Ashby de la Zoucgh Castle

The name of the town of Ashby is from an Anglo-Danish name meaning ‘Ash Tree Farm’. After the Norman Conquest the le Zouch family came into possession of the town during the reign of King Henry III. The town grew in importance and with a tweak of the family name, the town became Ashby de la Zouch (otherwise as all good French scholars remember it would have become Ashby du Zouch). Ashby Castle was originally a large manor farm and work began to convert it into a castle in 1472 by William Hastings (or William, Lord Hastings) who fought alongside King Edward IV during the battle of Towton. He also had a lot of influence within the royal household. The Chapel within the walls was built by William, Lord Hastings in the 1470s. An altar stood at the far end and stalls for Lord Hastings’ household priests and a choir on either side of the room. Three balconies called ‘closets’ were arranged at the end of the chapel for the family to attend mass in privacy. After the Reformation the Chapel was stripped of its decorations when the Hastings family became Protestants. The Chapel was thusly furnished in a simple, functional manner for household prayers. In June 1483 Lord Hastings was executed for treason on the instructions of King Richard III, fearful that Hastings might prevent him from usurping or seizing the thrown. A seeming oversight – Lord Hastings’ estate did not have a Bill of Attainder against it and so the family seat remained intact. William, Lord Hastings’ shadowy figure has been claimed to wander near the Great Hall and even at either end of the tunnel that passes beneath the ground from the Great Hall to the Tower. The next big upheaval for William Hastings’ descendants was the impact on Ashby Castle during the English Civil War. The Royalist Colonel Henry Hastings commanded the garrison based in the town. Although the family surrendered the castle in February 1646 two and a half years later the suspicion arose that the family was not as supportive of the Parliamentary cause as they had claimed. There are marks on some of the walls caused by musket balls (in the town's museum there are examples of these musket balls found in the castle grounds). As a result the castle was laid siege to and part of the huge Great Tower was brought down, as was the main kitchen tower. The castle became a famous romantic ruin after the publication of the book - ‘Ivanhoe’ by Sir Walter Scott’ ("Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott" is an anagram – ’A novel by a Scottish writer’). A jousting competition in his book was set at Ashby, the success of the book resulting in the town becoming a tourist attraction. The Great Chamber is where important guests were entertained, and contains several delicately carved fireplaces. In 1607, Alice Spencer, the Countess of Derby, was entertained at Ashby Castle which included spectacular stage sets and costumes, essential elements of the shows and masques. In one instance the countess enjoyed the vision of the figure of Cynthia (goddess of the moon) lifted on a cloud that rose to the ceiling and descending again. The ruined castle remained in the hands of the Hastings until 1789 when it passed to Francis Rowden, the Earl of Moira (a nearby street is named Moira Road). Eventually the Rowden family handed over the castle to the Ministry of Works in 1932. The nearby 3,000 acre park was granted to the family back in the 15th Century and claims one of the strange stories on a list of strange stories. A local lady some years ago decided one summer’s evening to take a stroll in the park. As she dropped down the bank she felt light-headed, her vision clouded over – looking up she saw hundreds of vague figures racing away from the castle as if from some terrible slaughter or battle. So fearful was she at her experience, she looked away and closed her eyes, unable to process what she saw. Eventually she turned, and the scene had returned to the serene and balmy early evening. A timeslip? Or victim of the vapours rising from the boggy area beyond the park? Music (claimed as violins by some) has been heard in or near the Great Hall by some visitors. Some claim to hear soft whispers when no one else is present, as if Lady Hastings – yet another ‘Grey Lady’ attempting to communicate with the living. Some claim she is searching for a lost love, while others say she mourns the tragedies that befell her family. Visitors to the castle have reported eerie sightings of a solitary misty female figure drifting through the ruins, accompanied by an unsettling chill in the air. The English Heritage staff recall an incident some years ago of checking the Great Hall and seeing a figure dressed in a ‘Tudor tyle’ – a long flowing red gown (some claim red velvet) with a tight, white ruff around her neck. Some claim to have seen the figure in the first floor of the great tower, and others near the chapel area. One member of staff thought nothing of seeing here until he returned to the entrance hut; he asked if the ‘re-enactor’ as he believed she was, had left the grounds as it was close to closing time. His colleagues were puzzled, as nobody had left matching the description; concerned, the staff made a quick sweep of the grounds – and found nobody. Alice Spencer, the Countess of Derby returning to enjoy the walls within which she enjoyed the entertainment put on for her? Lady Hastings in technicolour? Or a re-enactor who knew how to gain access to the grounds without paying?