No sat nav will ever find Wolseley Road

With the many developments that have taken place in Ashford over the years, we often forget some of the elements of the town that once stood for generations, but sadly got in the way of progress.

It may be a local landmark such as business premises, row of houses, streets and places where we grew up and went to school, that are now just a distant memory.

Many of us were probably born in the old Willesborough Hospital or remember where their old house once stood and is no more.

These are forgotten elements of every town throughout Britain which have gone forever and pictures and memories are the only source of reminders.

One such Ashford street that disappeared, firstly severed for the Ringway in the early 1970s and then obliterated to make way for the Park Mall Shopping Centre, was Wolseley Road.

The street ran parallel with Edinburgh Road (also lost in its original format) and Park Road (another long-lost street, disappeared in the name of progress). The streets not only contained business premises, but also residential properties too. These were compulsorily purchased, with occupiers and owners having to find alternative properties to live in.

There are still traces of the original streets beyond the Ringway where Hollington Place replaces the original Edinburgh Road (as a cul-desac) and Wolseley Place replaces the original northern section of Wolseley Road from Albert Road.

Some notable features of the missing Wolseley Road include The Park Hotel, Knowles Furniture Depository and Swoffers Banana Warehouse, latterly Seatyres. The one-time Tunbridge Wells Equitable Friendly Society also had offices there prior to redevelopment.

Incidentally, TWEFS, as they were also known, had previously been in North Street near to the junction with Somerset Road, but that was compulsory purchased too.

This week, we take a look back at Wolseley Road during the last few years of its existence, before finally being buried beneath Park Mall in 1985.

What are your memories of Wolseley Road? Please get in touch with them in the usual way.

And if you have any photographs or slides that you would be willing to lend me, to enable them to be scanned and featured in the Kentish Express then please get in touch by writing to me: Steve Salter, Kentish Express Remember When, 34-36 North Street, Ashford, TN24 8JR, emailing me at rememberwhen_kmash@ hotmail.co.uk or following me on Twitter @SteveKMAshford.

Or you can also leave a telephone message for me with brief details by calling 01233 623232.

Wolseley Road, Ashford in 1974, and severance of the street had already happened in this view which also shows the former Ashford Advertiser newspaper offices on the immediate left and the former premises of Seatyres, also on the left. The Park Hotel...

The Park Hotel, Wolseley Road in 1971. The Park Hotel joined list of hostelries lost during the redevelopments of the 1970s and was sacrificed for the Ringway. This area was cleared rather harshly and with demolition techniques differing back in the...