Ashby-de-la-Zouch

[7] In the English Civil War, the town was one of the Cavaliers' chief garrisons under the control of Colonel Henry Hastings, 1st Baron Loughborough and commander of the North Midlands Army.

The Bull's Head public house retains its original Elizabethan half-timbering, although most of this was plastered over some years ago and can no longer be seen from the street.

Bath Street has a row of Classical-style houses called Rawdon Terrace, dating from the time of the 1820s, when the town was a spa destination.

[13] The town is in the parliamentary constituency of North West Leicestershire, represented since 2024 by Amanda Hack of the Labour Party.

[7] The Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady of Lourdes was designed by F. A. Walters and built in 1908–15[7] at the expense of the 15th Duke of Norfolk.

[20][21] Mineworkers discovered a copious saline spring when working coal at Moira Colliery, 3 miles (5 km) west of the town, in 1805.

[22] The Grade II-listed, 19th-century water tower, located in the town's cemetery on Moira Road, has been converted into a dwelling.

The octagonal monument by Sir George Gilbert Scott is based on the Eleanor crosses and is a Listed building.

By far the largest employer in the town today is United Biscuits, providing about 2,000 jobs at its distribution centre, which stores its products and transports them nationwide, and its KP Snacks factory in Smisby Road.

[26] Other employers in Ashby include Tesco, Ashfield Commercial & Medical Services, Timeline Communications, Eduteq Limited and TAC UK Ltd, a firm of energy consultants.

Standard Soap Ltd, a significant industrial employer within Ashby-de-la-Zouch since 1928, closed in early 2012, resulting in the loss of 155 jobs.

They play across multiple divisions across all of their Junior and Senior teams and are seen as leading the way in community inclusion when it comes to football and sports in the town.

The first hole is played along an avenue of lime trees which once flanked the old coach road from the old Norman castle in the town to the now demolished Willesley Hall.

The club organises the annual Ashby 20 mile road race event, usually held five weeks ahead of the London Marathon.

For many years the race has been sponsored by ALDI, and uniquely rewards finishers with a famous Ashby 20 hoody instead of a medal along with a well earned cheese cob.

In the 1990s, BR planned to restore passenger services between Leicester and Burton as the second phase of its Ivanhoe Line project.

In 2009 the Association of Train Operating Companies published a £49-million proposal to restore passenger services to the line, which would include reopening a station at Ashby.

The fastest train to London in the mornings and evenings is from Tamworth (12 miles from Ashby) to Euston at 1hr 2mins average non-stop at peak hours.

The heavy traffic, which previously travelled through the town, has been greatly relieved by the A42 and A511 bypasses, which replace the A453 and A50, respectively.

Television signals can only be received from the Sutton Coldfield TV transmitter which broadcast programmes from Birmingham.

[37] However, BBC East Midlands and ITV Central are also received through cable and satellite television such as Freesat and Sky.

A song "Ashby de la Zouch (Castle Abbey)", written by Al Hoffman, Milton Drake and Jerry Livingston, was recorded by the Merry Macs in 1946 on Decca No.

It includes the lines "If you wanna smooch and be happy as a pooch, go to Ashby de la Zouch by the sea.

)[42] In April 1946 the American jazz bassist and composer Charles Mingus recorded a tune called "Ashby de la Zouch" with his band.

The same phrase is used in the original computer game Defender of the Crown, which apparently drew inspiration from Scott's novel.

Neighbouring communities include Lount, Normanton le Heath, Smisby, Packington, Donisthorpe, Oakthorpe, Moira, Measham and Coleorton.

There is a very in-depth record of the town written in a book by W. Scott in 1907 entitled "The History of Ashby-de-la-Zouch", and printed by a local Printer called George Brown.

Holy Trinity parish church
Methodist church
Congregational church
Our Lady of Lourdes Roman Catholic church
The water tower at Ashby de la Zouch cemetery, prior to its conversion into a dwelling
A511 Ashby bypass