Start of town’s industrial revolution

In the days before the multiple industrial estates in our towns across the country, industry would be dotted around with a consideration for transport links, depending on the type of industry the company was providing.

It wasn’t until the 1960s that industrial estates really took off, thus encompassing individual industries in one place.

Prior to this and in Ashford’s case, companies would purchase land on the outskirts of the town and develop the land according to their type of business.

One such business was Batchelors Foods, famous for their soups, ready meals and production of vegetables such as peas. The brand, equally renowned for their Cup-a-Soup range, built their new factory in Kennington Road and opened for business in 1957.

For the first few years Batchelors dominated the site but were joined by one-time predecessors to Givaudan, namely Proprietary Perfumes, who developed the neighbouring land for production and administration, opening for business by 1963.

In those early years, Batchelors operated with a large part of their distribution utilising the rail network. In fact, former staff of a certain age will recall the business having its very own sidings. The idea of utilising the rail network was soon abandoned in favour of road transport. Some may argue that stopping using the rail sidings was a bad decision, with others saying that with the amount of road congestion today, companies with such a facility should consider recommissioning the sidings, which are still evident today at the corner of the staff car park.

Today the Batchelors name is owned by Premier Foods and the business still goes from strength to strength, with large scale production still evident from the Ashford site.

This week’s Remember When looks at a trio of pictures illustrating the early existence of Batchelors from the Kennington Road site.

■ Do you have 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

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‘Some may argue that stopping using the rail sidings was a bad decision’

The new Batchelors Factory in Kennington Road, pictured in 1964, just seven years after opening

The Batchelors factory during construction in 1955. The business was developed on the outskirts of the town in the days before industrial estates were popular.