Ashby St Ledgers

Principal home of the Catesby family from 1375 to the first part of the 1600s. The manor was briefly confiscated in 1485 following the execution of William Catesby, a principle councilor to Richard III, who had been captured by Henry Tudor at the Battle of Bosworth (22 August 1485). The manor next came to prominence when Robert Catesby (1573 – November 8, 1605), became the originator of the Gunpowder Plot to blow up James I and Parliament in 1605.

At that time the manor house was used to store the arms, munitions , and gunpowder that the plotters collected to supply the uprising they hoped to cause.

The parish church of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Leodegarius dates from 1100, but is mostly an C14-C15 construction. Saint Leodegarius was a French Benedictine Bishop who became abbot of St. Maxentius in 653. The gabled south porch and most of the pews in the nave are early 14th century.

The church has a number of medieval wall paintings depicting "The Passion" these frescos are 14th and 15th century. They were uncovered during restoration work in 1927 and are the most extensive cycles in the UK. The section on the south wall depicts the crucifixion and the Marys at the tomb, that on the north wall the entry into Jerusalem.