ASHWELL, a parish in Oakham district, Rutland; on the Midland railway and an affluent of the river Wreak, near the Melton-Mowbray canal, 3½ miles N of Oakham. It has a station on the railway, and its Post Town is Oakham. Acres, 1,799. Real property, £3,081. Pop., 206. Houses, 48. The manor was known, in the Saxon times, as Exwell; belonged to Earl Harold; and passed, in the time of Edward III., to the Touchets, and after wards to others. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Peterborough. Value, £401.* Patron, Viscount Downe. The church is a handsome edifice, with a tower; and contains three interesting altar-tombs.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))