About 26 minutes from Chatham on the A2. The 1947 Temple Hill estate, Stone, Greenhithe and the new garden city streets at Castle Hill and Ebbsfleet Green: a town built mostly on chalk.
Dartford
Most of Dartford is chalk. On the higher ground at West Hill, Temple Hill and Dartford Heath it is capped with Thanet sand and gravel, and in the Darent valley and on the marshes there is alluvium over it. Stone, Bluewater and Castle Hill are built in and around former chalk quarries, where parts of the ground are backfill rather than natural chalk.
Dartford also has dene holes: old chalk shafts around a metre wide that can go down twenty metres or more. Wilmington Parish Council records that Joyden's Wood and two nearby woods had no fewer than 120 of them in the 1920s, and that some later filled during housebuilding may be unstable. The ground history is worth checking before anyone digs, and building control inspect every trench before concrete.
The housing ranges from Temple Hill, built as an estate in 1947, and Stone, which grew after the railway arrived in 1908, to Greenhithe's Ingress Park and the garden city neighbourhoods at Castle Hill, Alkerden and Ebbsfleet Green.
Permissions
Dartford Borough Council
Dartford is not in Medway. Dartford Borough Council decides planning applications and runs its own building control team, except in the Ebbsfleet area (Castle Hill, Alkerden, Ashmere, Ebbsfleet Green and Ebbsfleet Cross), where the Ebbsfleet Development Corporation decides planning. The town centre, Greenhithe, Hook Green and Church Hill in Wilmington are conservation areas, and Dartford's Article 4 list covers parts of West Hill, Greenhithe High Street and The Avenue, and an HMO direction for houses north of the A2. The High Street, The Bridge and Joyce Green are in Flood Zone 3. Builders' vans in permit areas need a parking dispensation booked at least two weeks ahead, so agree with your builder who is booking it.
Services in Dartford
Rear and side extensions on the Temple Hill and Stone houses, which have the gardens for them.
→Foundations checked for dene holes and quarry backfill, with any voids shown to building control before concrete.
→Loft conversions on the semis and terraces around West Hill and Stone.
→Re-roofs and new flat roofs across the town's post-war housing.
→Brick matching on extensions and repairs to older walls in the conservation areas.
→Second fix, doors and built-in storage on new extensions and lofts.
→Common projects
Dartford is about 26 minutes from Chatham on the A2, and in a permit area the parking dispensation has to be in place before the first van arrives. Give us an outline of the job and we'll pass it to local builders who cover Dartford.
Questions
Get quotes
A rough idea and a postcode is enough. We'll pass it to local builders who cover Dartford, and they'll contact you directly.