Grange Lane - Hartley-Kent: The Website for Hartley

Grange Lane itself is a misnomer, caused by a misreading of the map.  It is presumed the name they intended was Orange Lane after the name of the hill at the Red Cow Farm end of the road.  I have not been able to find any early reference to the road being called this.  Earlier references to the road have variously called it Red Cow Lane (1906), Red Cow Hill (1931, 1935), Foxborough Lane (1935) and Grange Hill (1939).  It is not certain why the council settled on Grange Lane.

In 1929 the owner of Hillside House complained about the state of the road, Dartford Rural District Council said traffic on the road was too light to do anything about it then but they did conduct repairs in 1931.  In 1935 the road was tarmaced for the first time.  Kent County Council restricted heavy goods vehicles using Grange Lane in 1931 (following plans in 1929) but rescinded the order in 1965.  However a weight limit of 7.5 tonnes was brought in by the council in 1996.

Grange Lane has only three properties built along it, the c19th Hartley Court Cottages and two built on Small Owners plots - Hillside House and Hartley Dell.  Most of the land that borders the road is farmland or woodland.

Explanation:

1. Date of Construction is sometimes approximate.

2.  Plot  histories include the ancient farms and fields with the  earliest    known  date, also the  name of the smallholding sold by  Smallowners    Limited at the beginning of  the 20th century.

3. Planning Permissions include the reference number, so more details can be seen at Sevenoaks Council.  

4.  Before Council Tax the tax on residential property was called  the     rates.  The registers for 1956, 1963 and 1972 are  held at Sevenoaks     Council.  The rateable value given is the gross  estimated rental   value   of the property, that is how much  the Valuation Office thought   people   would pay to rent it for a year, the  rates were actually   calculated  on a  lower value after certain  statutory allowances were   made.  For  some  reason the 1956 register  contains the rateable value   for the  properties  as it would  have been in 1939.

5.  Council  tax is based on what the Valuation Office thought the    property  would  have sold for in 1993.  It is divided into 8 value   bands.

6. House price data 1995 to date produced by Land   Registry  © Crown copyright and database right   2019. This data is   licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.  To report  an error,   go to Change a sales record form.