[5] The family name, ultimately derived from Folleville in the French region of Picardy, was attached to several other sites in Leicestershire, including the deserted village of Newbolt Folville.

Several of their possessions, such as Ashby and the manor at Teigh in Rutland, were in the hands of other parties at the time of the Domesday survey, but had passed to the Folvilles by the reign of Stephen (1135-1154).

[5][page needed] The family gained renown during the reign of Edward II, when they ambushed and killed the Baron of the Exchequer, Roger de Beler.

[5] After World War II, a resettlement camp for displaced people from Poland was established in a former US Army base in the grounds of Ashby Folville Manor.

The Ashby Folville estate was bought in 1890 by Herbert Smith-Carington, then mayor of Worcester (died 1917), who built cottages and a village institute and restored the church.