Ashford Green Corridor Interpretative
Panels
The Kentish Stour Countryside Project has installed 12
interpretative panels in the Ashford Green Corridor. The Green Corridor is
made up of parks, recreation grounds and other green spaces alongside the
rivers that flow through Ashford. Wildlife habitats alongside the rivers
in the town are often better than rural locations where riverside
vegetation has been lost in favour of agricultural crops. Funding for the
panels was made available by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Rail Link
Countryside Initiative.
The panels interpret the history and wildlife of the
area and some of the information has come from local people. Here are 12
questions, all about locations just a short walk from the centre of
Ashford, can you answer them?. Answers at the bottom of the article.
1. Where is the water mill site that is recorded as
having a mill in the Domesday book of 1086?
2. Why is one part of Ashford called Gas House Fields?
3. Where are there old pollarded willows probably dating
from when the land was agricultural?
4. Where is there a Scheduled Ancient Monument?
5. What is the name of Ashford's secret river?
6. Where was the largest open air 'lido' (swimming pool)
in the country, at the time, located?
7. Where does Buxford get its name from?
8. Where is the location that a number of people were
burnt for their religious beliefs in the 16th century?
9. Where is the Hubert Fountain and where did it come
from?
10. Where did the materials come from to build Boys
Hall?
11. Where are cricket bat willows located?
12. Where is Anthony Gormley's (creator of Angel of the
North) sculpture?
Answers
1. Pledges Mill on Mace Lane, now a nightclub.
2. South Eastern Railway Company gas works shown on 19th
century maps.
3. Civic Centre North Park, where they create good
habitats for wildlife.
4. Boy's Hall Moat, now a good site for grass snakes.
5. The Aylesford Stream, that flows through
Willesborough.
6. Bowen's Field, next to Victoria Park.
7. Deer (bucks) crossing the river (ford).
8. Queen Mother's Park.
9. Victoria Park, previously at Olantigh House and the
Second Great International Exhibition in London in the 1850's.
10. From the old Boy's Hall now a scheduled Ancient
Monument on the other side of the Rail Link.
11. Little Burton next to Ashford Rugby Club.
12. The sculpture of a heron at Singleton Lake.
If you would like to get involved or for
more information please contact us.
