Hartley (Sevenoaks) — Northfleet
Harnor three
Slow Way not verified yet. Verify Harnor here.
Slow Way not verified yet. Verify Harnor here.
By Daisy C on 08 Sep 2023
Description
A pretty and peaceful rural route, apart from the unavoidable A2 crossing. At both ends you quickly get onto paths. There's little road walking and only unpavemented on very quiet roads around Southfleet village.
Starts in Longfield (aka Hartley?) then climbs quite steeply to a wildflower chalk meadow along the top with long views to central London and singing skylarks. Then you gently descends through farmland towards the Thames. After crossing the noisy A2 it continues through woodlands
along the Ebbsfleet Valley, a short but substantial river that quickly spreads out into a wide wetland. I'm sure more housing developments will continue to creep up to the edges but it's a surprisingly green and tranquil gap in the urban corridor that dominates the Thames for so long.
Southfleet village has a pub serving food and some buses through the day, not evenings or Sundays. One route links Longfield and Northfleet (also Swanscombe High Street). There is a pizza van in the lay-by just N of the A2 on Hall Road. Or, three minutes further on Hall Rd is a huge supermarket and more buses.
NB the southern end is at Longfield Station, Longfield village is contiguous with Hartley.
I originally walked this from north to south, as HarNor 2 but found a change was needed after testing it. Most photos point that way too.
Uploaded on 24 Sep 2022, edited Sept 2023
A pretty and peaceful rural route, apart from the unavoidable A2 crossing. At both ends you quickly get onto paths. There's little road walking and only unpavemented on very quiet roads around Southfleet village.
Starts in Longfield (aka Hartley?) then climbs quite steeply to a wildflower chalk meadow along the top with long views to central London and singing skylarks. Then you gently descends through farmland towards the Thames. After crossing the noisy A2 it continues through woodlands
along the Ebbsfleet Valley, a short but substantial river that quickly spreads out into a wide wetland. I'm sure more housing developments will continue to creep up to the edges but it's a surprisingly green and tranquil gap in the urban corridor that dominates the Thames for so long.
Southfleet village has a pub serving food and some buses through the day, not evenings or Sundays. One route links Longfield and Northfleet (also Swanscombe High Street). There is a pizza van in the lay-by just N of the A2 on Hall Road. Or, three minutes further on Hall Rd is a huge supermarket and more buses.
NB the southern end is at Longfield Station, Longfield village is contiguous with Hartley.
I originally walked this from north to south, as HarNor 2 but found a change was needed after testing it. Most photos point that way too.
Uploaded on 24 Sep 2022, edited Sept 2023
Status
This route has been reviewed by 3 people.
There are no issues flagged.
Photos for Harnor three
Photos of this route will appear when they are added to a review. You can review this route here.
Information
Route status - Live
Reviews - 3
Average rating -
Is this route good enough? - Yes (3)
There are currently no problems reported with this route.
Downloads - 1
Surveys
We are working to build-up a picture of what routes look like. To do that we are asking volunteers to survey routes so that we can communicate features, obstacles and challenges that may make a route desirable or not.
Slow Ways surveyors are asked to complete some basic online training, but they are not vetted. If you are dependent on the survey information being correct in order to complete a route, we recommend that you think critically about the information provided. You may also wish to wait until more than one survey has been completed.
Help people know more about this route by volunteering to submit a survey.
- Complete the survey training.
- Submit a survey for this route.
Geography information system (GIS) data
Total length
Maximum elevation
Minimum elevation
Start and end points
Hartley (Sevenoaks)
Grid Ref
TQ6012168869
Lat / Lon
51.39627° / 0.30029°
Easting / Northing
560,121E / 168,870N
What3Words
tile.sugars.plots
Northfleet
Grid Ref
TQ6162174438
Lat / Lon
51.44587° / 0.32436°
Easting / Northing
561,621E / 174,438N
What3Words
wells.churn.moving
| Hartley (Sevenoaks) | |
|---|---|
| Grid Ref | TQ6012168869 |
| Lat / Lon | 51.39627° / 0.30029° |
| Easting / Northing | 560,121E / 168,870N |
| What3Words | tile.sugars.plots |
| Northfleet | |
|---|---|
| Grid Ref | TQ6162174438 |
| Lat / Lon | 51.44587° / 0.32436° |
| Easting / Northing | 561,621E / 174,438N |
| What3Words | wells.churn.moving |
Sorry Land Cover data is not currently available for this route. Please check back later.
reviews
Daisy C
24 Sep 2022 (edited 04 Nov 2022)I walked the reverse route from Northfleet to "Hartley" (aka Longfield) on a lovely early June day and the walk was rather lovely too. I watched shoals of fish sunbathing, sent a hare dashing through polytunnels of blackberries, found a thrush anvil, listened to reed warblers and soaring skylarks, and saw many interesting chalkland wildflowers. The northern half isn't entirely peaceful, thanks to trains and A2 traffic put don't let that put you off.
The road sections are either on well demarcated pavements, or on particularly quiet roads just within village boundaries.
If you have a dog and it's spring or summer please keep it on a lead near the Hartley/Longfield end, skylarks nest there in the long grass, they are very vulnerable to even slight disturbances. Accessibility limitations include: some flights of concrete steps, some steep rural hills, several kissing gates/stiles, some muddy sections that could well need wellies in wetter weather. And for anyone with breathing issues the very dusty section near the Northfleet quarry lorries might be a problem.
This is the third iteration of HarNor 1 as the original was impassable HarNor 1, and after walking the replacement I realised it needed to be shortened slightly.
-
Daisy C
08 Sep 2023I've walked part of this again recently, from Longfield up to the A2 crossing. It was still great, better perhaps as the path from Southfleet to the HS1 (?) train track then up to the polytunnels had been strimmed (signs of a nettle patch though). The huge, but passable, puddle at the other end of the polytunnels had disappeared completely. Although the salad planting at the top of the hill next to New Barn (last photo) was being watered and part of the bar was spraying across the path. Luckily the other side wasn't yet planted, but there is another public footpath very near, along the edge of the wood on the east of the field.
-
Share your thoughts
Share your views about this route, give it a star rating, indicate whether it should be verified or not.
Include information that will be useful to others considering to walk or wheel it.
You can add up to 15 photos.
Other Routes for Hartley (Sevenoaks)—Northfleet See all Slow Ways
Review this better route and help establish a trusted network of walking routes.
Suggest a better route if it better meets our methodology.
Share your thoughts