When Ashford Changed Forever
There are photographs that simply record a place… and then there are photographs that accidentally become history.
This image falls firmly into the second category.
Taken during the construction of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link — now known as High Speed 1 — it captures Ashford at the exact moment the town was being physically reshaped forever. The sheer scale of the engineering was staggering. Entire sections of countryside were carved open, bridges appeared where fields once stood, and railway lines that had existed quietly for generations suddenly became part of a European high-speed network.
From the air, you could really appreciate the madness of it all.
Temporary haul roads, cranes, spoil heaps, construction compounds, diversions, sidings and half-finished bridges stretched across the landscape. At times it looked less like Kent and more like someone had dropped a giant civil engineering set into the countryside.
This particular view looks north from Sevington and the Bad Munstereifel Road towards Ashford International Station. In the foreground, Comet — the electrical retailer — can clearly be seen, while work on the bridge to accommodate the new high-speed line is underway.
Back then, much of the surrounding area was still open countryside. Today, large parts of it have disappeared beneath housing estates, warehouses, distribution parks and new road schemes. At the time I took these photographs, I never imagined my aerial images would one day become part of Ashford’s historical record.
The change is incredible.
That’s the thing about aerial photography.
You often don’t realise the importance of what you’re documenting until twenty years later.
At the time, this was simply another sortie in the aircraft — another pass over Ashford with the camera hanging out of the window. Looking back now, it became a record of a town standing on the edge of enormous change.
And in truth, many of these views no longer exist at all. I'll be back soon with another historic view of the town of Ashford in Kent.
Through these blogs, I hope to draw people in and allow them to enjoy watching how the town evolved over the years. Unlike much of the local press these days, I won’t be charging people to view this archive. However, if you enjoy the feature and would like to support the project, there’s a Buy Me a Coffee/Paypal donate link at the bottom of the page.
Until the next post then, thank you for stopping by. If you want to enquire about purchasing an image feel free to send me a request via my contact page. I can offer them in print/digital, and have licensing options for commercial use.
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