Plenty of places to fill your car with fuel

In current times, and depending on where you live in Ashford, you may have something to gripe about if you drive a car.

Motorists of a certain age will recall the wide choice of individual garages and in particular fuel stations that existed in and around the town in previous eras – and the frustration today having to queue with the very few providers there now are.

With the number of vehicles on the road nowadays, Ashford has not got enough fuel stations to service the population and the passing trade.

For instance, many Kennington residents air their frustration over the long-standing absence of fuel at the garage in Church Road as this ever-growing suburb hasn’t got a service station.

The garage there may be able to repair and service your car, but what about the fuel to go in it?

Residents with cars have to suffer the regular queues at Sainsbury’s in Simone Weil Avenue.

In previous times the very convenient Crouch’s, Kennedy’s and Lees Filling Station all operated in Kennington.

If I had the money, I would open a proper service station in Kennington once more – it could end up being a huge success, especially if I made sure it was appropriately advertised.

Even the town centre had more fuel facilities to choose from in the last 50 years, and this week’s Remember When takes a look back at some of them in a trio of images from the 1960s and 1970s.

Do 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? Write to me, Steve Salter, Kentish Express Remember When, 34-36 North Street, Ashford TN24 8JR, email me at rememberwhen_ kmash@hotmail.co.uk or follow me on Twitter @ SteveKMAshford. You can also leave a telephone message for me with brief details by calling 01233 623232.