Ashford, United Kingdom

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.

The soup manufacturer Batchelors became a significant employer in Ashford when they opened a £2.5m factory in Willesborough, east of the town centre, in 1957. A substantial proportion of Batchelors staff moved from their main production unit in Sheffield to Ashford. The factory is now owned by Premier Foods. Proprietary Perfumes Ltd (PPL), a division of Unilever opened a fragrance and flavour factory and research laboratory next door to the Batchelors factory in 1962. It was subsequently renamed as Quest International and purchased by Givaudan in 2007.

The wholesale frozen food firm Brake Brothers was established in 1957. Initially based at nearby Lenham, it later moved to Ashford and expanded. The current European headquarters are in Eureka Park to the north of the town.

In 2017, the Kent-based Curious Brewing constructed a factory on a brownfield site adjacent to Ashford International station in 2017 after a £1.7m crowdfunded cash investment. It opened in May 2019. The train operating company Southeastern partnered with Curious, and advertise the brewery around Ashford International station.

Ashford now has the oldest surviving St John Ambulance unit. John Furley, founder of the association, was born in Ashford. He established the British Red Cross Society in 1868, gaining support from the Duke of Edinburgh via a royal admiral living at Eastwell Park, close to the town.

The Grosvenor Sanatorium opened in 1915 to help patients with tuberculosis, and could cater for 110 male patients, and 78 female. The philosopher Simone Weil lived in Ashford after escaping from France during World War II. She felt guilty about leaving French people behind in suffering and did not eat well. She subsequently contracted tuberculosis and was moved to the sanatorium where she died in 1943. A section of the old Ashford Bypass is now named Simone Weil Avenue, while the sanatorium subsequently became the Ashford Police Training Centre.

Ashford Hospital opened to the west of town on 3 August 1928, replacing a smaller 19th century building in town. It has more recently been used as a health centre and retirement home but plans to redevelop it into a local health unit were cancelled in 2012. The main building was threatened with demolition, but saved in 2015, with plans to turn it into accommodation.

Ashford has twelve primary schools two grammar schools, three secondary schools and a college. The Norton Knatchbull School was founded in Ashford around 1630 as a free grammar school by its namesake, Sir Norton Knatchbull. The school continued to be led and funded by Knatchbull's family due to a stipulation in his will in 1636. It was known simply as Ashford Grammar School until 1980. The original school was based next to the church in the town centre, but has moved several times. By the 20th century it had moved to its present location on Hythe Road. The current school premises were built in the late 1990s. The corresponding grammar school for girls is Highworth Grammar School for Girls to the west of town. It opened as the County School for Girls in 1908, before moving to its current premises on Maidstone Road in 1928. There is also a private independent school, Ashford School on East Hill, which was founded in 1898. For much of its history, it has only allowed girls, though boys started to be admitted in 2006.