Fond memories of town’s old library

Over the years, the town of Ashford has seen many an old or familiar building come and go and with some of these, long before their time.

It may have been a historic gem full of features and finery of it could have been a ‘featureless’ building built in the last 70 years that has served its purpose well and seen many use it at the centre of the community and as a community facility.

There have been scores of much-loved buildings disappear in the name of progress such as schools, public houses and individual dwellings which have all either been removed for redevelopment or indeed renewed when authorities have felt the need.

One such unlikely candidate but nevertheless much missed and loved by many, including myself, was the former Ashford Library in Church Road, Ashford.

Built in 1966, it replaced the smaller purposeful library located in a timber building along Station Road.

In 2010, the two storey building complete with gallery, railway room and what had originally been a lecture theatre, was demolished after the county council had decided to build one of their flagship Gateway buildings on the site, which was originally designed to encompass library, registrar, adult education and both county council and local council services.

The 1966 building faithfully served the town for generations and had character.

Before the reorganisations of modernity, it may have been dated inside and not contained a lift to the upper floor but it for many years boasted one of the best stocked libraries in the county and also had a fantastic railway and local studies collection, much of which ended up centrally at the Kent History and Library Centre, when many found it more useful at the library itself for the town it refers to.

Ashford is not alone and although library staff still strive to help each and every one of us, the traditional library service that we all knew and loved is just a distant memory. It’s like anything nowadays, nothing stays the same forever. In my opinion, it wasn’t broken, so leave well alone.

This weeks trio of images illustrate the interior of the 1966 built Ashford Library in its final days of existence and before the bulldozers moved in.

■ Have you got any photographs or slides of Old Ashford that you would be willing to loan me, to enable them to be scanned for possible feature in the Kentish Express?

Please don’t delay, get in touch!

Write to me: Steve Salter, Kentish Express Remember When, Unit 4, Park Mall Shopping Centre, Ashford, Kent. TN24 8RY,

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.