Woodland Avenue - Hartley-Kent: The Website for Hartley

Woodland Avenue is made up of 66 dwellings, made up of 16 houses and 50 bungalows.  Most have 200 foot long plots of land as laid out by Payne and Trapps.

Although the road was created in 1907, the first houses were the two bungalows built by local builder Clifford Nairn of The Elms, Church Road in 1923 - Daphne (since demolished) and The Sticks.  To these two was added The Old Grange in 1937.  Two-thirds of the houses were built in the 1950s, which gives much of the road its harmonious aspect.  Since then 10 houses were built in the 1960s, 7 in the 1980s and 4 in the 21st century (two of these were rebuilds).

One notable landmark in Woodland Avenue is the recreation ground or the park as it is called by many of its users.  The Parish Council decided to buy the land in 1960 but it took until 1968 until all the negotiations and legalities were sorted out.  Its facilities are a football kickabout field, youth shelter and children's playground; occasional open days for young people are also organised here by the parish council.  In 2013 new play equipment was installed.

Historically the road would have been part of Middle Farm in Church Road.  The Church Road end was once a field called "The Stirrup", no doubt from its shape, while the Wellfield end lies over another field called Northlands.  By the beginning of the 20th century these and other fields had been consolidated into one very large 100 acre field which was sold by Thomas Morton to estate agents Payne Trapps and Co in 1905.  They specialised in buying blocks of land and selling them off as building plots, which is what they did in Hartley.  Most of their buyers were unable to build houses though, so for a long time the bulk of the land was undeveloped and roads like Woodland Avenue became little more than footpaths in part.  During both wars the War Agricultural Executive requisitioned the land to grow crops for the war effort.  In the 1950s planners designated the estate as the location for early development of Hartley, hence why most of the houses date to this period.

Once the road had a commercial element.  The house Bryony is built on the site of the former Kelshire Builders Yard, which used to advertise for scaffolding hire.  It does have one of Hartley's few mobile phone masts next to the substation and the allotments, and there are 7 companies with a registered address in Woodland Avenue.

(1)  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.

(2) Rateable value - I not transcribed this for these roads so far.

(3)  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.

(4)  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.