Ashton Hayes in a nutshell
Ashton Hayes is a small community of approximately 1000 people and about 350 houses situated at the foot of a sandstone escarpment on the Cheshire plains (see map). The historic City of Chester is located six miles west of us and we are relatively close to Liverpool and Manchester. About half the village is classed as a conservation area with houses dating back hundreds of years. The rest of the village comprising housing stock built over the half century. We estimate that about half the village population is retired.
The village has a long history and lies beside the route of the Roman road that once linked Chester (Deva in Roman) with Manchester. Farming was the predominant occupation for thousands of years but today only a small proportion of the population rely on farming for the livelihood. Many people work in the nearby cities or in the industrial complexes around the Mersey estuary.
We have a thriving state primary school with approxmately 140 pupils who have been at the centre of the carbon neutral initiative. We are also fortunate to have a private nursery that is attended by about 300 children every day. We are the archetypal English village with a two pretty churches as a pub and post office/shop run by Helen Rimmer and family. The pub has also been the meeting place for many of our team meetings and in recent years all the landlords have been very supportive of the project and are keen to welcome visitors.
Day-to-day village issues are handled by the democratically elected Parish Council, which is the body that has ultimate control of the Going Carbon Neutral Project. The Parish Council website contains the latest information on meetings and links to many other village organisations that make Ashton Hayes such a welcoming and thriving community.