Ashland is a town located 15 miles north of Richmond along Interstate-95 in Hanover County, Virginia, United States. Ashland is named after the Lexington, Kentucky estate of Hanover County native and statesman Henry Clay. The area known as The Slashes, that later became Ashland, was developed by the Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac Railroad as a mineral springs resort in the 1840s. The population was 7,225 as of the 2010 census. It is the only incorporated town in Hanover County chartered by the Commonwealth of Virginia.