CIRCA 1000 AD

Ashby St Mary was referred to in the Domesday Book when it was drawn up between 1084-86. At that time the parish was known as Ascebei.   

Two principal landowners in the area held parcels of land as a direct tenancy from King William the Conqueror in right of “Knight’s services, this being the provision of a contingent of armed soldiers when required by the King.

These two chief tenants were Roger Bigot and Godric the Steward.

The next tenant in the hierarchy under Roger Bigot was Robert of Vaux. In turn Robert of Vaux was Sweetman. It seems probable that Sweetman was an Anglo-Saxon and not a Norman since he is recorded in the Domesday Book as having held land in Ascebei before the Norman Conquest. Under Sweetman there were “10 freemen … at 30 acres. Always 1 plough; meadow, 2 acres”. Sweetman’s holding also included “7 halves-a-freeman, at 27 acres. Always 1 plough.”

In the other part of Ascebei, the immediate tenant under Godric the Steward was Ralph. Under Ralph there were “6 whole freemen and 6 halves under the patronage of Aslac and Leofric, at 20 acres of land. Always 11/2 ploughs.” Godric’s land also included parcels mainly in Claxton “under the patronage of Edwin” which also brought in a further “freeman and a half, 5 acres” in Ascebei.


VILLAGE SIGN

Commissioned by Ashby St Mary Parish Council to celebrate the millennium, the village sign was unveiled during 2000. Its entire nurture to life and manufacture was fittingly provided by residents of the parish.

The particular design of the sign was arrived at in the knowledge that history records a link between the windmill, the Lady and the geese depicted on it, to Ashby St Mary. It has been established that it was the practice in the 18th and 19th centuries to walk geese which had been bred in Norfolk to London in readiness for the Michaelmas trade.

For protection their feet were bound with webbing and covered in tar. This journey took some 10 to 14 days and they were fed en route by grazing the corn stubbles. A carving of a Lady with geese is to be found on a tombstone situated in Ashby churchyard. Pictures of it have been published in many books and magazines.

Until the 1st World War, a windmill used to stand opposite the present site of the Ashby St Mary village sign. Information taken from Whites and Kelly’s Directory of Norfolk indicates the Mill was owned by William Young in 1845, by John Rushmore in 1864, by Daniel Burroughs in 1883, by Frederick George Chapman in 1901 and by Albert Arthur Culling in 1916. It is understood that a parishioner’s father, born in 1902, recalled that on a journey from Thurton School to his home in Sandy Lane, witnessed the Mill being pulled down by a traction engine, which also places the existence of the Mill up to 1916 or beyond.