See www.ashtonheath.org.uk for one account of its history. It cannot be built on, because it is common land; the details are on the website.

- David -

Dave McKendrick is quite correct in stating that the heath is common land.

I used to be intrigued by the fact that Ashton heath was the common land for Ashton, when historically the centre of Ashton was what we now know as North Ashton - quite a distance away. Some historical research reavealed that there used to be two Ashtons in effect - Ashton (now North Ashton, which still contains the original parish church) and the "Town End", which we now know as Ashton.

Rumour has it that there was a lepresarium on the heath in Elizabethan times, and the bodies were buried in the "big hill". There may well have been a lepresarium, but at the time it would have been built primarily of timber, and any attempt to verify it is likely to be futile.

I have undertaken a landscape survey of the heath with trained archaeologists, and their assessment was that the "big hill" is most likely to be spoil from the marl pits that existed on the heath. Broken pottery and bottles can still be found in the area of the marl pits, which were subsequently used as a bottle dump, but unlicenced excavation is prohibited.

Town: cdaington@hotmail.com