OTFORD, (Kent) by the Darent, at the bottom of a hill, 3 m. N. of Sevenoke, was of old only a retiring place of the Abps.
of Canterbury, till converted into a magnificent structure by Abp. Warham, at the expence of 36,000 l. but his successor,
Abp. Cranmer, passed it by exchange to Henry VIII. In 793, here was a battle bet. the two Saxon Ks. Offa of Mercia and
Alrick of Kent, who was therein killed by Offa; and another in 1010, wherein the Danish K. Canute was routed by K. Edmund
Ironside. The said Offa, to attone for the blood he had shed in that battle, first gave this place to Christchurch,
Canterbury, (as the deed says) in pascua porcorum, for the support of the Abps. hogs; and so it remained in the Abps.
liberty, till Abp. Warham exchanged it with K. Henry VIII. for other lands. There was a chantry founded at the Ryehouse in
this p. whose lands that K. granted to one Mr. Palmer; but lately they were in the family of the Bosvils. Here is a Fair
Aug. 24. The Ch. was once a chapel to Shoreham.