Our People 

A church is much more than a building. The word 'church' comes from the Greek 'ekklesia', which means 'people assembled'. There has been a church community in Ashby since before 1086, when the Domesday Book recorded a priest as one of the town's inhabitants.  

The church's historic baptism, marriage and burial registers, now in the safe keeping of the Leicestershire County Records Office, record major events in the lives of Ashby's inhabitants between 1561 and the present day. Monuments in the Church building and headstones in the Churchyard tell us a little more about those who went before us. 

A long line of people at St Helen's Church over the last millennium have made it what it is today. Their daily lives may have been very different to ours, but, like us, they had their daily routines, their joys and their sorrows. They worked in the town and surrounding countryside. They came together as a community to worship. They made gifts to their church and gave to local charities. 

For an overview of some of the people remembered in our church monuments, click here.

These pages tell the stories of just a few of those people.

• Robert Nundi and his wives 
• Margery Wright 
• David Hale 
• Golden Days for the Bell Ringers of St Helen's Church
• Elizabeth Stanley, Countess of Huntingdon (1588-1633)
• Dr Thomas Kirkland (1722-1798)
• Leonard Piddock
• Margaret Lane (1907-1994)

Research is ongoing so watch this space for new articles.