Larksfield - Hartley-Kent: The Website for Hartley

Larksfield is a pleasant road of mainly detached and semi-detached bungalows, but also some houses.  The vast majority are in private ownership, but two are owned by a housing association.

The road Larksfield existed for about half a century before any houses were built upon it, as this aerial reconnaisance photgraph taken by the Germans in 1940 shows.  Larksfield is numbered 1, Wellfield 2, Merton Avenue 3 and the junction of Church Road and Ash Road 6.  The only houses nearby are Rosecroft and Westwood in Ash Road by the junction with Larksfield.

Larksfield, then called Silverdale Avenue, was part of a large field purchased and laid out in building plots by Payne and Trapps Co Limited in 1907 (for further details see the article on Payne and Trapps, and a map of Larksfield in 1907).

The road remained a ghostly outline in an area called Strawberry Valley by the locals, until the second world war, when it was taken over by the War Agricultural Executive to grow wheat and potatoes.  Development began in the 1950s with first the (then) council houses at the Ash Road end, and then piecemeal private development of the remainder of the road.  One semi-detached bungalow sold for £2,250 in 1958.  Kent County Council made the road up and added pavements in 1963.

Compulsory purchase had been used by Dartford Rural District Council for the council housing, and later for part of the remainder of the road, where the ownership was unknown, by the Land Commission in 1966.

Last updated 1.11.2020

Explanation:

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

For the plot histories the exact correlation with the plot numbers on the Payne and Trapps estate is difficult to be exact.

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 My records are not complete and I have not included refused or withdrawn applications.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.