THE ASHBY FAMILY IN WOODNEWTON

Charles Robert Ashby, after pioneering in Canada from 1900, only two years after the great gold rush of 1898 in the Yukon, married Beatrice Terrell on the 1^st March 1910 in England and shortly after, due to her ill health, sold his farm and returned to England with his wife.  He farmed in Oxfordshire and Warwickshire and then moved to Cheeseman’s Lodge at Apethorpe taking the Apethorpe Lodge tenancy with Lord Brassey, which he held until he died in 1961.  He moved to Cheeseman’s Lodge with his wife Beatrice and three sons, Jack (1913), Bob (1915) and Fred (1916). They moved to Manor Farmhouse in Woodnewton at number 53 Main Street in approximately 1940, again due to Beatrice’s ill health and the fact that some of Woodnewton was connected to the services and Cheeseman’s Lodge was not.

At the outbreak of the war in 1939 Jack, who shared his father’s faming interest, stayed at home.  Charles and Jack took the Manor Farm Woodnewton tenancy renting the land from Mrs Brown and later from her daughter Betty who married John Reed.

Beatrice died in 1949 but Charles continued farming with his son Jack until he died in 1961.  Jack’s son Richard, who lives at Armston, now runs the farm helped by his son Michael.

In later years, in effect his retirement, he continued with his carpentry and looked after turkeys in the outbuildings which he reared for the Christmas market.  During his lifetime he built a bridge over the Willowbrook giving access to the meadows on the south side of the village and this still stands today at the back of the farm.  He built a large wagon hovel behind the Kennedy and Kemp grain dryer which Jack had installed – he was the first farmer in Northamptonshire to have a modern grain dryer.  The grain was stored in bins and bags from crops grown at both Woodnewton and Apethorpe.  As well as growing crops such as wheat, barley, beans, peas, sugar beet and potatoes there were herds of Hereford cattle (which in those days were known as beasts).  These were in fields on both the north and south sides of the village, indeed there was a hovel in the grass field at the top of Priors Haugh to the north of the village.

Charles had worked very hard manually all his life and eventually Jack took over his farmer operations and engaged a large single family of Irish men from Galway, who initially lived in the horse stables at Apethorpe Lodge.  They then moved into the cottages opposite the driveway to Manor Farm yard and eventually into Armston Lodge (near Barnwell).  With the money the Irish family earnt in the United Kingdom after returning to Ireland, they purchased a Massey Ferguson tractor and Jim, the youngest boy (named after his father) stayed in Ireland to use this instead of the usual donkeys to carry the peat which was cut out of the land by hand.

Following the death of Charles in 1961, George Stevens and his family moved from Cheeseman’s Lodge to the Manor Farmhouse in Woodnewton.  Eric their son worked for the Ashby family from the age of 16, moving to Herne Farm at Oundle when he married Rose at the age of 22.  He worked for the family until his retirement and his skills and friendship were always appreciated by them.

The farm managers who lived at Manor Farmhouse, following the death of George, were Daid and Christine Larby and then Richard Revill, who ran the calf units in converted outbuildings and who lived there until Mrs Reed took the Farmhouse and farm buildings back into her estate.

A footnote to Charles story is that two of his great granddaughters and their families now reside in Woodnewton.

The picture shows a photograph of his Grandfather Charles and Hilda Saunders building a wall at Manor Farmhouse.

We would like to thank Richard Ashby for his kind help in writing this article