Astley, Warwickshire
Encyclopedia
Astley is a village
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...

 and parish
Civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...

 within the North Warwickshire
North Warwickshire
North Warwickshire is a local government district and borough in Warwickshire, England. The main town in the district is Atherstone where the council is based...

 district of Warwickshire
Warwickshire
Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. In the 2001 census
United Kingdom Census 2001
A nationwide census, known as Census 2001, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday, 29 April 2001. This was the 20th UK Census and recorded a resident population of 58,789,194....

 it had a population of 219.

Astley is Knebly in George Eliot
George Eliot
Mary Anne Evans , better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, journalist and translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era...

's Mr Gilfil's Love Story. Eliot's parents were married in the church.

St Mary the Virgin

The parish church
Parish church
A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....

 was rebuilt by Sir Thomas Astley
Astley Baronets
There have been four Baronetcies created for members of the Astley family, three in the Baronetage of England and one in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom. Only one creation is extant as of 2008. The Astley family were descended from Sir Thomas de Astley of Astley, Warwickshire, who was killed...

 in 1343. A Saxon carving of a sundial
Sundial
A sundial is a device that measures time by the position of the Sun. In common designs such as the horizontal sundial, the sun casts a shadow from its style onto a surface marked with lines indicating the hours of the day. The style is the time-telling edge of the gnomon, often a thin rod or a...

 from an earlier church was preserved in the tower. Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset
Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset
Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset, KG, KB was an English peer, courtier, soldier and landowner, the grandfather of Lady Jane Grey, briefly Queen of England.-Early life:...

 was entombed
Church monument
A church monument is an architectural or sculptural memorial to a dead person or persons, located within a Christian church. It can take various forms, from a simple wall tablet to a large and elaborate structure which may include an effigy of the deceased person and other figures of familial or...

 in the church in 1530. The present church dates from another rebuild in 1617 by the Chamberlayne family. It is mainly the chancel
Chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar in the sanctuary at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building...

 of the 1343 building and the original east window incorporated into the tower. Preserved in the church are effigies
Effigy
An effigy is a representation of a person, especially in the form of sculpture or some other three-dimensional form.The term is usually associated with full-length figures of a deceased person depicted in stone or wood on church monuments. These most often lie supine with hands together in prayer,...

 of the Grey family, eighteen choir stalls painted with images of the prophets and apostles and, on the ceiling, 21 heraldic shields of Midlands families.

Astley Castle

Astley Castle
Astley Castle
Astley Castle is a ruinous moated fortified 16th century manor house in North Warwickshire. It has been listed as a Grade II* listed building since 1951 and as a Scheduled Ancient Monument since 1994...

, a Grade II* listed building, is the last of three castle
Castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...

s built on the same site and using the same moat
Moat
A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that surrounds a castle, other building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive water defences, including natural or artificial lakes, dams and sluices...

. The castle was held by the Newdigate family in the 19th century, latterly being the home of Lieut-Gen. Edward Newdigate Newdegate. It was later a hotel, but is now a ruin following the fire in 1978.

The Landmark Trust
Landmark Trust
The Landmark Trust is a British building conservation charity, founded in 1965 by Sir John and Lady Smith, that rescues buildings of historic interest or architectural merit and then gives them a new life by making them available for holiday rental...

is now spearheading a project to make the ruins safe, with the addition of modern style holiday homes within the actual ruins.

There is emerging evidence that Hitler may have planned to use Astley Castle if the Nazis had successfully invaded Britain during the Second World War. Astley Castle would have provided him with a fortified structure with appropriate security, supplemented by the protection of a moat. Astley would also have satisfied Hitler's desire for British countryside living with reasonable access to all the major cities.

External links

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