Kentish Express Ashford & District
The county’s force
- in 1940, after 83 years at its original home.
During the post war years the complex was enlarged by the building of a motor workshop and a driving school. In 1946 a Traffic Division was formed and, later, a new Traffic Division Office was built
By the 1960s the driving school was providing courses for officers from other forces in the south east and a large modern hostel block was built.
The workshops, driving school, hostel and Traffic Division HQ were later demolished to make way for a supermarket which is now Morrisons.
The top floor of the main building originally housed the combined registry and information room, which was much smaller than today’s highly sophisticated communications centre which lies in the area behind.
Kent County Constabulary was the last British force to keep the word “county” in its official title. It changed its name to Kent Police in 2002.
The 150th anniversary of the county force was marked with a service in Canterbury Cathedral on January 14, 2007, led by the Archbishop of Canterbury. It remembered 65 officers who had died in service and during wartime air raids.
The Sutton Road HQ also provided a home for the Kent Police Museum before it was moved to Chatham Historic Dockyard in 1994, then to Faversham Police Station in 2016.
Kent Police College is also located at Maidstone, and provides initial training for new recruits. This venue will stay in nearby Coverdale Avenue.