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Ashby de la Zouch Castle View from the Hastings Tower . This picture appears in the following picture tours: Camera Make: Canon Model: Canon EOS 5D |
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Ashby de la Zouch Castle An underground passage from the kitchen to the tower, probably created during the Civil War , can still be explored today. This picture appears in the following picture tours: Camera Make: Canon Model: Canon EOS 40D |
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Ashby de la Zouch Castle 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. This picture appears in the following picture tours: Camera Make: Canon Model: Canon EOS 5D |
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Ashby de la Zouch Castle After the Norman Conquest the estates at Ashby, or Aschebie as it is called in the Domesday Book, was owned by the Earls of Leicester. There was no castle here at that time, just an unpretentious fortified manor house. Sometime in the late 12th century the estate at Ashby was granted to the le Zouch family in exchange for military service to the Earls. We know almost nothing of the Zouch family manor house, which may have stood where the castle great hall is now. The Zouch line died out in 1399 and legal wrangling ensued over who should inherit. The disputes raged on until 1462 when William, Lord Hastings was granted possession, along with enormous estates elsewhere in the Midlands. This picture appears in the following picture tours: Camera Make: Canon Model: Canon EOS 5D |
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