Ashby de la Zouch Rural District

The A42 is a major trunk road in the East Midlands region of the United Kingdom. It links junction 23A of the M1 motorway to junction 11 of the M42 motorway. The A42 is in effect a continuation of the M42, and its junctions are numbered accordingly. It is built to a similar standard to the M42, being a grade separated dual carriageway. The 6-mile (9.7 km) Measham and Ashby-de-la-Zouch bypass section was opened in August 1989 at a cost of £33m.

Alton is a deserted medieval village between Coalville and Ashby-de-la-Zouch, in North West Leicestershire, England. The earliest documentation of the village is found in the Domesday Book where it appears as Heletone. The land was rented out to someone by Hugh de Grandmesnil, and had a total value of 60 shillings. There were 25 villagers, 1 being a man at arms and 4 smallholders. There were 8 ploughs, 1 mill, 4 acres of meadow, woodland 1 league long. The name is probably derived from ald, and the suffix tūn, meaning "old settlement".It is one of only four villages in Leicestershire that seems to have been deserted as a result of grange formation, the others being Dishley, Ringlethorp and Weston. The most important possessor of granges in Leicestershire was the Cistercian Garendon Abbey whose economy was largely based on sheep farming. Nothing remains of the village other than a few vague topographical features.

Castle is a ward and suburb of Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire, England.

Ashby School, formerly known as Ashby Grammar School, is a co-educational day secondary school and sixth form in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, England. The school is situated in the centre of Ashby on two sites.

Ashby de la Zouch Castle is a ruined fortification in the town of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, England. The castle was built by William, Lord Hastings, a favourite of Edward IV, after 1473, accompanied by the creation of a 3,000-acre (1,200 ha) park. Constructed on the site of an older manor house, two large towers and various smaller buildings had been constructed by 1483, when Hastings was executed by Richard, Duke of Gloucester. The Hastings family used the castle as their seat for several generations, improving the gardens and hosting royal visitors. During the English Civil War of the 1640s, Henry, a younger son in the Hastings family, became a Royalist commander in the Midlands. He based himself at the castle until he was forced to surrender it after a long siege. A fresh rebellion occurred in 1648, leading Parliament to slight the castle in order to prevent it being used militarily: the two towers were badly damaged with gunpowder and undermining. Parts of the remaining castle were turned into a new house and continued to be used by members of the Hastings family for many years, although they moved their main residence to Donington Hall. The castle became famous after it featured in Sir Walter Scott's novel Ivanhoe in 1819, and its owner, Francis Rawdon, opened the ruins to visitors. Restoration work was carried out over the course of the next century, but by 1932 the Rawdon family could no longer afford to maintain the castle. It passed into the guardianship of the Ministry of Works, who carried out extensive repairs and opened the castle gardens. In the 21st century, the castle is managed by English Heritage as a tourist attraction, receiving 15,164 visitors in 2015. The historian John Goodall considers the site to be an "outstanding example of a late medieval castle", with its grounds forming "one of the best-preserved and most important" examples of an early Tudor garden.

Ashby Ivanhoe Football Club are a football club based in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, England. They are currently members of the United Counties League Premier Division North and play at the NFU Sports Ground.

St Helen's Church is the Anglican parish church of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, in the deanery of North West Leicestershire and the Diocese of Leicester. There was a church in the town in the 11th century, but the core of the present building mainly dates from work started in 1474, when the church was rebuilt by William Hastings at the same time that he converted his neighbouring manor house into a castle. The church was refurbished in about 1670 to create more space, but the large and increasing size of the congregation led to further work in 1829, and a major rebuild in 1878–80, including the widening of the nave by the addition of two outer aisles. The sandstone church has a tower at the west end, and its nave is wider than it is long due to the extra Victorian aisles. St Helen's Church has some ancient stained glass at the east end, and the Victorian windows on the nave and towers form a coherent narrative of the life of Jesus. Other fixtures include some important funereal monuments, and a font, pulpit and carved heads by Thomas Earp. The finger pillory is a rare item, once seen as a humane form of punishment. The church has a long association with the Hastings family, its patrons for four centuries, and became a centre for Puritanism under Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon. The "Puritan Earl" brought a series of radical figures to the town, including Anthony Gilby and Arthur Hildersham. St Helen's Church is a nationally important building, with a Grade I listing for its exceptional architectural interest.

Normanton le Heath is a village and civil parish situated between the parishes of Packington, Ravenstone and Heather in North West Leicestershire, England. The population of the civil parish was 131 at the 2001 census, rising to 165 at the 2011 census. It should not be confused with another Normanton in the county which is near Bottesford. The name, which in Old English means the settlement of Northmen on the heath, suggests that the current village was probably an English village taken over by a group of Norse or Danish settlers at the time of the original Viking settlement, and this fits well into the overall pattern of land occupation in the area. It lies on the edge of the great heath that once stretched Westwards from the edge of Charnwood Forest, something which is reflected in the names of a number of other settlements in the area, such as Heather and Donington le Heath. There are, however, signs of significant earlier land usage in the parish. Near to the boundary with Heather and Ravenstone an Iron Age settlement has been discovered. Equally, the newly discovered Roman road from Leicester to Chester has been discovered running through the centre of Normanton. Just over the parish boundary in the southern Ravenstone area there was a small Roman town. A track called the Swepstone Way can be traced running from the Iron Age settlement all the way to Tamworth. The Salt Way which ran through Measham can also be traced to Normanton. It is not totally implausible to suggest that a road/track ran through the centre from Ancaster to Wall. If this is correct it would suggest that this track was of Roman origin. However, this is very much a speculative road at the moment. The settlement is not mentioned in the Domesday Book and the first mention we have is in 1209. Much of the land in the early Middle Ages to the north was known to be woodland or heathland. Coal mining formed part of the economy of the area from a very early period and mines have been found at the abandoned village of Alton to the north of Normanton. To the east of the village was the Long Moor open cast coal mine managed by UK Coal. Over a three-year period from 2007 to 2010 this extracted 725,000 tons of coal. Following restoration, the 188 acres (76 ha) mine site has been acquired by the Woodland Trust. With adjoining agricultural land this will become the Flagship Diamond Wood, a 186 hectares (460 acres) new woodland to celebrate the 2012 Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.

Packington is a village and civil parish in the district of North West Leicestershire. It is situated close to the A42 road and the towns of Ashby de la Zouch and Measham. The population of Packington according to the 2001 UK census is 738, reducing slightly to 734 at the 2011 census. Nearby villages include Normanton le Heath and Heather. Packington has a public house called the 'Bull and Lion' (reputedly the only one in Britain) and a local shop called 'Daybreak Services'. It is part of the National Forest and the Gilwiskaw brook runs through the village.

Lount Meadows is a 8.5 hectares (21 acres) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest south of Lount in Leicestershire, England.This slightly acidic grassland site has hay meadows with diverse grass species. There are also areas of species-rich rough pasture, scrub and marsh, which is dominated by plicate sweet-grass and water horsetail.The site is private land with no public access.

Ivanhoe School (formerly Ivanhoe College) is a coeducational secondary school located in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, England.The school was established in 1954 and named after the historical novel Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott, part of which was set at Ashby de la Zouch Castle.It was previously a community middle school with specialist technology college status. In July 2012 Ivanhoe College converted to academy status. In September 2022 the school expanded its age range to 16, becoming a secondary school.

Coleorton Wood is a woodland in the village of Coleorton, near Coalville in northwest Leicestershire, England. It is a six-hectare (15-acre) mixed woodland that was planted during the early days of the National Forest. The site was formerly Coleorton Pit, or colliery, which opened in 1875, and closed in the 1930s. It gained the local nickname of 'Bug and Wink' colliery.Coleorton Wood is on the route of the Mining Heritage Trail, which is a nine-mile (14 km) walk tracing the coal mining history of this part of Leicestershire.