Ashton Through Time

Changing Owners
Between 1527 and 1554 Torpel Manor was leased to Sir Robert Wingfield, who ‘disparked’ and it and the whole area became farmland, which it is to this day. The former park area was the only enclosed land in the village; the rest was open fields and common areas.

We don’t know if the Wingfield family ever lived in Torpel Manor House. It seems unlikely because they also held land at Helpston from Earl Fitzwilliam, so they probably didn’t need a second manor house. Perhaps this is when the house itself began to decay.

In the late 1500s Torpel was owned by Queen Elizabeth I. It was one of many Manors, including several around Stamford, which provided her income of £3000 a year.

In 1625 the City of London took ownership of it, as security for a loan to Charles I.

Presumably he never paid them back because in 1670 they sold it to the Tighe family.

Stability at Last – but No Need of a House
Finally, in 1687, the Tighes sold it to Sir Thomas Trollope of Casewick Hall. Sir Thomas lived at Casewick and would have had no need of a possibly decaying and inconvenient medieval house so he probably bought the estate to use as additional farmland.

In the book ‘Victoria County History’ it is suggested that some of the stone from the Manor House may have been used in the Manor Farm building at Ashton and also in some houses in West Street, Helpston, and also that a mediaeval arch adjoining Spring Farm in Helpston may have been part of it. In the 20th century some more of the stones are said to have been used on the Trollope-Bellew farm in Barholm and to repair roads.

The Ordinary People of Ashton
Almost nothing is known of the ordinary people who lived in Ashton until the mid 1500s when Parish Registers were introduced. From this time onward we know the names of most of the people who lived here and their dates of birth, death and burial.

We also know that they farmed using the strip system with each tenant holding strips scattered across the Parish. It gave everyone a fair share of both good and bad arable land and was a time-honoured practice across the country. Everyone also had rights of grazing on the pastures and meadows, whether they owned strips or not. There will also have been stonemasons, blacksmiths and other craftsmen living here or travelling through.

Enclosure
But in the 1700s agriculture was changing. Four field crop rotation and selective breeding of animals greatly increased food production and the old strip system became increasingly unsuitable. So in 1796, the wealthier landowners petitioned Parliament to enclose the land. This was massively disruptive for the smaller landholders and the poor, who relied of the woods and common pastures for forage for themselves and their animals. But there was no stopping progress and the current arrangement of fields and paddocks was laid out in the Awards Map of 1799.

Annual Census
In 1841, the first official census was taken and has been repeated every ten years ever since. Because of this, we know everyone who lived in the farms and cottages of Ashton during the past 180 years.

So as you step out of your front door, give a thought to the many hundreds of years of history which have culminated in the shape of our roads and the layout of our fields … and indeed the very existence of this tiny hamlet which is near a Roman road and not far from a Fen Edge Monastery which, incidentally, became the Cathedral City of Peterborough.