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Museum Details
Ashby de la Zouch Castle (English Heritage)
South Street
Ashby de la Zouch
LE65 1BR
Leicestershire
England
Contact details
General information (Tel)
:
01530 413343
Website
:
www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/conProperty.53
Discounts
English Heritage
Description
Ashby Castle forms the backdrop to the famous jousting scenes in Sir Walter Scott’s classic novel of 1819, Ivanhoe. Now a ruin, the castle began as a manor house in the 12th century. It only achieved castle status in the 15th century, by which time the hall and buttery had been enlarged, with a solar to the east and a large integral kitchen added to the west.
Between 1474 and his execution by Richard III in 1483, Edward IV’s Chamberlain Lord Hastings added the chapel and the impressive keep-like Hastings Tower – a castle within a castle. Visitors can now climb the 24 metre (78 feet) tower, which offers fine views. Later the castle hosted many royal visitors, including Henry VII, Mary Queen of Scots, James I and Charles I.
A Royalist stronghold during the Civil War, the castle finally fell to Parliament in 1646, and was then made unusable. An underground passage from the kitchen to the tower, probably created during this war, can still be explored today. In 2006 archaeologists investigated the mysterious castle garden, famous for its elaborately shaped sunken features.
Articles
News In Brief - Week Ending August 6 2006
National Archaeology Week 2005: 24 Hour Museum Speaks To Carenza Lewis
Available resources
Civil War Discovery Visit
; Guided tour (Resource)
Medieval Life Discovery Visit
; Guided tour (Resource)
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Information published here was believed to be correct at the time it was prepared. Welsh language pages developed with CYMAL: Museums Archives and Libraries Wales, funded by the Welsh Assembly Government.