To the southwest of the village is
Arbury Banks, the remains of an
Iron Age hill fort which have been largely removed by agricultural activity. In 2002, local
metal detectorists found a
silver Roman figurine of a
goddess,
Dea Senuna. A subsequent
archaeological dig over four summers revealed 26 more
gold and silver objects situated in a major open-air ritual site. The
Buckinghamshire family of Nernewt (Nernuyt) held land in the village in the 14th century, which was originally part of the
Abbot of Westminster's
manor. This land became the manor of Westbury Nernewtes. The village has a wealth of architecture spanning several centuries. There was also a great fire of Ashwell on Saturday 2 February 1850, without fatalities. The village itself is generally well-maintained, encompassing the medieval cottage, town house.
Listed buildings include the St. John's
Guildhall of 1681, the Foresters
Cottages, the Chantry House, the 16th-century
town house (now Ashwell
Museum), the
Maltings (now converted into flats), and a small brick house which was first built in 1681 as a school by the
Merchant Taylors.
Ashwell Bury, a large
Victorian house, which was remodeled by
Edwin Lutyens in the 1920s. Lutyens also designed the Grade II listed
Ashwell War Memorial, unveiled in 1922. Ashwell also has a
village lock-up that was used to
detain the
intoxicated as well as suspected
criminals. The village at one point was home to a number of local
breweries and, accordingly, a variety of
public houses, but currently has just three
pubs: The Rose and Crown, the Three Tuns and the Bushel and Strike. Since 1850 the village has been served by
Ashwell and Morden railway station which is roughly a mile and a half from the centre of the village in the
hamlet of
Odsey in
Cambridgeshire. ==Church==