---
title: "St Mary, Canons Ashby"
description: "Located in Canons Ashby, Northamptonshire. Built Augustinian priory church founded 1147–51; surviving west bays 13th century; north-west tower mid-14th century; east and south walls post-Dissolution and early 18th century. Grade I. Early English west front; Decorated tower; Perpendicular west window style."
category: "Church"
tags: ["Church","National Trust","Northamptonshire","Canons Ashby","Grade I","Priory","Augustinian"]
canonical: "https://thebritishgazette.com/post/st-mary-canons-ashby"
pubDate: "2026-09-06T01:26:16.631Z"
dateModified: "2026-09-07T17:50:18.415Z"
location: "Canons Ashby, Northamptonshire"
country: "England"
county: "Northamptonshire"
town: "Canons Ashby"
address: "Canons Ashby, Northamptonshire, NN11 3SD"
postcode: "NN11 3SD"
built: "Augustinian priory church founded 1147–51; surviving west bays 13th century; north-west tower mid-14th century; east and south walls post-Dissolution and early 18th century"
denomination: "National Trust"
dedications: ["Mary"]
grade: "I"
style: "Early English west front; Decorated tower; Perpendicular west window"
materials: "Ironstone ashlar with limestone dressings, lead roofs"
website: "https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/canons-ashby"
openingHours: "The church is open during the day time."
listEntryUrl: "https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1187152"
gridReference: "SP 577 505"
accessNotes: "Level access to the main areas. Accessible toilets nearby"
---

# St Mary, Canons Ashby

St Mary at Canons Ashby is a Grade I fragment of an Augustinian priory church, now a peculiar owned by the National Trust with Canons Ashby House — not a Churches Conservation Trust church.

## Overview

Historic England and the National Trust record the surviving west end of a priory church founded 1147–51 for Augustinian canons and dissolved in 1536: two bays of the nave and north aisle and a mid-fourteenth-century north-west tower, in ironstone ashlar with limestone dressings and lead roofs. The west front has a richly shafted portal and blank arcading of about 1230–40; a large Perpendicular west window sits above. The nave was originally about 96 feet long with a long aisleless chancel; the east wall and south wall are post-Dissolution and early eighteenth-century. Interior fittings include a wall painting of about 1710 around the east window, Dryden family monuments (two by Rossi), the funeral achievement of Sir Robert Dryden (d. 1708), eleven painted hatchments and a seventeenth-century chamber organ. The church is a peculiar, not under ordinary Church of England jurisdiction. Listed Grade I (NHLE 1187152); the wider monastic landscape is scheduled (NHLE 1015534).

## Further Information

- [National Trust: Canons Ashby](https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/leicestershire-northamptonshire/canons-ashby)
- [Historic England list entry 1187152](https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1187152)
- [Wikipedia: Canons Ashby Priory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canons_Ashby_Priory)