House Ashford of Ashford is a lordly house of the Reach, seated at the castle of Ashford on the river Cockleswent and sworn to House Tyrell of Highgarden. Its lords blazon their arms with a white sun-and-chevron upon a field of orange, and the semi-canonical Citadel records give the family's words as "Our Sun Shines Bright." The line is reckoned among the older houses of the Mander, with Ser Alyn Ashford riding in the lists during the reign of Good King Jaehaerys I Targaryen.
The Ashfords are best remembered for the tourney they held at Ashford Meadow in 209 AC, called in honour of the lord's thirteen-year-old daughter. Her brothers Ser Androw and Ser Robert stood among her original five champions, but the meadow's fame is owed not to the lists but to the trial of seven that broke out when Ser Duncan the Tall struck Prince Aerion Targaryen for abusing a puppeteer. It was the first such trial in more than a century, and from it King Daeron II's heir, Prince Baelor Breakspear, took the death blow that his own brother Maekar dealt him in the press. A generation and a half later, in the early days of Robert's Rebellion, Mace Tyrell's host broke Robert Baratheon at the Battle of Ashford before the great bear of the Stormlands could come to grips with the Reach. At the opening of A Game of Thrones the house keeps its seat and its sun-and-chevron, though no Ashford has yet stepped onto the page.