Ashley comes from the Old English words ' æsc' meaning 'ash' and 'leah', a meadow;
therefore a ‘meadow with ash-trees’.
Ashley is a small hamlet which once housed workers
from the Kent coalfields.
In the 16th century, Baptists, who had escaped persecution in Europe, built a chapel,
in Ashley, associated with the Eythorne church, where they first held meetings
The Butchers Arms, a public house, opened in 1874, although closed in 2007.
