Ashfields

A group of towns, consisting of two relatively new planned communities, and one older village.

Upper Ashfields and Greater Ashfields are new developments designed to include homes, shopping, and office spaces in a small town with a much higher proportion of green space. People living and working there will almost certainly be able to commute by walking or cycling through a park, and most of the map is laid out with parallel grids of roads and cycleways, so that you might travel into town for shopping or work without ever crossing a road.

Upper Ashfields has approximately 4000 homes, and Greater Ashfields 9500. These are small towns, but still larger than the preexisting village of Lower Ashfields.

Greater Ashfields

Greater Ashfields was the first new town to be constructed, in the late 90s. It was supposed to be a 'Millennium Infrastructure Project', but had a lot of problems. Over the years, the central part has slowly evolved into a more traditional town centre, while shops in the outer areas couldn't survive and were converted back into housing. Some of the younger residents aren't aware that it was supposed to be anything different.

Several nearby villages have started to merge into the edges of the Greater Ashfiends sprawl, creating the impression of an older town with suburbs. These include Bullocksfeel (east), Pine Ridge (northeast), and Raybridge (northwest). Although Greater Ashfields has state of the art (at the time) schools, libraries, and medical facilities, the best school in the area is still Raybridge High, which is available as an option to students living anywhere between Bullocksfeel, Upper Ashfields, and Palmerston.

• Greater Ashfields is visited by characters in The Last New Start.

Upper Ashfields

A town some distance east of Schwingford, or south of Moistville. It is technically governed by the Moistville Unitary Authority, but mostly self-reliant.

Upper Ashfields is a much newer development, about eight miles east-northeast of Greater Ashfields. In some parts of the town the initial construction is still ongoing. It was founded when the Ashfields Development Corporation decided that rather than trying to fix their mistakes and recapture the original goal of Greater Ashfields, it would make more sense to allow it to become a conventional market town and create a new settlement, designed from the ground up based on what they had learned in their first attempt.

The Upper Ashfields Village Committee owns the majority of land in the town, and gives preferential rent agreements to certain types of businesses. They prefer smaller and locally-owned businesses over chain stores, and are attempting to ensure that the high street shops are capable of catering to all of residents' basic needs. They also prioritise businesses specialising in fair trade, organic, or artisanal produce; trying to recreate the cultural environment of an old market town.

There are also large office spaces used by knowledge workers – middle-class employers who want their staff to have a pleasant working environment and high-quality local healthcare. Among these companies, a large legal and accounting consultancy is setting up a branch office, with meeting rooms all set up for clients to visit or call in, in the most hospitable environment possible. This new satellite office will be the first large company in town, so the Village Committee and the corporate head office are both very interested in the project. The new manager on site is Vicky Bracewell (6 months after the end of Hypnosis Doesn't Work Like That!), and Belle Carter will work there as well if I get around to writing The Littlest Intern.

It has the oddity that all the streets are named after either English lakes (residential streets), European mountains (business areas), or English rivers (shopping). Most newcomers to the area find this strange. The parks are named after capital cities from around the world, or after famous trains and railways for the linear parks.

Lower Ashfields

A rural village some distance south of Greater Ashfields, but still within the control of its local government. Lower Ashfields was originally named after a local farmer decided to create large plantations, certain that ash wood would become fashionable among cabinet makers in the near future. The original lumber yard is considered a folly; it was badly designed, and never had any chance of being commercially viable. Some years later a businessman tried to build a mill in Ashfields, and built new houses for his workers, but this project also failed. Lower Ashfields has been practically deserted for years, with most of the housing derelict except for outlying farms. It is notable for having the smallest church in the country, an old stone building which has space for 7 people including the priest (standing room only), and attracts a couple of tourists in the summer months.