Place:


Otford  Kent

 

In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Otford like this:

OTFORD, a village and a parish in Sevenoaks district, Kent. The village stands on the river Darent, adjacent to the Sevenoaks railway, midway between Shoreham and Bradbourn r. stations, and 3 miles N of Sevenoaks; was known to the Saxons as Ottanford; and has a post-office under Sevenoaks. The parish contains also the village of Dunton-Green, and comprises 2, 852 acres. ...


Real property, £5, 147; of which £30 are in quarries. Pop., 804. Houses, 168. The property is much subdivided. The manor was given to the see of Canterbury, in 791, by King Offa of Mercia; was resigned to the Crown by Archbishop Cranmer; and belongs now to the Dowager Lady Amherst. A palace seems to have been built hereby the Archbishops of Canterbury, soon after their obtaining the manor; stood in so pleasant a situation, at the foot of the chalk-hills, with adjoining large parks and woods, as to have always been one of the most highlyrelished of the archiepiscopal residences; was the death-place, in 1313, of Archbishop Winchelsea; gave entertainment to Edward I., and repeatedly to Henry VIII.; was specially liked by Thomas a Becket, who is said to have brought a water-supply to it, and to have ordinarilybathed in a walled-well still extant, 10 feet deep and 15feet in diameter; was rebuilt, in a style of great magnificence, at a cost of £33,000, by Archbishop Warham; and is now represented by only a roofless tower and thecloistered side of the outer court. Otford House is the seat of MissC. Selby; Broughton House, of S. Wreford, Esq.; and Twitton Vale, of R. Richards, Esq. Hops are grown, bricks are made, and limestone is calcined. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury Value, £200.* Patrons, The Ecclesiastical Commissioners. The church was destroyed by fire about 1637; was rebuilt in a tasteless manner, with wooden pillars dividing the nave from the aisles; has a fine Ewindow, inserted at the expense of Lord Willoughby de Broke; underwent general restoration in 1863; contains a monument toPolhill, Esq., formed of seven different kinds of marble, and some other handsome monuments; and was anciently noted for a shrine of St. Bartholomew, of curious reputation. There are a Wesleyan chapel, national schools, and charities £24.

Otford through time

Otford is now part of Sevenoaks district. Click here for graphs and data of how Sevenoaks has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Otford itself, go to Units and Statistics.

How to reference this page:

GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Otford, in Sevenoaks and Kent | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.

URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/6306

Date accessed: 28th March 2024


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