Burra was a keen arborist and the Hall was surrounded by a collection of trees (many of which were destroyed in the storm of 1987).

[1] During its time as a sanatorium a notable patient was the poet and philosopher Simone Weil, who died there on 24 August 1943.

[2] Advances in antibiotics following the Second World War gradually made tuberculosis sanatoriums obsolete.

To begin with Ashford was used for continuation courses (see below), the initial training being provided at Sandgate in Kent and Eynsham Hall near Oxford.

Ashford PTC and the other remaining regional training centres, Aykley Heads in Durham, Bruche in Warrington, Cwmbran in Wales, Ryton in Ryton-on-Dunsmore and Shotley in Ipswich were closed.