This site was produced by: LOCAL AUTHORITY PUBLISHING
Publishers for local authorities throughout Great Britain. View more Official Guides at www.officialguides.co.uk

St Helen's Church stands at the top of South Street. It was virtually rebuilt by Lord Hastings in about 1480 and restored and enlarged again in 1880, when the two side aisles were added and the galleries removed. A new vestry, with a room above, was built soon afterwards. Fifteenth century work includes much of the tower and the Hastings or Huntingdon Chapel. The latter contains the main monuments to the Hastings family, including the aforementioned table-tomb of the second Earl. Other interesting memorials are the so-called Pilgrim Monument in the wall of the north aisle, to the famous Puritan preacher, Arthur Hildersham on the south wall. One dated 1526, asking in Latin for prayers for the souls of Robert Munday and his two wives, each named Elizabeth; a splendidly coloured bust of Margery Wright (1623) above the south door, who wears a steeple hat with a handkerchief to preserve it on her head, and the brass on the chancel floor to Selina, Countess of Huntingdon.

There is medieval glass in windows in the Huntingdon Chapel. The altar table of the 17th century with the two carved chairs came from Castle Donington chapel. The reredos of 1679 is attributed to Grinling Gibbons and the picture of the Magi, which lights up the dark oak frame, is by a Belgian artist.

The 'finger pillory' believed to be an instrument of punishment for absence from or misbehaviour in church is now positioned near the tower. It consists of a beam with 13 grooves and holes of varying sizes in its upper side. A similar beam with corresponding grooves in its lower side was placed upon this and fastened with a lock, to the discomfort of any offending person.

Holy Trinity Church in Kilwardby Street, was opened in 1840 as 'a chapel of ease to the mother church' (St Helen's), mainly because the population of Ashby had doubled between 1801 and 1830. A spire was added later, with more haste than sound construction and deemed unsafe, it had to be taken down in 1899.

Our Lady of Lourdes (Roman Catholic) Church in Station Road was founded by the fifteenth Duke of Norfolk, in memory of his wife Flora Abney-Hastings. The corner stone was laid on 18 August 1913 by Robert, Bishop of Nottingham but was not finished until after the Great War. It was built in the Norman style of Weldon stone and has an elevation of 100 ft. There are three chapels with chancel, high altar and sacristies.

The Congregational Church in Kilwardby Street was built in 1825 on the site of a previous building erected in 1725. However, the presence of early like-minded Dissenters can be traced back to the 1660s when over the years several preachers were licensed to preach in the town.

The present building although tucked away from the street is a fine example of non-conformist building.

The Baptists first had a meeting house in Mill Lane Mews but moved to their present chapel in Brook Street in 1862. The movement in the town was really founded by the Rev. Joseph Goadby at the end of the 18th century. The chapel was extensively refurbished in the early 1990s.

The Methodist Church, at the bottom of Burton Road, was built in 1906 as a Primitive Methodist Chapel. The 'Prims' had started off in a building in the Green, taken over the old Baptist Chapel in Mill Lane and because of numbers moved to their present site. John Wesley preached on more than one occasion in Ashby, and this led to a Wesleyan Chapel being built in Kilwardby Street in the 19th century. The most recent chapel was closed and later demolished and the Wesleyans joined forces with the Primitive congregation.

There are also the Christadelphian Ecclesia in Union Passage and the Alliance Church in the 'Jitty' just off Tamworth Road.

The Loudoun Memorial stands at the junction of South Street and Bath Street. Recently cleaned to its former glory, it dominates its immediate surroundings. It is a memorial to Edith Maud Hastings, the Countess of Loudoun, wife of Charles Frederick Clifton, later first Baron Donington and sister of the fourth Marquis of Hastings. It cost £3000 and was unveiled on 24 July 1879, to 'commemorate the general estimation' in which the Countess was held by the townspeople. It was built to the design of Sir George Gilbert Scott R.A. in the style of an Eleanor Cross on the site of the communal well known as 'Gawby's Hole', a place where the town gossips met and collected their water. Benjamin Disraeli is said to have penned the inscription on the side of the monument.

Whilst every care has been taken in compiling this publication and the statements contained herein are believed to be correct, the publishers and promoters cannot accept responsibility for any inaccuracies. Reproduction of any part of this publication in any format, without permission, is strictly forbidden.