New Ash Green is a village in the

Sevenoaks District Sevenoaks is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in west Kent, England. Its council is based in the town of Sevenoaks. The district was Local Government Act 1972, formed on 1 April 1974 by the merger of Sevenoaks Urban District ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It is located 8 miles south west of

Gravesend Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, situated 21 miles (35 km) east-southeast of Charing Cross (central London) on the Bank (geography), south bank of the River Thames and opposite Tilbury in Essex. Located in the diocese of Ro ...

History

Building of the village began in 1967, with

Span Span may refer to: Science, technology and engineering * Span (unit), the width of a human hand * Span (engineering), a section between two intermediate supports * Wingspan, the distance between the wingtips of a bird or aircraft * Sorbitan ester ...

as the developer and

Eric Lyons Eric Alfred Lyons Order of the British Empire, CBE (1912–1980) was a British designer and architect. He achieved critical recognition in his development of family and technology-embracing housing communities in England in the latter part of t ...

as the designer. The architectural design of New Ash Green was innovative for its time, and its original concept was intended as a prototype for a new way of living in the latter twentieth century. The first buildings were created to be airy, pleasant and modern. There was generous landscaping and cars were separated from pedestrians in the streets and in the shopping precinct. The village is arranged in twenty four neighbourhoods. Punch Croft and Over Minnis are some of the original Span-designed sections. The development soon ran into difficulties. Originally, the

Greater London Council The Greater London Council (GLC) was the top-tier local government administrative body for Greater London from 1965 to 1986. It replaced the earlier London County Council (LCC) which had covered a much smaller area. The GLC was dissolved in 198 ...

was going to buy 450 of the properties for renting. This idea was dropped when the leadership of the GLC went into Conservative hands. This reduced the financial viability of the development and of the planned social mix of residents. Another problem in the early years was that some lenders were sceptical about the unconventional design of the properties and would not give mortgages. Span, the original developer, sold the project to Bovis in 1971 for £2.65 million. Bovis increased the size of the development, increasing density and giving less attention to design or provision of public space.

Facilities

New Ash Green is a quiet residential area. It has a rugby club, épée fencing and air pistol shooting indoor, tennis club, football club, Ash Green Sports Centre including a gym, shops, children's parks, a primary school, a fire station, a

special needs school Special education (known as special-needs education, aided education, exceptional education, alternative provision, exceptional student education, special ed., SDC, or SPED) is the practice of educating students in a way that accommodates th ...

and many more public buildings. The shopping centre became run-down due to lack of maintenance from overseas

absentee landlord In economics, an absentee landlord is a person who owns and rents out a profit-earning property, but does not live within the property's local economic region. The term "absentee ownership" was popularised by economist Thorstein Veblen's 1923 book ...

s. Plans were put forward in 2008 to redesign the village's shops.

Transport

Rail

The nearest

National Rail National Rail (NR) is the trading name licensed for use by the Rail Delivery Group, an unincorporated association whose membership consists of the passenger train operating companies (TOCs) of England, Scotland, and Wales. The TOCs run the p ...

station to New Ash Green is

Longfield Longfield is a village in the Borough of Dartford, Kent, England. It is located 6 miles south east of Dartford and the same distance south-west of Gravesend. History The place in Kent is recorded as ''Langanfelda'' in the Saxon Charters of ...

, located 2.3 miles away.

Buses

New Ash Green is served by

Arriva Kent Thameside Arriva Kent Thameside is a bus operator based in North-West Kent, England. It is a subsidiary of Arriva. The company operates services in Northfleet, Gravesend & Dartford as part of the Arriva Southern Counties division from their Northfleet ...

routes 433 & 489. These connect it with Bluewater,

References

External links

British Pathé News / New Village (1968)
{{authority control Villages in Kent