Ashley grew up with a love of stories, music, art and theatre. He is now Director of the art gallery Gray M.C.A and is an experienced curator and lecturer specialising in Modernism and Design. He has served on senior vetting and committee roles at major international fine art fairs, ensuring curatorial standards and scholarly integrity is maintained.

He has held senior roles across a range of charitable organisations and campaigns, including Vice Chair of Trustees of the environmental charity CleanupUK and Chair of The Two Moors Campaign. Following the Asian tsunami in 2004, he co-founded the international relief charity Twins – Bringing Schools Together, where he remains a Trustee. More recently, Ashley and his wife delivered humanitarian aid to Lviv in support of the charity Ukrainian Action.

In a diverse career, Ashley worked formally as a public affairs professional based on Exmoor, Ashley led communications and media projects in the UK and overseas. He served as a parliamentary spokesperson in South East Cornwall during the 2000s and as a Somerset County Councillor in the 1990s. His career began in the 1980s as an intern to a United States Senator working on environmental affairs, followed by a role as Executive Assistant to the Director of President Reagan’s second inauguration. He later worked at Conservative Central Office under Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major, and later in advertising at The Times at News International.

Ashley’s wife was raised locally, and they live at Stourton.