Frederick Ashton retirement in 1963, in the company known successively as the Vic-Wells Ballet, the Sadler's Wells Ballet and the Royal Ballet. He succeeded de Valois as director of the company, serving until his own retirement in 1970. Ashton is widely credited with the creation of a specifically English genre of ballet. Among his best-known works are "Façade" (1931), "Symphonic Variations" (1946), "Cinderella" (1948), "La fille mal gardée" (1960), "Monotones" I and II (1965), "Enigma Variations" (1968) and the feature film ballet "The Tales of Beatrix Potter" (1970). Ashton was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, the fourth of the five children of George
Thomas de Ashton (alchemist) Thomas de Ashton (alchemist) Sir Thomas de Ashton or Assheton (fl. 1446), was an English alchemist. Ashton was born in 1403, the son and heir of Sir John de Ashton, of Ashton-under-Lyne, who died in 1428. His half-brother Ralph de Ashton seems to have inherited the main family home, Ashton Hall. From roughly this date, differences appear in the coat of arms, motto and spelling of the two families, indicating that Sir Thomas may have distanced himself from his unpopular half-brother. Permission was granted by Henry VI to Sir Thomas to transmute the precious metals, and on 7 April 1446