[1] It is known for the quarrying of Ashford Black Marble[2] (a form of limestone), and for the maidens' garlands made to mark the deaths of virgins in the village until 1801.

[7] The village passed to the Cavendish family in the 16th century (from the Nevilles) and was finally sold off in the 1950s to pay death duties.

Each year slabs of clay are decorated by village volunteers using petals, leaves and other plants to create a picture.

[10][11][12] Ashford's parish church of the Holy Trinity was mostly rebuilt in 1868–70 but has a partly 13th-century tower, a 14th-century north arcade and a recovered Norman tympanum above the south doorway.

[14] Behind the church are traces of a moat, all that remains of a fortified house which was the home of Edmund Plantagenet, brother of Edward II.

Robert Armitage Sterndale, naturalist, artist, writer and statesman who worked in India before becoming Governor-general of St. Helena, was born in the village.