Cherry Trees - Hartley-Kent

Carmelite Way lies in the centre of Hartley. The houses are numbered 1-27 (odd) and 2-42 (even). They are a mixture of housing types - there are four bungalows and 14 semi-detached houses, while the remainder are detached houses.

The road was developed in 2 stages, numbers 1-10 were built by Newlockton Builders Ltd in 1966 on land which was formerly owned by the Roman Catholic Church as part of Middle Farm, hence the name given to the road. At that time the road ended in the small turning circle outside numbers 8-10 and beyond that was an orchard. Numbers 11-42 were contructed in 1970 by local firm Brewster Estates Limited, on a number of separate parcels on land, including the back gardens of some of the houses that back onto Carmelite Way from Ash Road.

Historically, Carmelite Way lies over Upper Homefield, a 9 acre field belonging to Middle Farm.

Cherry Trees preserves the name of a small farm that used to exist on the site.  Lying at the centre of the village it is a mixture of detached and semi-detached houses and bungalows.  There is also a local parade of shops containing a Costcutters supermarket, Hairdressers and Beauty shop, Car Spares Shop and Financial Advisors, with one vacant site.

The Shops were built by 1972, but were applied for in 1967 (application TH/5/67/410).  There was considerable correspondence from the neighbours, with parking the main concern.  The original plans provided for a layby in Church Road as well as Cherry Trees, but Kent County Council said in 1967 there was no point in doing this as it would be swallowed up by the later highway widening.  Later the plans were amended to delete garages at the back to allow more parking there, as well as more spaces at the front.  Since then parking continues to be an issue, and most people are in favour of removing the island at the front to allow more cars to park.  In recent years the state of the shops has been a matter of concern, but the shops are tenanted and so they have little power to change anything.