Ashford Borough Council Heritage Strategy October 2017 Contents Executive Summary ................................................................................................... 5 1. Ashford’s Heritage Offer ...................................................................................... 7 1.1 Introduction ................................................................................................ 7 1.2 What is a Heritage Asset? ......................................................................... 8 1.3 Aims of this Heritage Strategy ................................................................... 9 1.4 Structure of this Strategy ......................................................................... 10 1.5 Policy Context .......................................................................................... 11 2. Ashford’s Heritage ............................................................................................. 16 2.1 Overview of the History of Ashford Borough ............................................ 16 2.2 The Heritage Assets of the Borough ........................................................ 25 2.3 Local Heritage Lists ................................................................................. 32 3. Heritage Themes ............................................................................................... 33 3.1 Categorisation of heritage assets into broad themes ............................... 33 3.2 Assessment of Significance ..................................................................... 36 3.3 Participation and engagement ................................................................. 39 4. Prehistory and Archaeology .............................................................................. 42 5. Farming and Farmsteads .................................................................................. 49 6. Routeways ........................................................................................................ 58 7. Historic Houses and Gardens ........................................................................... 70 8. Ecclesiastical Heritage ...................................................................................... 78 9. Industry and Commerce .................................................................................... 93 10. Invasion and Defence .................................................................................. 104 11. The Railway ................................................................................................. 112 12. Vulnerabilities and Opportunities ................................................................. 121 12.1 Vulnerabilities ..................................................................................... 121 12.2 Generic Vulnerabilities ........................................................................ 121 12.3 Specific Vulnerabilities ........................................................................ 122 12.4 Opportunities ...................................................................................... 124 13. Taking the Heritage Strategy Forward ......................................................... 131 13.1 Introduction ......................................................................................... 131 13.2 Relationship with other Borough Council Strategies ........................... 131 2 13.3 Heritage Strategy Objectives .............................................................. 133 13.4 Objective One ..................................................................................... 133 13.5 Objective Two ..................................................................................... 135 13.6 Objective Three .................................................................................. 137 13.7 Objective Four .................................................................................... 139 14. Conclusions ................................................................................................. 145 14.1 What next? ......................................................................................... 145 14.2 Next steps, stakeholders and ownership of delivery ........................... 145 14.3 Programming, monitoring and review ................................................. 146 14.4 Funding and resources ....................................................................... 146 Bibliography ........................................................................................................... 149 APPENDIX 1 .......................................................................................................... 151 Scheduled Monuments ................................................................................... 151 APPENDIX 2 .......................................................................................................... 154 Registered Parks and Gardens ....................................................................... 154 APPENDIX 3 .......................................................................................................... 155 Conservation Areas ......................................................................................... 155 APPENDIX 4 .......................................................................................................... 156 Historic Towns Survey Maps ........................................................................... 156 Table 1: Total number of listed building entries by Local Authority in Kent ................ 7 Table 2: Structure of this Strategy ............................................................................ 11 Table 3: Heritage Assets on Historic England's 'Heritage at Risk' Register 2017 ..... 27 3 Figure 1: Willesborough Windmill ............................................................................... 6 Figure 2: Roman bull figure found by the Great Stour in Godinton Park .................. 19 Figure 3: PLUTO routes across the Channel ........................................................... 24 Figure 4: Areas of Archaeological Potential ............................................................. 31 Figure 5: Workshop held at Woodchurch on 3rd November 2016 ............................ 40 Figure 6: Warrior burial during excavation at Brisley Farm ....................................... 41 Figure 7: 'Prospect of Julabers Grave from Chilham May 24 1725' ......................... 46 Figure 8: Farmhouse in the east of the borough. ..................................................... 48 Figure 9: Distribution of Lookers' Huts in the Marsh area ......................................... 56 Figure 10: Sunken track through the North Downs Way .......................................... 57 Figure 11: The Gough Map (circa 1360) .................................................................. 58 Figure 12: Supposed route of the Pilgrim's Way ...................................................... 60 Figure 13: Several of the main Roman routes through Kent .................................... 65 Figure 14: Layout of the Palace Complex, Charing .................................................. 68 Figure 15: Godinton House and Gardens ................................................................. 69 Figure 16: Publications relating to Eastwell's Queen Marie of Romania. ................. 72 Figure 17: Priest (Pest) House at St Mary the Virgin, Great Chart ........................... 77 Figure 18: Ashford Cattle Market in the High Street ................................................. 92 Figure 19: Gas cylinder gate post at Chilmington Green ........................................ 103 Figure 20: Map showing the Rhee Wall and Knelle Dam ....................................... 109 Figure 21: Entrance to the South Eastern Railway Works (circa 1910) .................. 111 Figure 22: The borough's railway lines ................................................................... 115 Figure 23: Ashford Railway Works at Newtown in the early twentieth century ....... 119 Figure 24: Charing Archbishop's Palace Great Hall, December 2016.. .................. 120 Figure 25: Map of the Ashford Heritage Trail ......................................................... 129 Figure 26: The Hubert Fountain, Victoria Park, Ashford ......................................... 130 Figure 27: Gates at Victoria Park, Ashford ............................................................. 144 4 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Ashford 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. This Heritage Strategy describes the rich history of Ashford Borough and its broad wealth of heritage assets. In doing so it responds to, and is compliant with the requirement for a ‘positive strategy for the conservation and enjoyment of the historic environment’ promoted by the NPPF. It sets 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