Template:Wp-Ashford, Surrey-History

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Bronze Age artefacts have been found in Ashford (at 51.432708N, 0.485174W) giving rise to the name Bronzefield and a henge may have been present in that period. The settlement as indicated by its name but small assets just after the Norman Conquest was part agricultural settlement in Saxon times.

Ashford appears on the Middlesex Domesday map as Exeforde, held by Robert, Count of Mortain. Its Domesday assets were: 1 plough, meadow for 1 plough; a separate manor in 1066, it was part of the manor of Kempton in 1086. It rendered (in total) 14s 0d. Throughout the early medieval period the place was also referred to as Echelford.^[1]

A stone bridge was built over the ford in 1789 by the Hampton and Staines Turnpike Trust, part of which is used as the rather scenic Fordbridge roundabout with its large weeping willow trees at the centre.

Ashford Common was a large area of common land in the south and east of the town that the British Army used for military displays in the reign of George III. It was inclosed in 1809.^[1]

Ashford Manor Golf Club was established in 1902 at the property which was the Manor Farm House but the large manorial estate and manor house that were held by Solomon Abraham Hart from 1870 to 1882 had before 1902 been broken up among many small owners, and all trace of the manor house was lost.^[1]However the title of Lord of the Manor was acquired by Scott Freeman in 1890, and after passing to another partner of the solicitors Horne, Engall Freeman the title passed in more recent times to Russell Grant.

Ashford's housing stock is modern, with chiefly a mixture of detached and semi-detached housing built between 1885 and 1960.

Former schools

The Welsh School (later St David's School) was founded in 1857. Its building north of Ashford railway station is Gothic Revival, designed by Henry Clutton. St David's School is now defunct, but in 2010 its buildings and playing fields were the premises of St James Senior Boys School.

Ashford County Grammar School was founded in 1911. It became Ashford Sixth Form College in 1975 and Spelthorne College later. In 2007 it merged with Brooklands College. A property developer, Inland Homes plc, has since acquired the former grammar school buildings in Church Road. In 2017 it started to demolish the buildings without planning permission. The developer stopped the work at the request of Spelthorne Borough Council after demolition had started, but later continued the demolition, having received planning permission to build 357 new homes on the site.

Civic administration

In 1894, under the Local Government Act 1894, Ashford became part of the Staines Rural District of Middlesex. In 1930 the rural district was abolished and joined Staines Urban District. In 1965, under the London Government Act 1963, Middlesex County Council was abolished and the urban district was transferred to Surrey. In 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, Staines Urban District was abolished and its area combined with that of Sunbury-on-Thames Urban District to create the present borough of Spelthorne.