New chapter in leisure centre’s history

1975 - The Stour Centre’ s seating/eating area and viewing gallery shortly after the centre opened

It was in 1975 that the town of Ashford had its first purposebuilt leisure centre to the joy of locals who had long hoped for such a venue.

The town previously contended with a perfectly purposeful open air swimming pool as a ‘leisure’ facility but notably nothing else until the Stour Centre came along.

The much utilised leisure centre in Tannery Lane, originally owned by Ashford

Borough Council, boasted separate adult and child swimming facilities, sports halls, indoor bowling, squash courts and a bar called the Leather Bottle to name but a few. 1975 - The Stour Centre’s long-lost Leather Bottle Bar which was still operational in the 1990s

It was the envy of many towns and areas in the locality.

But come the 1990s, the centre was becoming swiftly outdated and in much need of updating and upgrading to the standards of the time. In the mid-2000s, a multi million pound project saw the centre partially rebuilt and refurbished.

It was originally planned to refurbish the whole centre but unprecedented delays and overheads saw part of the 1970s centre left untouched since it was built.

Almost 20 years later, the centre’s current owners have taken advantage of the pandemic restrictions, which necessitate such facilities to close, to instigate the planned £6.5m refurbishment which will see the centre reopen in the summer, subject to the pandemic.

The revamp will see the longstanding facility brought up to date during the restrictions and hopefully see the older untouched part of the centre brought into one. The two separate guises of the mid 2000s project saw a complete mismatch of old and new, vastly different from one another.

I’m absolutely sure that there will be many that rely on and utilise the facilities at the Stour Centre who literally can’t wait for things to get back to normal.

This week, Remember When looks back to the centre in 1975 during its first year of operation.

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!

E-mail me: rememberwhen_ kmash@hotmail.co.uk

Families queue to get in to Ashford’s newly-reopened Stour Centre