Longfield is a village in the Borough of Dartford,

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 6 miles south east of Dartford and the same distance south-west of Gravesend.

History

The place in Kent is recorded as ''Langanfelda'' in the Saxon Charters of 964-995, and as ''Langafel'' 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. It had been proposed by town planner

Patrick Abercrombie Sir Leslie Patrick Abercrombie (; 6 June 1879 – 23 March 1957) was an English regional and town planner. Abercrombie was an academic during most of his career, and prepared one city plan and several regional studies prior to the Second Worl ...

as part of the

Greater London Plan The Greater London Plan of 1944 was developed by Patrick Abercrombie (1879–1957). The plan was directly related to the County of London Plan written by John Henry Forshaw (1895–1973) and Abercrombie in 1943. Following World War II, London w ...

in the mid-1940s to build a new town in the Longfield area, however other satellite areas around

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

were selected instead.

Localities

Longfield and New Barn is a

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 ...

named after the adjacent villages it covers, the eastern part being

New Barn New Barn is a compact residential area surrounded by open fields which lies four miles southwest of Gravesend in Kent, England. It is in the local government district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, ...

, it also covers the smaller settlement, the neighbourhood of Longfield Hill. Longfield is the ancient village, situated on the road between Dartford and Meopham; the historic church there is dedicated to St Mary Magdalene. New Barn is larger in population than Longfield, although has little in the way of services, being a comparatively recent development and purely residential in nature.

Topography

Longfield is four miles south east of Dartford and near Gravesend. It is a linear development that is partly contiguous with the village of Hartley immediately to the south. The whole civil parish gently slopes from southeast and south to north. Elevations range from 92m AOD in the southwest of the developed area of New Barn in the east which is on a wide rise, to 45m AOD in and around the chalk pit just west of Longfield across the largely disused HS1 south-of-London link railway line towards Southfleet (just north of the village). Just above this is the tiny settlement, a farmed area named Pinden, to the south, however before this on the road towards London is another named community, no more than a row of cottages on the road named Whitehill. The villages of

and Longfield are within and give their names to the civil parish of Longfield and New Barn which also covers the settlement of Longfield Hill. Longfield is the ancient village, situated on the road between Dartford and Meopham. New Barn is larger in population than Longfield, although has little in the way of services, being a recent development and purely a residential location.

Governance

Longfield fell within the Hundred of Axtane and its successor

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 ...

. The Local Government Act 1972 made the village part of 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 on 1 April 1974. It was transferred to the borough of Dartford on 1 April 1987 where it has remained since. It has been in the Dartford parliamentary constituency since 1983. Dr Howard Stoate (Labour), who had been the MP since 1997, decided not to stand again as a candidate at the 2010 general election. His successor candidate was defeated by Gareth Johnson (Conservative) at that election.

Economy

The village has a shopping area consisting of a local baker and butcher, two local supermarkets, a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional ser ...

, chemist, estate agents, hair-dressers, an antiques shop, various restaurants and take-aways, a pet supply store, an undertakers and a country market on Fridays.

Culture

There is one pub in Longfield, the Railway Tavern. The Wheatsheaf, a 15th-century thatched pub, outside the village on the B255 road to Bluewater, closed down in 2011. The Long Valley Club and the Hartley Country Club are club-based venues restricted to paid membership. Other pubs in the area include the Green Man on Longfield Hill, the White Swan near Ash and the Rising Sun in Fawkham. The church is dedicated to St Mary Magdalene, and was built in 1343. It is a Grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

Transport

Rail

Longfield railway station connects the village 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, Ramsgate via

Chatham Chatham may refer to: Places and jurisdictions Canada * Chatham Islands (British Columbia) * Chatham Sound, British Columbia * Chatham, New Brunswick, a former town, now a neighbourhood of Miramichi * Chatham (electoral district), New Brunswic ...

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

Longfield is served by

Arriva Kent Thameside Arriva Kent Thameside is a bus operator based in North-West Kent, England. It is a subsidiary of Arriva. The company operates services in Northfleet, Gravesend & Dartford as part of the Arriva Southern Counties division from their Northfleet ...

routes 433 & 489 and

Go-Coach Go-Coachhire Ltd is a bus operator running a total of 40 bus services (including school services) across Kent and Sussex. The majority of these services are operated on behalf of Kent County Council from their depot in Swanley. History Go-Coa ...

routes 474 & 475. These connect it with Bluewater, Gravesend and

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 ...

References

External links

the Parish Council website

Hartley website
{{authority control Borough of Dartford Villages in Kent