Mears Ashby

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Mears Ashby
Mears Ashby shown within Northamptonshire
Population	442 (2001 Census)
OS grid reference	SP838666
District	Wellingborough
Shire county	Northamptonshire
Region	East Midlands
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	NORTHAMPTON
Postcode district	NN6
Dialling code	01604
Police	Northamptonshire
Fire	Northamptonshire
Ambulance	East Midlands
European Parliament	East Midlands
UK Parliament	Wellingborough
List of places: UK • England • Northamptonshire

Coordinates: 52°17′36″N 0°46′19″W / 52.29335, -0.77205

Mears Ashby is a village in the English county of Northamptonshire.

It is between the county town of Northampton and Wellingborough; administratively it forms part of the borough of Wellingborough.

The 2001 census recorded its population as 442 of which 221 were male and 221 female.

[edit] Witchcraft

According to Westwood and Simpson in their book, The Lore of the Land, the county in general and Mears Ashby in particular has a long tradition of witchcraft and accusations of witchcraft. In their book they recall that as late as 1785 a local inhabitant, Sarah Bradshaw, was so accused. We learn from the Northampton Mercury on 1 August 1785 that:

"Thursday last, a poor woman, named Sarah Bradshaw of Mears Ashby...who was accused by some of her neighbours of being a witch, in order to prove her innocence, submitted to the ignominy of being dipped (on a ducking-stool); when she immediately sunk to the bottom of the pond; which was deemed an incontestable proof that she was no witch!"