the building fell into disrepair following the Dissolution of the Monasteries and the site was cleared in the English Civil War of 1642–49. Parts of the current nave and chancel date from the 14th century, but the church was rebuilt and enlarged by William Hastings in 1474, at the same time that he erected the tower of his nearby castle. The new, larger church included a nave with aisles and chapels adjoining the chancel. The tower, Hastings Chapel, and some buttresses and windows still remain from the 15th century. Reformation and after The English Reformation inevitably affected St Helen's Church. Edward VI's 1547 injunction decreed that all images in churches were to be dismantled or destroyed, including stained glass, shrines, roods, statues and bells, and altars were to be replaced by wooden tables. Damage during the Civil War was minimal, although there are pike marks on the stonework. The church may have been fortified as part of the defences of the castle, a Royalist stronghold. Around 1670, the church was refurbished, a gallery was built at the western end of the nave, and the carved reredos and a large wooden Royal coat of arms, now at the west end of the nave, were acquired at the same time. An inspection report at the end of the 18th century commented on the dirty transept walls, and the need to install the equivalent of a cattle grid to keep pigs out of the churchyard. Rich crimson hangings in the church had earlier attracted the attention of a thief. The increasing congregation led to the replacement of the pews and the construction of galleries down both sides of the building in 1829, but a more extensive rebuilding was undertaken in 1878–80, by James Piers St Aubyn. The galleries were removed and the two outer aisles were added during this period, a chapel was converted to a vestry and improvements were made to the Hastings Chapel. The cost of these works has been estimated as between £16,000 and more than £18,000 (). Later developments included the expenditure of £13,000 () between 1963 and 1968 to combat deathwatch beetles found during rewiring, improvements to the heating system, and a rededication in 1974, the quincentenary of the church. St Helen's Church is the parish church of the English market town of Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire. The parish is currently in the deanery of North West Leicestershire, the