The emerging Ashford heritage strategy

In contrast with other districts in , which are home to world heritage sites such as Cathedral and nationally iconic monuments including Castle, the built heritage of Ashford is often little acknowledged. But this is to ignore the reality that this Borough is home to an extraordinarily rich and significant stock of heritage assets which provide important and wide-ranging evidence of the rural history of this country and its tapestry of rural settlements. The Borough’s heritage is extensive too, with more listed buildings than any other in Kent, and with more grade 1 and II* listed buildings than other districts also.

The emerging Heritage Strategy will describe the rich history of Ashford Borough and its broad wealth of heritage assets. In doing so it will responds to, and be compliant with the requirements for a ‘positive strategy for the conservation and enjoyment of the historic environment’ promoted by the NPPF. It will set out how the historic environment can play an important role in delivering regeneration in the Borough, particularly supporting the objectives of the Local Plan for the regeneration of Ashford Town Centre, and the role of heritage in growing the tourism offer of the Borough. Having regard to the Government’s localism agenda, the Strategy will promote an agenda of further understanding and engagement with the historic environment, where the public play a leading role in delivering the outcomes of the strategy and shaping where they live, work and visit.

Ashford’s attractive natural environment, including two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the successful Ashford Green Corridors initiative are widely recognised. However, the historic environment is equally one of the Borough’s most valuable assets, and one which can and should play an important role in its future development.

Assessing heritage values through conservation principles

Conservation Principles set out a framework for assessing the significance of all historic assets based on four component values

 Evidential value  Historical value  Aesthetic value  Communal value

The heritage strategy workshops will consider all of these, but will focus in particular on the communal value of heritage assets.

Evidential Value This derives from those elements of a historic asset that can provide evidence about past human activity, and especially its historic fabric, supported in some cases by documentation.

All buildings — domestic, commercial, religious, industrial, etc. — have the capacity to provide evidence of specific past human activity from one or perhaps several periods. The extent to which they do so depends on coherence and integrity, or an intelligible development sequence. The extent of survival of original or clearly phased fabric and layout, or of detail relating to use (including internal detail) are particularly important.

Context may also be relevant: the evidential value of a single industrial or agricultural building for example will be diminished if other associated buildings have already been lost or damaged.

Historical Value

This refers to the illustrative or associative values of an asset. In practice, much of the historical value of an asset is inseparable from its evidential value — a well- preserved building can illustrate an aspect of past life much better than can a damaged or heavily altered building. Historical value may also reside in the less tangible — in associations with notable people events or movements of proven regional or national significance. As in the criteria for listing, however, these associations will be more powerful if the building as it survives directly confirms the association (i.e. is recognisably the building with which connection is claimed).

The difference between evidential value and illustrative historical value may seem difficult to define but, in general, evidential value relates to the material evidence about how a particular building or site functioned, and historical value to the capacity of that site to illustrate broader historical themes — its contribution to our understanding of aspects of past life, be they for example the organisation of society, developments in agriculture or industry, or in religious observance. Understanding historical value therefore requires a broader understanding of the asset in context, whereas a good understanding of evidential value can be reached by close physical analysis on site.

Aesthetic Value

This relates to the external appearance and form of an asset and its relationship to its context and setting. It may relate to conscious design or style, adherence to tradition, to quality of craftsmanship or technology of construction, or it may reflect the results of development over time.

High-quality conscious design — so-called ‘polite architecture’ often associated with named architects — and vernacular building according to clear regional traditions (and perhaps unconscious design), have their own aesthetic codes. But for both, composition, plan, method of construction, materials, finish and detail — including interior detail — are the essential elements of design.

Context may also be relevant here — the relationship of a building to its setting, whether a designed landscape, a working agricultural or industrial landscape, or a townscape, may be an important aspect of its aesthetic appeal.

Some consideration also needs to be given to comparative value and rarity: how does the building compare with others of a similar type locally, regionally, or even nationally? To what extent would our ability to interpret a particular aspect of past activity be diminished were the building to be lost or damaged?

Communal Value

This derives from the meanings that an asset has for the people who relate to it. It includes social and economic value, as well as commemorative, spiritual or symbolic value.

The contribution that a building is able to make to the well-being of its community — its regenerative potential — is particularly relevant.

Vulnerability

The level of risk (drawing on Buildings at Risk register data) is an additional consideration. If a building delivers high value on the criteria detailed above and is at significant risk, then it would clearly be a policy priority.

Overall Assessment

Evidential, historic and aesthetic significance (including a comparative element) are relatively tangible and fixed values, whereas vulnerability and communal value are more contingent and dependent on circumstance. While the workshops will be heavily weighted towards assessment of the communal value of assets, these events will offer valuable contributions towards evidential, historical and aesthetic values of assets.

Thematic grouping of heritage assets

The term ‘heritage asset’ is defined in the National Planning Policy Framework as follows:

“A building, monument, site, place, area, or landscape identified as having a degree of significance meriting consideration in planning decisions, because of its heritage interest. Heritage asset includes designated heritage assets and assets identified by the local planning authority (including local listing).” – NPPF Annex 2

Given Ashford’s extensive heritage assets, these have been divided into eight thematic groupings which will provide the basis for topical engagement, as follows:

Prehistory Neolithic (4000 to 2500 BC), Bronze Age (2500AD-650 AD), Iron Age (700BC- 43 AD)

The Neolithic period witnessed the movement from a hunter-gatherer society, to a civilization based on settled living and land cultivation, aided by the development of new technologies. This more sedentary lifestyle also saw the beginnings of animal husbandry and the use of pottery. Kent was notably one of the earliest areas of Europe to witness this change in settlement patterns. The Bronze Age witnessed the further development of communities, aided by the increase in population size. The significant features of this period include the beginnings of proto-writing and the use of various metals to form tools. These tools allowed for the clearing of land, enabling agricultural work, which in turn increased food production. Evidence of Bronze Age social rituals, such as inhumation burials (barrows), frequently found in the Kentish countryside.

The Iron Age witnessed the still further development of settled communities, including the use of coins and the pottery wheel. Whilst people began to live in larger communities, with different areas developing their own specific rituals and products, new trade routes also allowed for the exchange of these goods and traditions.

Farming and Farmsteads

The development of farmsteads have undoubtedly shaped the landscape and character of Ashford Borough today, capable of providing almost three quarters of the foods that can be produced in our temperate climate. Whilst many farms have had to diversify in the recent centuries, the land still provides rich historical evidence of former practices. As well as the physical landscape reflecting the Borough’s agricultural history, the farmhouses and outbuildings that remain to this day are strong elements of the heritage of this area. Attention to this important aspect of the Borough’s historical story is to emphasise and valorise this important contributing category to landscape character and land use function. Routeways

Many of the routes still used today by various lanes and bridleways follow the old droving routes used by pig farmers, moving their animals into the woods to fatten them up each year, a technique in use from the Neolithic period. Ancient sunken routes also exist from the constant wear of hooves and cartwheels, now often surrounded by wooded banks rich with wildlife. The arrival of the Romans saw the further creation of roads, particularly focused around Kentish ports, most of which are still used today (including the A28) while the Great Stour river and the waterways of also played a vital part in shaping the heritage and landscape of the Borough.

Historic Houses and Gardens

Possessing the largest number of listed buildings in Kent, the development of Ashford’s landscape has been strongly influenced by its many large residential estates and properties. Many of these houses present the work of significant architects including Lutyens and Bloomfield. Fortunately many still retain their parkland setting and landscaped gardens, several of which are open for the public to appreciate.

Ecclesiastical Heritage

The possesses many significant ecclesiastical buildings which reflect the South-East’s pivotal role in the spread of Christianity in from the early 600s AD when St Augustine of Canterbury was sent by Pope Gregory the Great to Christianize the Anglo-Saxons of England. From Augustine’s mission through to the Reformation in the 16th century, religious practice has hugely shaped the Borough’s built heritage and landscape.

Industry and commerce

The of Kent feature a ridge of chalk hills, which have been commercially exploited for centuries as a source of building material, including chalk, marble and flint. As well as possessing rich natural resources the birth of the hop industry in the 1700s, and the prolific use of mills along the River Stour during this period, has left the Borough with a rich legacy of rural industrial history. Many of the villages of the Borough were home to markets, while Ashford itself has been a market town since the Middle Ages, with the market occupying permanent shops by the end of the 15th century. This market encouraged the production of goods within the Borough, facilitating businesses such as the Cloth-Workers in and at . Invasion and defence

Given Ashford’s proximity to the Channel and with navigable river ways to it, the Borough’s settlements were on the frontline in the invasions of the Vikings (9th Century) and Romans. In the late eighteenth century England came under threat of an attack from Napoleon, which led to the development of a complex navy strategy which included the building of coastal defences. This included the construction of the Royal Military Canal running from Seabrook to Rye, which was subsequently used for the transportation of goods, and re-fortified as a Stop-Line after 1939. Ashford was also home to 20th century intelligence services, with The Joint Services School of Intelligence formed in 1969 at the Templer Barracks in Ashford. This base provided training to members of the forces, but has since been demolished to make way for the Channel Tunnel Rail Link.

The Railway

The development of the town of Ashford was particularly influenced by the introduction of the railway in 1842, and the network still contributes much to the heritage, economy and environment of the town. By 1883 the railway linked Ashford to Canterbury, and . To house increasing numbers of employees 72 cottages were built, as well as a general store, public baths, a school, a library and a church as part of a new town to be known as Alfred Town but which became known simply as New Town. This estate is of historical significance to the Borough as it is one of the earliest examples of a planned industrial area in England. Although the locomotive works have fallen into disrepair, new services such as the have continued to strengthen Ashford’s railway network.