Arterial road into town much changed

During research following some donations and acquisitions over the last month, it is quite apparent that as well as the town centre, there has been a substantial change for the through routes into the town over the last 50 years too.

And although my interest and research spans 34 years this year, new material featuring such change still surprises and interests me.

In many respects it’s only to be expected that things will alter and places and features will come and go, but in Ashford it appears to be going on everywhere.

It’s a struggle for residents to try to keep up with the transformation of their town. It’s like taking a regular route to work and encountering roadworks every 50 yards for a whole year– you would get fed up with it.

Like any inconvenience or mass alteration, you just had to put up with it. There were many objectors to their town and their homes being pulled apart.

I received a letter the other week from a family who left Ashford for Australia in the early 1960s and came back for the first time since then in January.

Needless to say, they failed to recognise the place and were hugely disappointed to find many features of their youth obliterated.

This week, Remember When takes a look at Beaver Road in 1972, just the other side of the railway and one of the original through routes and arterial roads into town.

The trio of images depict a rare look back at some of the alterations that happened there some 45 years ago.

Many thanks go to Edwin Bartlett of Ashford for donating these splendid images.

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.

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