ASHWELL, a parish in the hundred of ODSEY,
county of HERTFORD, 4 miles (N. N. E.) from Baldock,
containing 915 inhabitants. The living is a vicarage, in
the archdeaconry of Huntingdon, and diocese of Lincoln,
rated in the king's books at £22. 3. 6., and in
the patronage of the Bishop of London. The church,
dedicated to St. Mary, is a spacious edifice, with a tower
and spire one hundred and seventy-five feet high. Ashwell
is a place of great antiquity, and was a market
town and borough at the time of the Norman survey,
having also four fairs, and being held in royal demesne.
Its name is derived from several springs, issuing out of a
rock at the south end of the town, which were formerly
surrounded by ash trees: they form the source of the
small river Rhee, which soon becomes so full and rapid,
as to turn several mills within a short distance. On
Harborough hill, in this parish, are the remains of a
quadrangular encampment of the Romans, whence the
approach of an enemy, in any direction, and at a great
distance, could be observed. Urns, coins, and skeletons,
have been dug up, as well as near the Iknield-road, in
the vicinity. The free school, in which fourteen boys
are instructed, has an endowment from the estate of
Sir Richard Hutchinson, paid to the master by the
Merchant Taylors' Company of London. There are also
six endowed almshouses for as many poor persons,
and a fund for apprenticing poor children. A small
manor here was held by Walter Somoner, in petit serjeantry,
by the service of providing spits and roasting
meat in the king's kitchen, on the day of his coronation.
The only trade carried on is in malt, the barley
produced in the neighbourhood being of a peculiarly
excellent quality. The Rev. Ralph Cudworth, D. D.,
master of Christ's College, Cambridge, and author of
The Intellectual Sys.tem, was vicar of this parish, and
died here in 1688.