ASH is a large rural parish which sits in the corner of East Kent between the city of Canterbury and the old Cinque Port of Sandwich, to the north is the port of Ramsgate and to the south is the port of Dover. The parish is in an area known as the “Garden of England” and is one of the largest in Kent with over 7,000 acres (2,837 hectares) of mainly Grade 1 and 2 agricultural land which produces some of the best crops in the country. The Ash Levels to the north are mainly drained marsh land used for summer grazing for sheep and cattle.
The parish consists of the Ash village and hamlets (Westmarsh, Ware, Cop Street, Upper and Lower Goldstone, Richborough, Paramour Street and Hoaden). The village sits on a long, low sandy ridge that runs north-west to south-east. The village is situated in the south-west corner of the parish and is divided from the main agricultural area and hamlets by the A257 trunk road, (Ash bypass) which is the main link road between Canterbury and Sandwich and surrounding towns. The north boundary of the parish is the River Stour.
The parish has a rich and diverse bio-diversity with a number of sites containing some of the priority species as listed in the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006 Section 41. Key species on the red list are turtledove, woodpecker, grey partridge, yellowhammer, herring gull, house sparrow, linnet, dunnock, starling.
The parish has 13ha of public, green spaces. These include the Ash Recreational Ground which consists of open space used for rugby, soccer, cricket pitches, tennis courts, an outdoor gym, an accessible children’s play area, the sports’ pavilion and the allotments. There is a Bowls Club at Moat Lane.
The green spaces also include the three central parcels of land held by the Jack Foat Trust on The Street and to the south of the village, off Pudding Lane. There are around 100 miles (726 km) of Public Rights of Way (PRoW) including numerous bridleways within the parish.
Ash has always been one of the most populous rural parishes in Kent. The population was 1575 in 1801, 2140 in 1831, 2101 in 1931, 2300 in 1951, 2341 in 1961, 2625 in 1971, 2664 in 1981, 2767 in 2001 and 3365 in 2011.