ASHFORD, a market-town of England, county of Kent, 12 miles south-west of Canterbury, and 53 from London. It is pleasantly situated on a gentle eminence near the junction of the upper branches of the river Stour, and is a chief station of the South-Eastern Railway. Many of its houses are well built and handsome; its principal street is nearly half a mile in length, and well paved and lighted. It has a fine old Gothic church, with a lofty, well-proportioned tower, and many handsome monuments. The free grammar school was founded by Sir Norman Knatchbull in the time of Charles I. Population of parish (1871), 8458.