Over the centuries there have been a number of Methodist, Congregational (later to become part of the United Reformed Church) and United Churches in the Ashford area. Within the history pages of the United Church Cade Road we look at the history of a number of these churches, but most notably those linked directly to the congregation meeting in the building occupying the site on the corner of Cade Road and Kingsnorth Road in South Ashford.
The building is on a site that was originally purchase by the Beaver Congregational Church and information on this can be found on the Congregational Chapel page a wider view on the Congregational Church in Ashford can be found here upto 1960.
The Building of the premises that the congregation now occupies was made possible by the Sale of the Beaver Lane Congregational Chapel, the Denmark Road Methodist Church and the Congregational Chapel in the Town Centre. A history of the Denmark Road Church can be read here and a general history of the Methodist Church in Ashford is here. The local newspaper wrote a report on the final service at the Congregational Chapel in town.
On the 18th November 1970 the Congregational and Methodist Churches in Ashford came together to form the United Church Ashford, the full order of service can be read here. By 1975 this was a union of the United Reformed Church (having been formed in 1972) was busy on three sites and a booklet of the works of the United Church can be read here. The largest building was in Bank Street (which later became known as Centrepiece) and a report of the state of the church in 1986 is available here.
The premises at Cade Road have themselves been through a number of different changes and a history of them is recorded for you to view.
In July 2013 the premises in Bank Street were sold to another Christian Organisation and the congregation divided themselves between that meeting on the Cade Road site and that meeting on the Kennington site. At this time a review of the state of the United Church Ashford was carried out and a document reviewing the constitution, property and trusteeship was written. The proceeds of the sale were made available to the United Church Ashford and as most of the congregation moved to the Cade Road site it was decided to spend the majority of the money refurbishing those premises. Cade Road United Reformed/Methodist Church became the United Church Cade Road and building work on a new extenstion started.