Ashford is a town in the Ashford district, in the county of Kent, England. It lies on the River Great Stour at the southern or scarp edge of the North Downs, about 61 miles (98 km) by road southeast of central London and 15 miles (24 km) northwest of Folkestone by road. At the 2021 census, it had a population of 83,213. The name comes from the Old English æscet, indicating a ford near a clump of ash trees. It has been a market town since the Middle Ages, and a regular market continues to be held.
St Mary's Parish Church has been a local landmark since the 13th century, and expanded in the 15th. Today, the church functions in a dual role as a centre for worship and entertainment.
The arrival of the railways from the mid-19th century onwards, created a significant source of employment contributing to the town's growth as a rail hub at the centre of five distinct railway lines. The high speed rail line (HS1) between London and the Channel Tunnel passes through Ashford's International Railway Station thus linking the town to Paris and other European destinations. The M20 motorway connects Ashford to the Channel Tunnel, the national motorway network (via the M25 Motorway) and to London (via the A20).
Ashford has been marked out for growth in several Government plans from the 1960s onwards. In the 1970s, the construction of a controversial four lane ring road together with the multi-storey Charter House building led to the destruction of significant parts of the old town although some areas were spared and preserved. Other changes in the last 40 years include the construction of the County Square shopping centre, the redevelopment of the Templer Barracks at Repton Park, the Finberry estate to the southeast, and the award-winning Ashford Designer Outlet.
History
Early developments
There has been evidence of human habitation around Ashford since the Iron Age, with a barrow dated to 1500 BC on what is now Barrow Hill. Two axes from the Lower Paleolithic period have been found near Ashford. During the construction of the Park Farm estate in the late 1990s, excavation produced tools from the Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic period dating back to the 7th millennium BC. A number of other Mesolithic tools were discovered during construction of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link through Ashford.
In Roman Britain, iron ore was mined in the Weald and transported to Ashford where two ironworks processed the ore into a workable metal. Archaeological studies have postulated the existence of a Roman settlement to the north of the current centre, roughly at the junction of Albert Road and Wall Road.
The present town originates from an original settlement established in 893 AD by inhabitants escaping a Danish Viking raid, who were granted land by a Saxon Lord for their resistance. The name comes from the Old English æscet, indicating a ford near a clump of ash trees. At the time of the Domesday Book of 1086 it was still known by its original Saxon name of Essetesford (or Eshetisford, Esselesford, Asshatisforde, Essheford). The manor was owned by Hugh de Montfort, Constable of England and companion of William the Conqueror, and had a church, two mills and a value of 150 shillings (£7.50) at the time. One of the earliest houses in the area still in existence is Lake House at Eastwell Park to the north of the town, which contains the grave of Richard Plantagenet.
Middle Ages
Ashford's importance as an agricultural and market town grew in the 13th century, and in 1243, King Henry III granted the town a charter to hold a market for livestock. The pottery industry expanded in the 13th and 14th centuries, with the main works based at what is now Potter's Corner, a few miles west of the town centre. Later evidence from examining waste suggests that production was on a large scale. The Kent Archaeological society have discovered sandy ware at this location dating from around 1125 – 1250.
Jack Cade, who led a rebellion against corrupt Royal officials in 1450, may have had links to Ashford. In William Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 2, Cade converses with "Dick, the Butcher from Ashford".
In the 16th and 17th centuries, Ashford became known for nonconformism. John Brown, a local resident, was executed for heresy in 1517, and may have inspired the later namesake of the song "John Brown's Body". Thomas Smythe acquired the manor of Ashford as dowry from Queen Elizabeth I in the mid-16th century, and is buried in the parish church.
John Wallis, the internationally recognised mathematician and one of Isaac Newton's main tutors was born in Ashford in 1616, but moved to Tenterden in 1625 to avoid the plague. He was a promising student, and subsequently graduated from Emmanuel College, Cambridge.
Modern developments
By the 1780s, local farmers had begun to hold informal market days, and advertised the town's ideal location between London, Chatham and the Kent Coast. The market was held in the High Street until 1856, when local farmers and businessmen relocated to Elwick Road and formed a market company that is the oldest surviving registered company in England and Wales. There is still a regular street market in the town, but the market company relocated outside Ashford town centre after part of the 19th-century site was demolished to make way for the Channel Tunnel Rail Link. It is still used by around 5,000 farmers.
Military
The Army first established a presence in Ashford in 1797 when it built a garrison on Barrow Hill, and storerooms along what is now Magazine Road. The military presence was scaled back during the 19th century, though the town was still considered strategically important in the event of an invasion. The Territorial Army established a presence in Ashford in 1910.
During World War I, Ashford's importance as a transport hub and its location between the continent and London made it a target for aerial bombing. A bomb, dropped from a Gotha bomber on 25 March 1917, intended for the railway works killed a young woman. She was the first of ninety-six casualties of the raid which included sixty-one killed in Folkestone by a single bomb. In the late 1920s an Ordnance Depot was established at Ashford; it remained in use until 1996. The town was a target in the Battle of Britain during World War II, including an attack on 15 September 1940. During the latter war ultimately 94 civilians were lost to enemy action in the Urban District.
The School of Service Intelligence was based at Templer Barracks to the west of town. Robert Runcie, later to become the Archbishop of Canterbury, was stationed at Ashford during the war while Prince Andrew attended a course here in 1982 while he was stationed in the Royal Navy. The barracks closed in 1997 to build the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, and the site was sold to developers in 2002, Repton Manor House, in the centre of the barracks, is a Grade II listed building and remains intact.
Ashford has been associated with the German town Bad Münstereifel since the 20th century. British forces occupied the town in 1919 under the command of Major J Goode, following the end of the war. Goode subsequently formed close friendships with some Bad Münstereifel residents. John Wiles, Major Goode's brother in law, later became mayor of New Romney in 1946, and subsequently arranged a visit to the Rhineland with Winston Churchill. Wiles arranged several other exchange visits between British and German families, when travel between the two countries was rare. He was declared an honorary citizen of Bad Münstereifel in 1961, which led to the two towns being formally twinned in 1964. Bad Münstereifel was twinned with the French town of Fougères, Brittany two years later, which led to a twinning with Ashford in 1984.
Industrial
During the early and mid-20th century, print and media became a key industry in Ashford. The Headley Brothers, a printing services company, was founded in 1881 and by the mid-1950s printed and exported over 2 million books. The business closed in 2017 and the factory was demolished two years later. The Letraset company set up an arts material factory in Ashford in the 1960s. The factory closed in 2013, following the decline of Letraset and the company's decision to relocate works abroad.
Redevelopments
Little is left of the old Ashford town centre, apart from a cluster of medieval half-timbered buildings in Middle Row and around the churchyard in the town centre. A number of old buildings were removed to make way for the controversial ring road around the centre, including four public houses. Further demolition was required to build Charter House, an eight-story office building for Charter Consolidated, that opened in 1975. Charter subsequently moved back to London in 1985. The building is now converted into flats, though progress stalled during the conversion owing to the discovery of asbestos. Charter compensated for the demolition by funding a restoration scheme on North Street, preserving several historic buildings. The borough council operated from a row of houses in Elwick Road, until the civic centre was opened by the Duchess of Kent on 8 December 1983.
To accommodate a growing population in the area, the Finberry estate began construction in 2013. It is a 168-hectare (420-acre) site to the southeast of the town centre, which opened various houses, workspaces and shops in a series of phases through the remainder of the decade. It is planned to cater for 1,180 homes. The development also includes plans for a pub and shops.
Recent developments
A large factor in Ashford's recent redevelopment has been Ashford Borough Council's 'Big 8' strategy. This centred on eight major projects designed to add cultural and economic value to the town. The first proposed was the Commercial Quarter near the station, which opened in 2018, and the second was a new junction 10A of the M20 motorway. The first of the housing projects to make progress was Chilmington Green, a 5,750-house development near Ashford's suburbs. A primary school is set to be built as part of the residential development, with planning permission granted in 2022.
The first of the Big 8 projects to be fully completed was a new campus for Ashford College, moving from Jemmett Road. The building works on the Elwick Road site cost £16 million, and was completed in 2017. A leisure complex, Elwick Place, opened in 2018 with a Picturehouse cinema. The Designer Outlet was redeveloped in a £90 million expansion project. An expansion of the Jasmin Vardimon Company is also planned.
The former railway works is being redeveloped into Ashford International Studios, a combined cinema studios, hotel and residential apartments. It is expected to open in 2025.
Governance
The motto of Ashford Borough Council is "With stronger faith", taken from To Lucasta, Going to the Warres, a poem by the 17th-century poet Richard Lovelace who came from the borough. The relevant verse is :
True, a new mistress now I chase,
The first foe in the field;
And with a stronger faith embrace
A sword, a horse, a shield.
The council's coat of arms uses gold to symbolise richness, three sprigs of ash tree representing former council areas, and a lion to commemorate nearby Tenterden as one of the Cinque Ports.
Geography
By road, Ashford is about 61 miles (98 km) southeast of central London, 13.0 miles (20.9 km) southeast of Maidstone, and 15.3 miles (24.6 km) northwest of Folkestone. The town lies at the intersection of two valleys in Kent – the south edge of the North Downs and the valley of the River Stour, at the confluence of the Great Stour and East Stour rivers. This made it an ideal place for a settlement. The Borough of Ashford lies on the eastern edge of the ancient forest of "Andredsweald" or "Anderida". This originally stretched as far west as Hampshire and formed the basis from which the Weald is formed.
The original town of Ashford, like many other settlements, has outgrown its original size and has combined with smaller villages in a conurbation. Clockwise these villages include Bockhanger, Kennington, Willesborough, Sevington, Singleton and Great Chart. In addition, housing estates have been built in the open spaces amongst Bybrook, Godinton, Kingsnorth, Park Farm and Stanhope.
In 1727, an underground fire was reported in nearby Hinxhill, while an earthquake struck the town on 1 June 1756. The 2007 Kent earthquake, which registered 4.3 on the Richter magnitude scale, was felt in Ashford, though its effects were greatest in Folkestone.
Climate
Ashford gets around 750 millimetres (30 in) of rain a year, though the town generally has less rainfall than areas closer to the North Downs. The area around the Stour, particularly south of the station, is prone to flooding, which means it has been generally uninhabited. Recent development has been possible by putting foundations on concrete stilts.
The nearest official Met Office station is located in Faversham, which is 12 miles (19 km) north of the town.
Demography
The 2011 census revealed that the borough of Ashford saw the largest population growth in Kent, with records showing a 14.6% rise to 118,000 inhabitants. Ashford has been targeted as a key area for population development since the 1960s. In 1959, the London County Council negotiated 5000 new homes to be built in Ashford as overspill from London, which created most of what is now South Ashford and Kennington. The Buchanan Report, published in 1967, identified Ashford as a major town for growth. In 2001, Ashford was identified as one of four key areas for expansion in South East England. Subsequently, the Ashford's Future Company was set up to support a mix of publicly and privately funded projects in the town.
According to the 2021 census, Ashford's ethnic composition is as follows: