortune, do but be splendid and idle?”
—William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–1863)