Ashbourne, Derbyshire

The town's name derives from the Old English æsc-burna meaning "stream with ash trees".[4]

Ashbourne was granted a market charter in 1257.[5] In medieval times it was a frequent rest stop for pilgrims walking "St Non's Way" to the shrine of Saint Fremund at Dunstable in Bedfordshire.[6]

The forces of Charles Edward Stuart passed through Ashbourne during the Jacobite rising of 1745.[7]

Ashbourne Town Council has four wards – Belle Vue, Hilltop, Parkside and St Oswald's – represented by a total of 13 councillors. It meets at Ashbourne Town Hall in the Market Place.[8]

Ashbourne lies at 53°01′N 01°44′W. Ashbourne Green and Sturston are hamlets close by. Henmore Brook, a tributary of the River Dove, flows through the middle of the town. It has an elevation of 400 feet (122 m).[9]

From 1910, Nestlé had a creamery in the town which, for a period, was contracted to produce Carnation condensed milk. The factory had its own private sidings connected to the railway station goods yard, which allowed milk trains to access the facility and distribute product as far south as London. After milk trains ceased in 1965, the railway track was lifted as passenger services and the railway station had already been closed back in 1954. The factory closed in 2003 and, since demolition in 2006, has been redeveloped as housing and a light industrial estate, although the old loading ramp from street level up to the factory floor is still in place.

Water from a borehole on the site was first marketed as Ashbourne Water in 1975 and was sold mostly to the catering trade.[10] Nestlé retained the borehole after the factory shut, taking water by tanker to Buxton for bottling.[10] Declining sales (1.3 million bottles in 2005, compared to 90 million for Buxton water) meant it could not justify further investment and the brand was discontinued in 2006.[10]

Tourism is an important element of the local economy, due to the town's proximity to Dovedale and the Peak District. The Tourist Information Centre was closed in 2011[11] but, from January 2018, a visitor information centre was made available again in the town hall.[12]

Ashbourne Library

The cobbled market place hosts a traditional outdoor market every Thursday and Saturday throughout the year, complementing the wide range of individual shops in the town. Although its market heritage is important, it came under threat of closure from Derbyshire County Council in November 2012. The people of Ashbourne opposed any such moves by the council and started an online petition. Ashbourne became the 97th Fairtrade Town in March 2005 after many businesses, cafes, shops and community organisations started supporting Fairtrade.[13]

Local news and television channels are BBC East Midlands and ITV Central. Television signals are received from the local relay transmitter.[15]

Ashbourne's local radio stations are BBC Radio Derby on 104.5 FM, Smooth East Midlands on 106.6 FM, Capital Midlands on 102.8 FM and Greatest Hits Radio Midlands on 96.7 FM (formerly Ashbourne Radio).[16]

The Ashbourne News Telegraph is the town’s weekly local newspaper.[17]

Grade II listed sign for the Green Man & Black's Head Royal Hotel

Ashbourne currently has eleven public houses and two social clubs. The most famous, the Green Man & Black's Head Royal Hotel, closed in 2011 and underwent a change of ownership in 2013, before reopening in 2018.[18] The rare gallows sign across St John's Street remains a meeting point in the town. In June 2020, the caricature of a black man's head atop the sign became the focus of racial debate.[19] It was removed after a petition had gathered more than 40,000 signatures, but it is being preserved locally.[20][21]

The Tissington Trail commences in the town. The path starts at Mappleton Lane on the northern outskirts of the town, accessed by a Victorian tunnel about 380 yards long from the site of the former railway station. It follows the course of the former railway through the village of Tissington and joins the High Peak Trail (the old Cromford and High Peak Railway) at Parsley Hay.

The Limestone Way passes 2–3 miles away, through Tissington, Thorpe, Marten Hill and above Mayfield to Rocester.[24][25][26] There are several routes for walkers from Ashbourne to Limestone Way.

The main secondary school is Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, founded in 1585. It moved to its current site on the Green Road in 1909 and took over Ashbourne County Secondary School in 1973.

The 215 ft (66 m) spire of St Oswald's Church overlooks the town. The church is Early English in style and was built around 1220. There are a few remnants of earlier Norman construction and the south aisle has part of a Saxon cross shaft.

The church of St John was built on Buxton Road in 1871 in a neo-Norman style. Ashbourne Churches Together (ACT) has a link with the Diocese of Patna in the ecumenical Church of North India.[27] Regular reciprocal visits take place. Members of ACT are currently sponsoring the education of children in a school in Bihar, one of the poorest states in India.

In the annual two-day Royal Shrovetide Football Match, one half of the town plays the other, using the town as the pitch, with goals three miles apart. As many as several thousand players compete for two days with a hand-painted, cork-filled ball. The game is played by two teams, the Up'ards and the Down'ards, over two eight-hour periods, subject to a few rules. Shrovetide football has been played for several centuries. It is a moving mass (the Hug) that continues through the roads of the town, across fields, and even along the bed of the local Henmore Brook. There were intermittent unsuccessful attempts to ban the game until the late 19th century.

Before the 1966 Football World Cup, the West German squad stayed at the nearby Peveril of the Peak Hotel and trained on one of Ashbourne's town football pitches near the park.

Local contestant Dave Mellor was the 1978 BriSCA Formula 1 Stock Cars World Champion.[28]

In birth order:

• Sir Aston Cockayne (1608–1684), 1st Baronet Cockayne of Ashbourne
• Catherine Pegge (born c. 1635) was mistress to Charles II, mother to Charles FitzCharles, 1st Earl of Plymouth, and a resident of Yeldersley.
• Henry Cantrell (1684–1773), clergyman and religious controversialist, was born here.[29]
• Hill Boothby (1708–1756), late love of Samuel Johnson, was born here.[30]
• Thomas Brown (1708–1780), Garter King of Arms, was born here.
• George Hayne (died 1723), merchant and entrepreneur
• Sir Brooke Boothby, 6th Baronet (1744–1824), poet, was born here.[31]
• William Corden the Elder (1795–1867), portrait painter
• Francis Wright (1806–1873) industrialist and philanthropist, lived at Osmaston, south of Ashbourne. A memorial to Wright stands in Ashbourne Market Place.
• Catherine Booth (1829–1890), known as the "mother" of the Salvation Army', was born here.[32]
• Francis Charles Robert Jourdain (1865–1940), ornithologist, was born in Ashbourne in 1865 and for a time served as Vicar of Clifton-by-Ashbourne.
• David Redfern (1935–2014), photographer
• Roy Wood (born 1946), musician, lives here.
• Andrew Lewer (born 1971), East Midlands MEP, lived in Ashbourne and attended Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Ashbourne.
• James Rutledge (born 1978), musician and producer
• Dave Tyack (1978 – c. 2002), guitarist, drummer and singer

Catherine Booth's birthplace: 13 Sturston Road

Statue of Catherine Booth, London

• Listed buildings in Ashbourne, Derbyshire
• Royal Shrovetide Football
• St Oswald's Hospital

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ashbourne.

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Ashbourne.

• Ashbourne Town official website
• Ashbourne in the Domesday Book