Hottsfield - Hartley-Kent: The Website for Hartley

Hottsfield is an attractive secluded road, just off Hoselands Hill, with a mixture of housing styles of mostly detached houses.

There has been a field of this name here since at least 1617 when it became an outlying field of New House Farm. The name is based on "holt" an old English name for wood.  The Aerial photo of 1940 on the left shows the last years of the field in the centre of the photo, with the railway crossing through the middle.

George Day of North Ash Farm bought the 11 acres of Hottsfield that lay south of the railway,  in 1922 from Eliza Forbes for £330.  He also acquired the rest of New House Farm at the same time. Since 1913 the land was let on a tenancy, the tenant in 1922 was David Langlands Patullo.  

Mr Day sold off the 4 acres that would become Quakers Close to Margery Capper in 1923 and the 2 acres of Copse Side to Barbara Harker in 1924 and 1930, leaving the land which would form the road of Hottsfield.

The first houses to be built were Hammonds, Fingehl and The Cottage in about 1936, which George leased out at a rent of £60 pa each. He died in 1943, leaving two sons - Ralph, a farmer at Sevenoaks and Harold, a fruit salesman of Covent Garden. They sold the freeholds of the houses for £875-900 each in 1945, and in the same year Marjorie Heale bought the remaining 4 acres at auction for £725. At the time the undeveloped part of Hottsfield was let to a Mr Dearn, free of rent for the duration of the war.  He allowed the tenants of Hammonds and The Cottage to keep chickens on part of the land.

Margery and her husband split the road into plots and it was developed in a piecemeal fashion in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

According to experimental government energy consumption data, Hottsfield uses more gas and electricity per household than any other road in Hartley.

Last updated 1.11.2020

Explanation:

Date of Construction is sometimes approximate. Plot histories include the ancient farms and fields.

Planning Permissions include the reference number, so more details can be seen at Sevenoaks Council. My records are not complete and I have not included refused or withdrawn applications.

Rateable value - this is how much the Valuation Office think the property would get if rented for a year.  The 1956 revaluation for some reason set this figure as the rental for 1939.  The gross value has been used here as better representing the true value, however rates were paid on a net figure after certain statutory deductions.

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.  The banding can be changed after significant improvements, but only after the property is next sold.  The Valuation Office flags these with an "improvement indicator".

House price data 1995 to date produced by Land Registry © Crown copyright 2016. To report an error, go to Change a sales record form.

I have tried to make sure the information is accurate, but no responsibility can be taken for any errors. If you plan to rely on the information, you should check the source data to be sure. If you spot an error, please let me know via the contact form.