Ashby Magna

Ashby Magna is a small English village and civil parish in the Harborough district of Leicestershire. The parish had a population of 294 at the 2001 UK census. It is in the south of the county, and lies midway between junctions 20 and 21 of the M1. Nearby places are Willoughby Waterleys, Gilmorton, Peatling Parva and Dunton Bassett.

The village is of Danish origin and recorded in the Domesday Book as 'Essebi' or 'Asseby'. Its name derives from the 'ash' tree, from 'by', Old Danish for a farmstead or settlement, and from 'Magna', Latin for great. It was large by medieval standards but the population has remained static at around 300-400.

The Manor of Ashby Magna was sold to Thomas Pares, along with the manor of Cotes-de-Val, by Shukbrugh Ashby (a Fellow of the Royal Society) in 1760.

The Great Central main railway line, the last main line to be built from the north of England to London, was opened on 15 March 1899 and ran just to the west of Ashby Magna, separating it from the village of Dunton Bassett, and a station was provided bearing Ashby Magna's name although it was much the smaller village of the two. Dunton Bassett gave its name to a short (92 yard) tunnel just south of the station. The line closed on 5 May 1969. In its latter years it had been joined by the M1 motorway which parallelled it on the east side.

According to the National Archive

Welcome to Ashby Magna

Ashby Magna is a typical small English village set in fertile undulating farmland in the Midlands. It lays...
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