There was a time when the Hertfordshire town of Stevenage was just that, an overflow town that was modern and vibrant. It wasn’t long however, that Stevenage began to outgrow its own footprint. The town would begin to absorb outlying villages that surrounded it, much to the disgust of some of the local residents who wanted to maintain their independence from their ever expanding neighbour. Great Ashby however, was not such a place.

The name Great Ashby was adopted in the 1990s to apply to an area of new housing development on the north-eastern edge of the urban area of Stevenage. The development was partly within the borough of Stevenage and partly in the district of North Hertfordshire. A Great Ashby civil parish was created on 1 April 2011 covering the parts of Great Ashby which were within the parish of Graveley in North Hertfordshire. The area of the parish was enlarged a year later on 1 April 2012 to also include an area from the parish of Weston in North Hertfordshire. The council for the parish is called Great Ashby Community Council. In the 2011 census, the population of Great Ashby stood at 5,701.

The name Great Ashby was named, not after local historian Margaret Ashby, but was actually chosen by the developers of the site who were impressed by the number of ash trees that were on the site. To ‘ash’ they added the suffix ‘by’ which means ‘village’ or ‘settlement’ in the Old Norse language. ‘Great’ was added to the front of the area as the building of new towns was known as ‘the great extension’. So, although the area of Great Ashby may have a rich history, most of it has been lost in time, as the location was not even afforded a name until relatively recently.

The district park at Great Ashby

If you want somewhere to marvel at the deep and intense colours of bluebells, then Great Ashby Park is definitely worth a visit.  The park is without a doubt, a thoroughly beautiful setting.

Great Ashby District Park is a park that benefits the entire local community, as well as the myriad of wildlife. In fact, you would never believe that you were in the Stevenage postal area at all. Great Ashby District Park is a large park which has several different sections to suit all ages. Outside the park is a good sized field where people play a host of sports such as football and cricket.

The Great Ashby Park is a magnet for local dog walkers too. Many people viewed the area as a lifeline during the dark days of the covid lockdown. The population of Great Ashby would head to their park for their daily exercise. The fact that there was such a park in Great Ashby was a real boost for the local people’s mental health and physical well being, at a time when so much of what we took for granted had been taken away from us.

When you enter the park you feel as if you could be a thousand miles away from civilisation, it is just so peaceful. There are also woods for people to wander through; enjoying the peace, solitude and glorious nature that Great Ashby has to offer.

The Great Ashby Community Centre

The Great Ashby Community Resource Centre, as it was first named, was built in 2003 by the construction company Croudace. During the first three years of operation, the Great Ashby centre was managed and run by North Hertfordshire District Council, the district in which the building currently stands.

In 2007 the District Council decided to pass on the running of the centre to a management committee made up of local residents. So, the Great Ashby Community Centre Management Association was born and came into effect as a company limited by guarantee and then set up as a charity with the Charity Commission, with the name of the building becoming the Great Ashby Community Centre. The trustees of the charity were and continue to be, residents of Great Ashby and people connected to the centre by use.  They all volunteer their time. Many types of council are now following the Great Ashby lead, by allowing local tenants more of a say in the day to day running of their amenities and communal areas.

The Great Ashby centre has thrived as many different groups use the centre for their activities. Over the years these have included a pre-school, children’s music classes, an Over-50s club and many different exercise classes. It has also proved to be a very popular party venue, being hired out for weddings, wakes and birthday celebration parties.

The intention was always that an extension should be built. The original plans were to add a place of worship, however after consultation with the community and the Great Ashby Community Church, it was decided that a community space would be of greater use by the people of Great Ashby. During the consultation people had also expressed a desire for a café as a meeting place in the centre that all could use and enjoy.

In 2010 plans were drawn up for the smaller of the existing halls at the front of the Great Ashby building to be converted into a high street style coffee shop or café and an extension to include a hall space with kitchenette, storage facilities, toilets and a Chaplaincy office for use by the church. This new space would provide a much larger space for classes and groups to meet and would allow additional capacity for holding functions and other events at the centre.

The proposed building work took place during the spring and summer of 2012. The new Great Ashby hall was open for business at the end of October 2012.

The café was set up as Circles Café Bar, a Community Interest Company, a separate legal entity from the Community Centre but whose profits would be given over to the governing body for community use. Circles opened its doors on Saturday 13th April 2013. After serving the community for just less than seven years, the venue was to become a victim of the Covid pandemic of 2020 and was sadly closed. The space that had served as Circles Café Bar now reverted back to a hall for classes and smaller events in 2021.

There are ongoing talks about a new venue being opened up again as we emerge from the worst of the pandemic, and learn to live with the effects of this illness. Whatever happens in the future though, the Great Ashby Community Centre continues to serve the local Great Ashby community admirably.

The Great Ashby Community Centre continues to be run by the Community Centre Manager, supported by the trustees and aims to provide a balanced and vibrant community facility offering a wide range of community facilities to not just the residents of Great Ashby, but the wider community.