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Roads of Hartley - Bramblefield Estate
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The estate from the railway bridge.
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The Bramblefield Estate is an innovative and popular concept for Hartley. It was developed by the Billings Group (FC Starke Ltd) mostly in the 1980s, but more recent is Portland Place which was built on a little used part of the station car park. The mixture of about
160 maisonnettes, flats and bungalows, are held on licence from the company. They are sold at a low price (currently £37,000-£61,000), but have to be sold back to the company at a similar low price. This arrangement has proved to be very popular and has a waiting list of hundreds.
Mr Billings certainly had to wait a long time to develop this land, which he bought in 1950. In 1953 he applied to develop most of the land on this side of Ash Road between the Station, Castle Hill and Fawkham Valley Road. All of this was refused, except Old Downs road. In 1965 he applied again, this time he promised a landscaped site, shops, parking for 1,500 cars and possibly offices. A fifth of the houses would have been for rent. Portland Place is later, the last phase of 28 flats being granted planning permission in 1999 (application SE/99/891) The land was once in Longfield Parish, but is now part of Hartley, thanks to the adjustment of the parish boundary in 1987, which made the railway the boundary with Longfield. Links |
