In this Ashbourne then and now I’m standing in the upstairs room of Spurrie-Smith antiques looking south down Station Road over where the railway station was located.
I would like to thank Spurrie-Smith antiques of 39 Church street for allowing me access to their upstairs take my “now” photograph. Spurrie-Smith are a well-known Ashbourne business established in 1973.
This then and now is one I made back in 2005 for my website but well worth putting on here as the modern view hasn’t really changed that much since I took it apart from the vintage of the cars.
On the far left you can see the wall and railings of Century Hall which are Grade II listed.
Further down Station Road on the left you can see the single gabled tiled roof of A.R. Bentley Groceries and provisions, a well-known local shop that was established in 1972 which unfortunately closed down Friday 24th May 2024.
In the middle/left of both views you can see a mock Tudor building, built in the 1870’s as The Railway commercial hotel, in 1909 an ornate extension was built to the left of the building and renamed the Station Hotel.
It remained as the Station Hotel until 2021 when it was converted to nine self-contained apartments.
In the 1920 view you can see a steam train heading into the station.
The Ashbourne line ran from Buxton to Uttoxeter via Ashbourne and opened in 1899, regular passenger services finished on 30th October 1954 but specials continued until 1963. The track bed was acquired by Derbyshire County council and Peak District National Park for a cycle and walking route which today is called the Tissington Trail. Today the former railway line forms part of the Tissington Trail where it starts in Ashbourne and passes through a 353m tunnel before emerging at Mapleton station.
The station was demolished and the site is now the car park for Ashbourne Leisure centre. South of the former station are some goods buildings which are still present today on Clifton Road (A516).
Ashbourne is a town in the county of Derbyshire.
Photo A taken : 1920
Photo B taken : 13th May 2005
Time elapsed : 85 years
Past & Present – in fading Photographs.
High quality resolution fading photos showing local scenes as they were and how they are today from exactly the same view point. Then and now, Now and then, Past and Present, Old and New, Before and After. Call it what you want, just try one and see the effect!
The presentations you can see here are the result of many hours of work put in by myself ensuring that the old and new photographs line up precisely, I don’t publish any if I’m not 100% happy with the match.
http://www.derbyphotos.co.uk/thenandnow/
Please note that the Then & now section on my website is currently in need of a revamp as they were all created back in 2005 using Flash and this is no longer supported so I will have to recreate all of my work again using a different method. In the meantime I’m publishing them on my YouTube channel like this one.
Best viewed on a large computer screen or smart TV as this is recorded in 4K resolution with great music so a real waste watching it on a small phone screen. Did you know you can cast it to your smart tv from the YouTube app?
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Music Credits :
‘The Restoration’ by Scott Buckley – released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au
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Thanks
Andy