Hartley is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

in the

Sevenoaks Sevenoaks is a town in Kent with a population of 29,506 situated south-east of London, England. Also classified as a civil parish, Sevenoaks is served by a commuter main line railway into London. Sevenoaks is from Charing Cross, the traditio ...

district of

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, England. It is located south west of Gravesend and the same distance south east of Dartford.

History

The village of Hartley is recorded as ''Erclei'' in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...

of 1086. with a population of 15 families and 3 slaves. The name Hartley means "place in the wood where the deer are". The parish church of All Saints dates from the early 12th century, although it probably replaced an earlier Anglo-Saxon building. On 28 January 1554, during Wyatt's Rebellion against Queen

Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religious contexts * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...

, a rebel force of about 500 men led by

Henry Isley Sir Henry Isley was an English nobleman involved in Wyatt's Rebellion. The Isley family were established landowners of Kent county.Loades, p. 79. Henry Isley owned Sundridge manor estate in Brasted, his brother Thomas Isley (Jr.) in Vinters Park ...

clashed with a similar-sized loyal force led by

Lord Abergavenny Marquess of Abergavenny (pronounced Aber''genn''y) in the County of Monmouth, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom created on 14 January 1876, along with the title Earl of Lewes (pronounced "Lewis"), in the County of Sussex, for the ...

and

Sir Robert Southwell Sir Robert Southwell PRS (31 December 1635 – 11 September 1702) was a diplomat. He was Secretary of State for Ireland and President of the Royal Society from 1690. Background and education Robert Southwell was born near Kinsale in County ...

, at Wrotham Hill. After a running battle over about four miles, the rebels made their last stand at Hartley Wood, where they were defeated. By 1872, there were 47 houses in Hartley with a population of 244. Some local farms specialised in hop growing. A National School was built in the village in 1841; it was rebuilt in 1960 on a new site. The opening nearby of Longfield railway station in 1872 began the evolution of the village from an agricultural to a commuter community. Just before

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, two agricultural estates were purchased by a property developer and sold off in small plots for new houses and bungalows. Major housing developments at

New Ash Green New Ash Green is a village in the Sevenoaks District of Kent, England. It is located 8 miles south west of Gravesend. History Building of the village began in 1967, with Span as the developer and Eric Lyons as the designer. The architectural des ...

in the 1960s and Wellfield in the 1970s continued the trend. The parish was part of Axstane Hundred and later

Dartford Rural District Dartford Rural District was a rural district with an area of in the county of Kent, England. In 1971 it had a population of 64,561 and an electorate of 43,911. At dissolution it was the most populous rural district council in Kent, but had o ...

. It is part of the parliamentary constituency of Dartford.

Places of worship

All Saints Church, the Anglican

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

, is Grade I-listed and dates from the 12th century. It is supplemented by the All Saints Church Centre in the centre of the village, which is used as a church hall and for worship. St Francis de Sales'

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

church, a Grade II-listed building, is a 17th-century former barn with

timber framing Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...

and a

thatched roof Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge (''Cladium mariscus''), rushes, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. Since the bulk of ...

. Hartley United Reformed Church (formerly

Congregational Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its ...

) was registered for worship in 1936 but has closed and was put up for sale, before being demolished and turned into housing.

Sports

Hartley Country Club cricket section were the

Kent Cricket League The Kent Cricket League is the top level of competition for recreational club cricket in Kent, England. The league was founded in 1970 and the first season of play was 1971. The twelve founding clubs were Ashford, Aylesford Paper Mills, Dartf ...

Premier Champions in 2008, 2011-2013 and 2015. The Pétanque section membership at Hartley Country Club currently numbers about ninety players, split equally between men and women.

Transport

Rail

Hartley is served by Longfield railway station with

Southeastern The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...

services to

London Victoria Victoria station, also known as London Victoria, is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in Victoria, in the City of Westminster, managed by Network Rail. Named after the nearby Victoria Street (not the Q ...

via Bromley South, Ramsagate via Chatham and

Dover Priory The Priory of St. Mary the Virgin and St. Martin of the New Work, or Newark, commonly called Dover Priory, was a priory at Dover in southeast England. It was variously independent in rule, then occupied by canons regular of the Augustinian r ...

via Chatham and Canterbury East.

Buses

Hartley is served by Arriva Kent Thameside routes 423, 433 and 489. These connect it with Bluewater, Dartford and Gravesend.

References

External links

Local information and history website

Hartley Parish Council

British Listed Buildings - Listed Buildings in Hartley, Kent, England
{{authority control Villages in Kent Civil parishes in Kent