Canons Ashby
Canons Ashby, an Elizabethan manor house, is cradled in the rolling fields of the South Midlands in the county of Northhamptonshire, approximately 13 miles southwest of the hamlet of Northampton, off the B4525 Northampton to Banbury road. Near by stand the Castle Ashby and the ancient Church of St. Mary's. To the north and east lies the Rockingham Forest, the personal hunting grounds of William the Conqueror. And just to the south stands Sulgrave Manor, the ancestral home of George Washington..
In 1538, Sir John Cope purchased the orange ironstone L-shaped farmhouse and its church. Sir John Cope was a wealthy Puritan lawyer and his father had been a senior official in the court of Henry II. On his death the estate passed to his daughter Elizabeth, the wife of John Dryden.
Through the years that followed our ancestors, the Drydens, and their descendants expanded the house in a clockwise direction adding a staircase tower, a southwest wing, enclosing the Pebble Court, and remodeling the inside. Also added were a formal terraced garden and an orchard featuring a variety of apples and pears.
One of the most interesting features of the interior are the Crests that decorate the Oak Paneling of the Winter Parlor that served as a private dining room for the family. These were painted to depict those of the families the Drydens married into and their neighbors. Sometime later in the house's history they were painted over and remained hidden until the British Trust Conservators revealed them in the 1980's. Also unique are the very explicit biblical murals that warn of the dangers of worshiping false gods that decorate the Spencer Bedroom (named for the poet Edmund Spencer a cousin).
The Copes and the Drydens also made drastic changes to the church, demolishing the chancel, choir, and the eastern half of the naive and adding new windows. In 1700's the front was rebuilt and in the 1800s three of the tower pinnacles were restored.
Summarized from the Booklet on Cannons Ashby.
Photographs by Alan Tietjen and Milancie Adams |
