ASHFORD

Ashford is my home town. Once a busy little market town, in recent years it has been developed out of all recognition. On the whole, it's going to be very hard for me to say much in praise of the town that is nearest to my home as it is now. But in the past, it was an important place, with much social history.

Ashford was, for a short time, the home of Jack Cade. Don't know who he is? 

Jack Cade (born, Ireland—died July 12, 1450, Heathfield, Sussex, Eng.) was the leader of a major rebellion (1450) against the government of King Henry VI of England; although the uprising was suppressed, it contributed to the breakdown of royal authority that led to the Wars of the Roses (1455–85) between the houses of York and Lancaster.

Cade was living in Sussex when, in 1449, he was accused of murdering a woman. He fled to France but returned in 1450 and settled in Kent, posing as a physician named John Aylmer. In June 1450 Jack Cade emerged as leader of a Kentish rebellion of small property holders victimized by high taxes and prices. By assuming the name John Mortimer, he identified himself with the family of Henry VI’s rival, Richard, duke of York, who was living in virtual exile in Ireland. Cade issued a manifesto demanding the removal of several of the King’s chief ministers and the recall of Richard. His forces defeated a royal army at Sevenoaks, Kent, on June 18, and on July 3 he entered London, where he executed the hated lord treasurer, James Fiennes, Lord Saye and Sele. Nevertheless, Cade’s lawlessness quickly alienated the Londoners, who drove the insurgents from the city on July 5–6. The government persuaded most of the rebels to disperse by offering them a pardon, but Cade continued his resistance. Wounded and captured near Lewes, Sussex, on July 12, he died while being transported to London.

The town lies within a large bend of the Great Stour, and appears to have developed around  ford or river-crossing, as the name stems from 'a ford by an ash-tree'

When I was a kid, we looked forward to going into Ashford once a month in the sheep lorry, when Dad went to the livestock market.  The market then was at the bottom of Bank street, and there used to be pens where the cattle could be held and loaded directly onto trains. This made the town a very busy place.

Then, as a teenager, it was a wonderland of dance halls (the Corn Exchange), cinemas (the Odeon and the Cinema), coffee bars (Tiffany's on East Hill was our one of choice - even if we did tell our parents we went to the BonBon!), and boys with big motorcycles!

Then, in the mid-70s came the Inner Ring Road, and the town died....................

This one-way system has much the same effect as a city wall in places like York, Chester and Canterbury. Everything within the centre was cut off from the outside world, and there was no room within those bounds for further development.

As the population grew, residential development happened outside the 'wall', businesses followed and eventually that meant the supermarkets moved to where the people lived and worked. The market, too, moved to the outskirts, and that sounded the beginning of the long slow decline.

Since then, subsequent Town Councils have piled bad decision upon bad decision....................

However, the central part of the town, the oldest part, is quite picturesque. Here you can see the parish church of St. Mary, as seen from the Lower High Street, looking towards Middle Row.

Middle Row was originally the butchers' shambles, which fronted onto where the original market was held.

Anyway, let's start with Ashford Borough Councils attempt to brighten up the town centre. They invited local artists to paint on the many blank walls, and there is a trail map you can download to follow. I've not done it yet - these are just one or two I spotted as I strolled round

This one points towards the railway station, where you can at least catch an HS1 Javelin to London, even if the Eurostars no longer stop here.

Sad to see the Odeon all boarded up and down at heel. It was never one of Odeon's more spectacular buildings, but it did still have some of its' Art Deco points inside. It struggled on as a bingo hall for a while, but now is rapidly falling into disrepair.

These empty picture frames are in Elwick Place, outside the new cinema. The cinema itself, looks like it is scaffolding covered with hessian sacking.

Whether this is art, depends on your point of view. It's called 'Loose Ends 206' by Andy Welland. It's on a wall facing the Bright City Church, so it's relevant I guess.

The disused windows of the Coachworks entertainment venue, giving a bright outlook to the car park.  The site was formerly that of the coachbuilding firm Croford Carriages, who counted Harrods and the Royal Household amongst their customers. 

Pretty planters brightening up an otherwise quite dreary railway station frontage

This is called 'The Flume' - unimpressive and ignored by most people

The fountain in the Lower High Street, is centred around an old locomotive wheel, displaying pride in Ashford's railway heritage. The railway works were once the largest employer in the area. Can't remember when I last saw it playing. It's lovely when it's working and safe for children (and Dogs) to paddle and play in.

Mr. Doodle has designed a wall elsewhere in the town, but this is he taking time out for a well-earned beer

This is the painting on the rear wall of the Odeon, overlooking the car park. More than one bodice-ripper was watched when it was a cinema.....

This one shows Ashford Windmill, which is just off Hythe Road in Willesborough, and the Hubert Fountain in Victoria Park

One of the left-over 'snow dogs' from a previous art trail, has taken up residence in the Vicarage Lane car park.

The bandstand in the centre of town. Seldom used......................

The World War I tank. Ashford was among 265 UK towns to be awarded a tank after WWI. This was due to the amount of war bonds that had been purchased. Today, it is one of seven that remain in the world and the only one still on public display. It is also Grade II listed and a registered war memorial.

When I was young, it had been fitted with an electricity substation inside. This saved it. During World War II, these gifted tanks were recalled by the Government to be melted down for the war effort. The Ashford tank was left in place because it was the substation for the town, including the nearby barracks. Thankfully, it has now been restored, become a listed monument, and had a protective roof put over it. 

The tank is a 'female' variant, weighing over 26 tons. It could only move at 7 mph.

One of the few banks that is still in Bank Street, and in its' original building. Wonder how many people miss the lovely view of the parish church through it's archway?

The Whitfeld Hall and Institute, founded in 1873 to the memory of Mr. Henry Whitfeld, and used for public meetings.

I can't remember what this building used to be, but each window has a different head above it, and my gory older brother used to say they were the heads of all the criminals that were executed on that spot.

Not so long ago, County Square shopping mall was almost doubled in size as part of a regeneration move, and the biggest space was taken by the Debenhams department store. Now Debenhams are no more, and the building just stands there empty. 

This whole area of roads is a 'shared space' where no one form or traffic, be it wheeled or pedestrian, has a right of way. That in Ashford is particularly nasty. The ground is covered with almost identically coloured bricks, (except at one end where there is a ludicrously haphazard colour scheme), that makes it difficult to understand where you're supposed to drive or walk. Even where there are pedestrian crossings, these are so poorly marked that it must give visually impaired pedestrians nightmares. This system is another reason for the lack of footfall in this area

The flower tubs in Elwick Place proudly bear the civic arms. The three ash sprigs represent three early civic areas, - East Ashford Rural, West Ashford Rural and Ashford Urban. There is  wavy line representing the rivers, and a single lion ship representing the Cinque Ports of the area.

Strangely, I rather like this bridge. It leads from Elwick Place, across the railway to Victoria Way, which in turn gives access via a little bridge over the River Stour to Victoria Park.

Victoria Park was purchased by Ashford Urban District Council in 1898 from the Jemmett Family, who owned a bank in the town.

The Hubert Fountain in Victoria Park was commissioned for the International Exhibition of 1862, the successor to the 1851 Great Exhibition.

The visitors to the exhibition in 1862 would have also been entertained and delighted by the fountain’s original water operated organ, which contained sixty-four whistle pipes set at different pitches. This no longer exists

After the exhibition, the fountain was purchased by John Sawbridge Erle-Drax, along with two cast-iron stags, to sit among the gardens of his family home, Olantigh Towers in Wye. Unfortunately Olantigh Towers burned down in 1903. It was at this point that the Earl-Drax family began selling the house’s contents and assets, and the fountain became available. 

After the fire of 1903, the Chairman of the Urban District Council, Mr George Harper, made a request of the council to purchase the fountain and place it in the recently completed Victoria Park. However, the Council were dissuaded by the purchase, transportation and installation costs, and refused. 

Eventually, in 1911 George Harper decided to make an anonymous offer to purchase the fountain and the two accompanying stags. This was under the condition that it be turned on every year on July 23rd, his birthday. 

The Council finally agreed, and on the 24th July, one day after his 71st birthday, it was presented to the park by Mr Harper’s niece, Miss Miles.  Mr Harper was unfortunately too ill to attend the unveiling, and tragically some three weeks later, committed suicide. 

The fountain is listed Grade II*.

The fountain has undergone two major restorations, and during this time, the two stags disappeared. The Council set about trying to find them. They failed, but managed to find other stags which now adorn the park.

This gate marks the site of the former Ashford Livestock Market

This statue commemorates Princess Marie of Edinburgh, the grand-daughter of Queen Victoria. She was born in 1875 at Eastwell Manor and went on to marry King Ferdinand, the last king of Romania, where she died in 1938. The statue was presented in 2018 on behalf of the Romanian Government.

Strangely pleasing juxtaposition of large Victorian villas and ultra-modern street lamps in Elwick Road

The War Memorial Gardens are a place of peace and quiet. The memorial itself is relatively plain, but is of great personal interest to me, as amongst the names inscribed on it are those of one ancestor of my step-father, and two members of my maternal grandmother's family

The parish church of St. Mary the Virgin. Despite the big board outside saying church open - visitors welcome, all the doors were locked. I shall return at a later date to look around inside.

Lovely autumn tree in the churchyard. 

Apparently, this is the Strawberry Tree (Arbutus Unedo). I've never seen it before, and this example looks as though it's very old. It sits in the corner of the churchyard. It seems the fruits are edible, if a little grainy, and they take so long to ripen, the tree starts flowering again before they're ready.

And so to the interior of St. Mary's. I took a lot of pictures today, so I'm going to load them all in, and then work through them methodically filling in the information I have in my notes. I may be some time :D

Beautiful Royal Coat of Arms hatchment. Too high up to read properly, but I think it's CharlesI

Very old Parish chest

View down the nave to the Sanctuary

ornate ceiling in the nave

The west door and window

One view of the elaborately carved pulpit.

By contrast, a simpler font

The other side of the pulpit, showing the stone stairs

The slab covering the vault of Lord Viscount Strangford. (Smythe family)

Two memorial tablets to members of the Jemmett family, who were killed in action during 'the First Small Disagreement' (sorry John, couldn't help borrowing your catchphrase!)

There are three magnificent memorials to the Smythe family in St Mary's church, Ashford.

Sir Richard Smythe (1563-1628), 5th son of Thomas, is shown on his own dressed in armour. Like his father he was also a customs officer. He owned and substantially rebuilt Leeds Castle nearby. He married Elizabeth Scott (1564-1584) She was widow of John Knatchbull.
He then married Jane White (d. 1607) in about 1585, she was about 16 at the time. He finally married Mary Boyle.
He had a son and 4 daughters in total, by the 3 wives.

Thomas Smythe (1522-1591) was from Wiltshire. Son of a substantial Yeoman and Clothier, John Smythe (d.1538).
He was a business man in London, and became Queen Elizabeth's customs officer. He became known as "Customer Smythe" and became very rich. He became Lord of the Manor of Ashford, and the Queen bestowed on him the manor of Westenhanger.
He married Alice Judde in about 1555 and they had 13 children (one son died as infant), including Richard and John, whose monuments are located nearby in the church.
His son Thomas was first governor of the East India Company. Towards the end of his life he fell under Queen Elizabeth's displeasure as he was unable to meet her Majesty's demands for larger and larger payments. Through constant vigilance the Government tried to keep track of Smythe’s activities and hold his profit within reasonable bounds; nevertheless his total profit for the period when he was farmer of the customs has been estimated at £48,000.
His epitaph described him as a patron of literature, and his name occurs in the dedication of Richard Robinson’s translation of John Leland’s book on King Arthur.

Sir John Smythe (1557-1609), heir to Thomas, is shown kneeling with his wife Elizabeth Fineaux (married 1576) they had 8 children, of which only 3 survived, viz. Elizabeth, Thomas and Catherine. He held various posts such as a J.P. for Kent from 1584, and sheriff in 1600.
His heir, who was to become Viscount Strangford, was only nine years old when his father died.

Memorial tablet to the parents of Sir John Furley, who founded the St. John's Ambulance Service.

                                                

the beautiful east window.

Beautiful reredos behind the main altar.

Mosaic flooring in the Sanctuary.

the families who have been associated with the church over the centuries and who are commemorated by monuments within, include the Fogges and the Smythes. The former is supposed to have wanted to create a college of priests here, but by the late fifteenth century such foundations were going out of fashion.

In the 15th century, between about 1470 and 1490, the church was extensively renovated and partially rebuilt by Sir John Fogge, treasurer to Edward IV, who was Lord of the Manor of Repton, about one mile from the church.

This is his tomb. The plaque below gives more information about him.

Most of the brasses in the church have vanished, or are damaged. This one to the Countess of Atholl is more or less complete. Took me awhile to work out which Countess of Atholl, but it turned out to be Elizabeth.

Elizabeth de Ferrers, Countess of Atholl
Also Known As:	"Elizabeth /de FERRES/", "Elizabeth /Ferrers/"
Birthdate:	circa 1336
Birthplace:	Groby, Leichestershire, England, United Kingdom
Death:	October 22, 1375 (34-43) Ashford, Kent, England, United Kingdom

The church sits in a square, with  pretty brick walkway around all sides, lined with old buildings. This is now the Ashford Town Museum, but was formerly the old grammar school, and is an Historic Building of Kent.

It was erected by Sir Norton Knatchbull, MP, after whom the current boys' grammar school is named, in 1630. The school remained on this site until 1870, and the interior is pretty much preserved as it was.

If you walk from the main door of the church towards the High Street, you will pass through Middle Row. These old buildings were originally the Butcher's Shambles, and very fine they are too.

This one, on the corner of Middle Row and the High Street, I remember as being a coffee bar called the 'Mocha Bar', where you sat on high stools and had lime-flavoured milk shakes! It is No.1 Middle Row, and was originally the Market House, where commercial activity was controlled, and tolls were paid.

The oldest part of the building dates from the late 14th. century, and was once used as a jail. Here they imprisoned a Lollard, John Brown, for insulting a priest by sitting on his robe on a barge trip. 

*Lollards were followers of a Christian reform group led by John Wycliffe, who opposed the bureaucracy and excessive wealth of the Catholic Church.

The remarkable pargetting was added in the 17th. century

At the bottom of the Lower High Street, stands the Twinning Stone. Ashford is 'twinned' with Bad Munstereifel, an historic spa town, in Germany.

The Ashlon sculpture stands outside International House, by the domestic railway station. I rather like its depiction of ash leaves and water.

If you take a gentle stroll along the river, past the Sports Centre and the Civic Centre, you will find a very pleasant park alongside it. 

Yes, it's called the Civic Park - as good a name as any.

This is Ashford's beacon. The crown at the top, surrounding the flame holder, depicts train wheels, representing the town's huge railway building tradition.

The base is engraved with Ashford's motto 'With Stronger Faith'. This is taken from Richard Lovelace's poem To Locasta, Going to the Warres'. If you want to know more about Lovelace, I've already covered him in the chapter on Bethersden, where he was born, and lived.

Carry on along the river, and the path comes out on East Hill, right by what is left of Pledge's Flour Mill. Now partly demolished following a fire, it was a water and steam driven flour mill built on the site of an earlier one. After Rank Hovis McDougall moved out of Ashford, the remaining building became a night club for a while.

Despite having been granted planning permission to turn it into flats, it has been left to decay and is now derelict. Heartbreaking to see the once-proud mill in such a state.

The riverside walk continues on the other side of Mace Lane, where this seat has been erected, along with a stone monument, commemmorating two regious martyrs, executed in 1557 for their beliefs

'Bloody Mary' - the catholic Queen Mary I, carried out a steady stream of extermination of Anglicans. She signed the death warrants of 10 men locally. Six were burnt at the stake at Martyrs Field in Wincheap, just outside the Canterbury City Walls, on 15th. January 1557, two more were burnt at Wye, just outside the church on the next day, and two more, Nicholas Final and Matthew Bradbridge, the following day here in Ashford.

Just on the outskirts of the town centre, is the old town churchyard. It's very little used now, because there's a bigger, more modern one just up the road. However, it is multi-denominational, and somewhere in there are some important graves. I need to explore more (when it's not raining). Meanwhile, the attractive Victorian lodge is now a residence.

This is the wall of a house in Park Street. During the English civil war this part of Kent was largely in the hands of the Puritans and the church suffered greatly from their attention. When it comes to the parish church of St. Mary, the fine collection of coloured glass was smashed, the altar pieces burned and monuments destroyed. The window traceries were damaged and have been re-assembled into a wall around a house in Park Street.

North Street is a pretty pedestrianised street lying just off the centre of the High Street. It's an electric mix of Georgian and Tudor.

A lot of the older buildings at the end of North Street nearest the town centre, were rebuilt after World War II, and the new buildings have, to an extent, been renumbered. This means I haven't been able to determine which was No. 4 pre-war. 

But apparently Frederick Forsyth, best known for writing thrillers, such as The Day of the Jackal and The Odessa File, grew up there. His father had a furriers on the first floor, and his mother had a dress shop below. He went on to become the youngest pilot in the R.A.F., later joining Reuters as a war correspondent.

Below is Hopewell House. The former house of Francis Epes, who founded a town in Virginia in 1635, America, and named both it and his house after the ship he sailed to America on.

The elegant Masonic Temple. This is the birthplace of Sir John Furley, who founded the St. John’s Ambulance Service in 1877.

The small Tudor house below, is currently an Indian restaurant - in fact, I can't remember when it wasn't, despite changing hands several times.

So..... the High Street. This is the George Hotel. This is Ashford's oldest still serving pub, first referenced in a will of 1533, began as a coach staging post.

High above the little sweet shop-cum-tobacconist-cum-newsagents is this little plaque which celebrates Henry Harrison, who apparently invented the water pump!

Dr. John Wallis, mathematician, who is partially responsible for the development of infinitesimal calculus (bane of my school days!) was born in College Court in 1616. His father was the vicar of St. Mary’s. The buildings here have long since been demolished, but they stood by the entrance to Vicarage Lane Car Park. College Court now, is modern bungalows for elderly residents.He went on to serve as Chief Cryptographer for parliament and the Royal Court from 1643 to 1689, and is credited with introducing the symbol for infinity.

And finally...............I love this sign. 'Vicarage Lane Halt' sounds so much better than 'car park'. The design of the sign harks back to the old railway station signs, and is a tribute to Ashford's railway history, which started when the railway arrived in Ashford in 1842. Gradually, Ashford became the centre of five railway lines.

In 1847, South Eastern Railway built  huge railway works, complete with its' own 'Newtown' for its workers. The railway works lasted until 1962.

In 1996, Ashford station was renamed 'Ashford International', with the advent of the Eurostar service to Paris. Sadly, it no longer stops there.

Footnotes: Stephen Hills, a noted architect who was born in Ashford in 1771, emigrated to America, and designed the original Pennsylvania State Capitol Building in Harrisburg, which burned to the ground on February 2, 1897.

Long since gone, is the Royal Oak Hotel, which once stood at the bottom of the High Street, which closed in 1912 and was demolished in the early 70s to make way for the Inner Ring Road. It was here that Annie Oakley stayed whilst touring England, and gave shooting displays to the public.

And this is where we used to get our bikes and stuff from......................

T