NHER 8542 (Monument record) - Site of St Mary's Church, Ashby with Oby

The site of St. Mary's Church, Ashby.
Visited E. Rose 23 May 1979.

Slight rise in ploughland field at indicated spot on west of square depression (churchyard?).

Site located first by Mr Molineaux of Ashby Hall from 1845 tithe map (see record map); name 'Church Yard' still used by local people today for site.

1882 or 1822. Foundations and tiled floor excavated, and fragment of churchyard wall remained until this century.
Ref (S2) gives the date as 1822, says the floor resembled that at Martham, and that footings of a tower were found. See (S4).

(S1) recorded that the inhabitants of Oby used this church, but (S2) believed (S1) had confused Ashby and Oby churches.
E. Rose (NAU).

Marked as 'Scite of Oby Church' on (S3), but (S3) has several times confused names. The rectory to SW is shown as Oby Parsonage.
E.Rose (NAU).

CUCAP air photography 3 July 1976 and 30 June 1976 shows (on copies seen) negative cropmarks of church with rectangular nave and chancel and round west tower (called "apse" by R. Whimster CUCAP).
E. Rose and D.A. Edwards (NAU), 23 January 1980 and 1983.

Whimster's apse is in fact not the tower but a faint mark inside the later square chancel. Copy of photo in ref (S4).

No signs of earthworks in ploughed field, 1988. Site viewed on vertical air photograph survey of Norfolk by NCC/BKS (August 1988).
M.Flitcroft (NLA) 3 February 1993.

See (S5).

August 2006. Norfolk NMP.
NMP mapping has led to the alteration of the central grid reference of the site from TG 42276 15229 to TG 4228 1521.
The site of St Mary’s Church, described above, is visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs (S6)-(S7). The different construction phases described above are all visible, although the mark interpreted as the original apsidal chancel (mapped at TG 42288 15213) is rather unclear. A south porch (mapped at TG 42266 15211) and a number of buttresses are also visible, as described in Batcock 1991 (S5). Some of the marks of the buttresses are rather ill defined, and they have been mapped as pit-like features; this may reflect the robbing of both the buttresses and their foundations. It is unfortunate that on the clearest aerial photographs of the site (S6), the main axis of the building is at 90 degrees to the modern tramlines. Consequently, it is difficult to differentiate between any cross walls and the modern agricultural marks, hence the open-ended appearance of the chancel. For the same reason, the wall mapped between TG 42278 15209 and TG 42280 15219 should be treated with caution.
There are no obvious signs of the former churchyard mentioned above. The ‘square depression’ to the east of the church may be that visible (at TG 4234 1519) as an earthwork on aerial photographs taken in 1972 (S8). This was almost certainly an extraction pit for clay or similar material, one of many visible in this part of Norfolk, and has not been mapped by the NMP. It is notable that this and two further pits to the north and west (at TG 4228 1528 and TG 4220 1522) appear to avoid both the church itself and a distinct area around it, defined on its north and west sides by a field boundary depicted on the Ordnance Survey 1st edition 6 inch map (S9). This area could correspond with the former churchyard.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 7 August 2006.