Otterden, Kent

Historical Description

Otterden, a parish in Kent, 2 miles SSW of Eastling, and 3½ from Lenham station on the L.C. & D.R. Post town, Faversham; money order office, Lenham; telegraph office, Doddington. The manor belonged formerly to the St Legers, the Auchers, the Lewins, and the Curteises, and, with Otterden Place, belongs now to the Wheler family. Otterden Place is a pretty mansion, partly of the time of Henry VII., was the scene of experiments by Gray and Wheler in 1729 allied to those of Dr. Franklin, leading to the identification of lightning with electricity, and commands fine views over the wooded country toward Faversham, with distant glimpses of the sea. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Canterbury; gross value, £350 with residence. The church was rebuilt in 1753, of brick and stone, and a chancel was added in 1894. It contains handsome monuments of the Lewins, the Bunces, and the Curteises, as well as several monumental brasses.

Transcribed from The Comprehensive Gazetteer of England & Wales, 1894-5

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Ancient County	Kent
Ecclesiastical parish	Otterden St. Lawrence
Hundred	Faversham
Lathe	Scray
Poor Law union	Hollingbourn

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.

Civil Registration

For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Otterden from the following:

Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Otterden (St. Lawrence))

Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Kent newspapers online:

Visitations Heraldic

The Visitation of Kent, 1619 is available on the Heraldry page, as is also The Visitation of Kent, 1663-68.