Adjoining Ridley, westward, lies Ash called in the TEXTUS ROFFENSIS, Aeisce, and in Domesday, Eisse. (It commonly has the addition in old writings of, near Wrotham near Farningham near Fawkham, or near Kingsdown, to distinguish it from the parish of Ash near Sandwich in this county.) It contains 3,000 acres of land, of which 600 acres are woods ranging on the east side of the parish.
   Ash stands on high ground among the hills of West Kent. The soil is mostly chalk and much covered by flints.
   The parish includes the hamlets of Hodsoll Street, West Yoke, North Ash, South Ash, and Idley. It is quite the most fantastic shape that can be imagined. It Borders on no less than nine parishes. The church stands roughly in the centre.
   In the time of King Alfred the Great, 871-901 A.D ,the heads of the settlements which were grouped within the present parish of Ash used to meet, when summoned, the heads of families in the 14 neighbouring parishes that made up the HUNDRED of AXTANE. All trace of the spot where the "Witenagemot" (Anglo-Saxon national council or parliament) of the Hundred of Axtane met has disappeared, but since Sutton-at-Hone was one of this group of parishes, and it was ever a place of administrative importance, one might perhaps be permitted to hazard a guess that the leading men of Ash through many centuries had to assemble at Sutton-at-Hone to receive instructions from the King’s Government and to make their reports on Ash to it.
   At the survey of Domesday in 1086 A.D., the parish belonged to Odo, the half brother of William the Conqueror, and Bishop of Bayeux, and on his disgrace, went to Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent.
   Ash parish consists of a number of manors, (the word "manor" means estate as well as the large house) at one time there were five, but for many centuries there have been three, viz :- Ash, South Ash, and Holliwell alias Hodsoll. The other two were St Johns Ash and 

Scotgrove. In the Domesday Book two sub-manors are named viz:- DIDELE and SONINGES. The former is the old form of Idley, whilst the latter may refer to SORANKS (whose earliest form is SORENE) in Fairseat, and possibly covered the land around the modern HODSOLL STREET.
   Each of the five original manors has lived through a history of its own, and so in order to study the history of the parish it is advisable to split it up into its component parts and trace out the story of each individual manor.

ASH MANOR alias NORTH ASH MANOR
In the reign of Henry III 1216-1272 this Manor was in the possession of Henry Pencombe.
   After several changes James Boteler, Earl of Wiltshire, possessed it. In consideration of his faithful adherence to the Lancastrians, King Henry VI 1422-1461 (deposed) gave him the title of Earl of Wiltshire, and afterwards made Lord Treasurer and Knight of the Garter. He fought in the Battle of Iowton Field in Yorkshire on Palm Sunday March 29th 1463 A.D. where in the Yorkists obtained the victory. He was taken prisoner and beheaded in Newcastle. All his lands including Ash Manor, were forfeited and came to the Crown, the Yorkist King Edward 1V was then on the throne. For a few years the Bouchier family was in possession of the Manor, but in the reign of Henry VII 1485-1509,it passed to Sir Edward Poynings, a famous solder. On his death it passed to Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex. After his execution it was granted to Sir Martin Bowes in 1545. His two granddaughters ultimately became joint heiresses of the Manor, Elizabeth who married William Buggin and Anne who became the wife of Sir Edmund Fowler. On the partition of their inheritance in the year 1634, Sir Edmund Fowler and wife became the sole owners and it was they who built the present lovely mellowed brick " ASH PLACE" in 1637.