There are two Kentish parishes called Ash; to the Post Office they are Ash, Canterbury and Ash, Sevenoaks. The Ash of East Kent was long differentiated as ‘Ash-next-Sandwich’. For the Ash in West Kent there was no such obvious mode of distinction. On occasion, the ancients would invoke the first of its two patron saints and name it ‘Peter’s Ash’; more usually, they linked ‘Ash’ to the name of a nearby parish or town, though the town was never Sevenoaks. Between 1460 and 1475, this Ash was variously identified as ‘by Wrotham’, ‘by Dertford’ (Dartford), ‘by Mepeham’ (Meopham) and ‘by Freningham’ (Farningham); at other times, places called in aid have included Fawkham, Hartley, Kingsdown and Ridley.

Overall, ‘by’ as the prefix seems to have had the edge on ‘next’ and certainly on ‘near’, but in comparatively recent years the somewhat surprising favourite was 'Ash-next-Ridley'. Wrotham has always been the most important of the parishes contiguous to Ash and ‘Ash by Wrotham’, a strong runner from early days, is apt to be used now by those who eschew ‘Ash, Sevenoaks’. Another variant, ‘Ash above Wrotham’, makes up in charm what it may lack in antiquity.
   Ash is situate on the upper dip slope of the North Downs, between the valleys of the Darent and the Medway. In the main it occupies a high plateau between two dry valleys, but includes