Imagine seeing your home demolished

It doesn’t happen to many of us in our lifetime and is practically unheard of nowadays – but to see your street, your house and your home demolished must conjure up one of the worst feelings ever. It may be a necessity after a disaster such as a fire or storm, but then there is the occasion that your home is blighted due to a project such as a new road – as was the case in Ashford during the 1970s.

Up and down the country, Compulsory Purchase laws have been used when progress has determined the fate of streets, houses, business premises etc.

In the past 50 years, the planning law has been used several times in Ashford and in the 1970s, town and county officials used it on our market town, many say too much.

Those that lived in the town were often affected, especially if your home was in the line of the Ringway that encircles the town today.

Local authorities, including Ashford, are today reluctant to use Compulsory Purchase. There are incidences where one would wish that the law is resurrected and applied – take the Prince Albert/Prince of Orange for instance in New Street where officials sat tight concerning the plight of a listed building and a key part of the town’s rich history and to a degree ‘civic pride’ should have been a due consideration.

This week, Remember When returns to the splendid haul of colour images kindly donated by Edwin Bartlett of Ashford, showing the considerable inconvenience faced by Ashfordians, particularly those living in the town’s heart during the early 1970s.

If you snapped the town on film or transparency during the 1960s and turbulent 1970s and are willing to share your images with readers, I would love to hear from you.

Do you have any photographs or slides that you would be willing to lend me, to be scanned and featured in the 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 phone message for me with brief details by calling 01233 623232.