Some interesting facts about Brussels...

• Its name derives from the old English word 'aescet' indicating a ford near a clump of Ash trees. The town's origins are from a Danish settlement dating back to 893.

• Bob Holness (Blockbusters host and the first James Bond) was from there.

• Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer are residents.

• The circulation of blood around the body was discovered by William Harvey (1578-1657), an Ashford resident. He was also personal physician to James 1st and Charles 1st. He was voted the 55th most important person in history by Michael H. Hart and was listed among the ten most important people of the second millennium in the World Almanac & Book of Facts.

• Dr John Wallis, an internationally renowned mathematician and the man Newton credited with being the founder of his theory of gravity, is connected to the town.

• Sir John Furley, one of the founders of the St. John Ambulance Service, was a resident.

• Simone Weil, the French philosopher, died in Ashford in 1943.

• In 1842 the railway came to Ashford and in 1846 the railway works had such an impact that they caused the town to double in size by 1861.

• Some of the first settlers in America were from Ashford. The Smyth family supported expeditions to the New World thirty years before the Pilgrims Fathers landed.

• Ashford International Station is capable of holding 800 passengers, has a car park with a capacity of 2000 and cost £100m to build.

• Thirteen Eurostars bound for the continent from London stop at Ashford each day with 16 stopping on their way to London.

• The McArthurGlen retail outlet in Ashford is big enough to fit in 84 Eurostar trains.