Electricity and Gas - Hartley-Kent

Mains electricity arrived in Longfield on 4 September 1931 and Hartley on 18 August 1932 when the Fairby Lane substation went online.  Ash, Hodsoll Street and Fawkham had to wait until 1936.  Hartley Bottom did not get electricity until 1942 when wires were brought from Church Road to the Websters Whiting Works.

Electricity is sold by a myriad of suppliers with different plans and tariffs.  Nationally the average price paid by domestic users in 2016 was 14.03p per kilowatt hour.  Domestic users pay more for their electricity than other customers.

When it comes to green energy, Hartley has a long way to go.  A scan of satellite photographs suggests there are only 29 solar panel installations in the whole parish, although this is an inexact science.  Fairby Lane and Chantry Avenue appear to be the greenest roads in this regard.  A typical 4KW installation will generate 3,400 kWh of electricity a year, so they would provide about 15-20% of the energy needs of a Hartley household.  It seems amazing to me that in this day and age it is not a requirement for all new homes to have solar panels installed.

Hartley has no wind turbines.

In 2009 Sevenoaks Council received 33 applications to install cavity wall insulation in Hartley with a further 38 in 2010.  They are not recorded on the building regulations database after that.

The government have produced experimental statistics on energy consumption by postcode.  The idea is apparently to enable local authorities to target energy efficiency schemes at those areas which need it most. As usual postcodes with too few properties are excluded to prevent individual house consumption being identified.

Looking at the statistics for Hartley, the roads with no gas are shown as "n/a". Some meters could not be allocated to postcodes, so the figures represent a 90% sample.  What they can't take account of are households which use calor gas or oil in non-natural gas areas.  In general the rule of thumb is that the bigger the houses the greater energy consumption, but affordability may also be a factor too.

The roads with the highest average total gas and electricity consumption are:

1. Hottsfield (31,009 KWh per year)

2. Manor Drive (30,299 KWh)

3. Downs Valley (29,877 KWh)

4. Banckside (29,736 KWh)

5. Round Ash Way (29,733 KWh)

And the lowest are:

1. Bramblefield Estate (7,653 KWh per year)

2. Silverdale (8,622 KWh)

3. Hawthorns (12,643 KWh)

4. Pitfield (13,035 KWh)

5. Porchester Close (13,837 KWh)

Information supplied by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.  Published under Open Government Licence.

While Dartford Urban District Council had built a power station in Priory Road for the town in 1901, it was not for many years yet before mains electricity would reach the wilds of Hartley.  That is not to say that everyone did not have electricity, those who could afford it would have their own dynamo electric plant.  The first houses in Hartley to get this were Hartley Manor ("wired for electricity" by 1901) and Old Downs.  In 1910 Old Downs was said to have electric light and hot water radiators throughout the house, powered by an 11 HP electric lighting plant, dynamo and battery.  The editor of the parish magazine, John Wells-Thatcher, put his "lion engine, dynamo, switchboard and 14 full size Hart accumulators" up for sale in June 1932 - clearly mains electricity is much more convenient! Many more even if they didn't have electric light, would require a battery for their wireless set.

The objections of the West Kent Electric Company prevailed [Hansard 30 July 1930].

Originally the West Kent Electric Company had wanted to bring their cables overland from Pennis House in Fawkham, but couldn't get landowner permission, so it had to be brought by underground cable from Longfield.  The company would connect up to 50 feet overground or 30 feet underground for free from the road to a house, but then charged 2/6 per yard overground and 9/- per yard underground (PRO POWE 12/371).  Even then there were many parts of Hartley, who had to wait for many years more to get electricity, for example electricity had still not reached the south end of Church Road in 1936, however the date on one of the poles in Grange Lane is 1938. We can get some idea of the extent people had taken up mains electricity from the National Farm Survey in 1942.  At that time the following farm holdings had electricity for light or light and power (mostly for domestic use):

   Ash Road: Annlea, Woodlands, Avalon

   Castle Hill: Culvey Down, Old Downs

   Church Road: Cherry Orchard Farm, Middle Farm, Hartley Grange, Tor Lodge, New House Farm

Many farms did not have electricity then, most notably Hartley Bottom Farm.  Cabling was extended from Church Road to the Websters Chemical Works in Hartley Bottom Road in 1942.

The myriad of small electricity companies were replaced on 1 January 1948 when the Government set up the Central Electricity Generating Board and 12 area distribution boards, ours being SEEBOARD.

In 1976 the charge was 2.525p per kilowatt hour for day units and 1.205p per KWh for night units.

In 2003 the day unit cost for Seeboard customers was 6.7 - 10.1p per unit, and 2.7p for night unit.

Seeboard - the first 25 years (by Sydney Robinson, Seeboard 1974)

Like electricity, Dartford had mains gas long before the villages.  The Dartford Gas Company was founded in 1826, and was eventually merged with the South Suburban Gas Company in 1919.  

Mains gas was not extended to Hartley until after the Second World War, although the parish meeting requested it in 1927 and the Dartford Chronicle of 7 April 1933 did say that the South Suburban Gas Company was thinking of laying on gas to the village.  In the 1932-3 they presented a bill to Parliament, which was opposed by Dartford Rural District Council.  The council petitioned parliament against the bill on a number of grounds.  They were concerned that the power to charge people in the Hartley - Longfield area up to 2¾d above the basic 9½d per therm would hinder future development.  It also objected to a later proposal in 1935-6 session of parliament because the gas holders proposed for Darenth, Eynsford and Sutton at Hone would be 120 feet high.  It is unclear whether gas would have come to Hartley in the later bill.  Mains gas did not arrive until sometime after the war.  Certainly by 1961 gas had reached Hartley.  Conversion to North Sea Gas from town gas occurred in about 1975.

Since March 1997 households in Kent have been able to change their supplier.  The Dartford Times of 9 January 1997 reported a complaint by a resident of Pitfield over the sales tactics of one of the new companies vying for business.

In 1976 South Eastern Gas had either a "Gold Star" tariff with a standing charge of £5.50 per quarter and a cost of 14.1p per therm (0.478p per KWh); or "General Credit" tariff with a lower standing charge of £1.25, but higher unit cost of 21.6p per therm (0.737p per KWh).  A therm is a unit of heat roughly equivalent to burning 100 cubic feet of gas (the amount of heat generated by one cubic foot varies depending on the composition of the gas).  Many people's meters still record gas in cubic feet supplied.