Ashley Cotton - Storylines

Storylines

Ashley first appears in Walford along with his mother Zoe Cotton (Elizabeth Chadwick) in 1993, at the age of nine. He meets and becomes close to his grandmother, Dot Cotton (June Brown), who later leaves the square with him, Zoe and Nick to live in Gravesend. Dot leaves Gravesend and returns to the square in 1997 without Ashley or his parents and reveals that Ashley and Zoe has moved away to get away from Nick.

Ashley returns to the square briefly in July 2000 to visit Dot for a few days. It is obvious he has taken after his father when he gets up to mischief. Nick is later released from prison and reunites with Ashley and Zoe. Ashley wants to come with Nick despite Zoe's reluctance so he and Nick gets into a car and decides to travel before returning to Walford. When they return to Walford together and settle in with Dot, Ashley is under the influence of his villainous father Nick and starts taking drugs and gets involved in robberies with Nick. After a series of arguments with both sides of his family, he drifts between each of his parents until a fateful summer evening in June 2001. He steals Mark Fowler's (Todd Carty) motorbike after an argument in The Queen Victoria, unaware that his father has cut the bike's brakes in hope of killing Mark. Nick, Pauline Fowler (Wendy Richard) and Dot shouts at Ashley to stop but he continued racing the bike until he comes face-to-face with a pedestrian. Ashley swerves to avoid the pedestrian and brakes sharply, but the motorbike flips over a pavement and Ashley crashes into the laundrette. 17-year-old Ashley dies instantly and Nick is riddled with guilt. Dot later overhears an argument between Mark Fowler and Nick, discovering that Nick is responsible for Ashley's death. After Ashley's funeral, Dot confronts Nick and throws him out of the house.