Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Grade II* listed building. Main construction periods 1500 to 1532 Castle Cottages; Archbishops Palace (rems of)

Monument Types

• ARCHBISHOPS PALACE (PALACE, Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• HOUSE (HOUSE, Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• PARK (PARK, Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• SITE (Medieval - 1500 AD to 1532 AD)
• PALACE (PALACE, Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)
• PARK (PARK, Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)

Full description

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The following text is from the original listed building designation:

1. 5280 OTFORD OTFORD The Green TQ 5259 21/747 Nos I to 3 (consec) l0.9.54 (Castle Cottages) and Store Building at East end (Formerly listed as Palace of the Archbishop of Canterbury) II* GV 2. These buildings are part of the only surviving range of the palace built by Archbishop Warham in the early Cl6. The original walls of red brick with blue headers and stone quoins and dressings. High galleted rubble plinth with moulded stone coping. Windows of 1 or 2 Tudor-arched lights, mostly under hoodmoulds. The 2-storey cottages, of 1 or 2 windows' width, have 1st floors rebuilt in brick and rebuilt tiled roofs. Modern casement windows and modern doors, that of No 2 under original, 4-centred stone arch. Storage building (AM) (formerly the chapel) also has renewed tiled roof hipped over half-octagonal ends. 2 doors under moulded stone arches, 1 3-centred and one 4-centred. At west end of the range stands the roofless tower of the palace, now a scheduled AM but visually part of the group.
[All the buildings in The Green form a group.]
Listing NGR: TQ5282759205

Description from record TQ 55 NW 42 :
(TQ 52835920) Castle Cottages (NAT) (1) 5280 OTFORD OTFORD The Green Nos 1 to 3 (consec) (Castle Cottages) and Store Building at East end (Formerly listed as Palace of the Archbishop of Canterbury) TQ 5259 21/747 10.9.54. II* 2. These buildings are part of the only surviving range of the Palace built by Archbishop Warham in the early C16. The original walls of red brick with blue headers and stone quoins and dressings. High galleted rubble plinth with moulded stone coping. Windows of 1 or 2 Tudor-arched lights, mostly under hoodmoulds. The 2-storey cottages, of 1 or 2 windows' width, have 1st floors rebuilt in brick and rebuilt tiled roofs. Modern casement windows and modern doors, that of No 2 under original, 4-centred stone arch. Storage building (AM) (formerly the chapel) also has renewed tiled roof hipped over half-octagonal ends. 2 doors under moulded stone arches, 1 3-centred and one 4-centred. (2) Not mentioned in the Buildings of England. (3)

Description from record TQ 55 NW 18 :
[TQ 5281 5920] Tower [NR]. [TQ 5284 5920] Chapel [NR]. The Palace [NR] (remains of) (1) [TQ 5282 5919] Bishop's Palace [NR] (remains of) (2) The manor house of Otford was built by Archbishop Warham (1503-33) near the site of one traditionally built by Becket, of which the only remains exist in the Castle Farm [TQ 5285 5923]. Warham's palace, which probably covered an area about 440ft. by 220ft. consisted of a galleried building with gate houses at the north and south ends, and was divided into two courts by a central hall [see plan AO/LP/63/298].Two stone conduits, one in each court, conveyed water from east to west through the hall and these still exist, otherwise, of Warham's house, only the north-west tower, the lower floor of the north-west gallery, a small hall, and a portion of the outer wall of the south end are now in position. [Shown by O.S. in gardens on north side of Bubblestone Road.] A park is noted as early as 1385. Scheduled. (3-4) Otford Palace is as described and in good condition. The footings and lower courses of substantial stone walling exposed in the gardens and stream bank in the area centred TQ 528 590 are probably the remains ofthe precursor of Warham's house; nothing very intelligible can be made of them yet except to show that Hesketh's conjectural plan is wanting.There are no remains of the park (GP AO/64/116/6 and 7). Published 25" survey revised. (5) Building work due to be carried out in 1974 threatened the site of the Archbishop's Palace. Excavations were carried out by the Kent Archaeological Rescue Unit over a period of five weeks. The earliest finds were of the Romano British period, but no structures were found. (6) The site was purchased by Sevenoakes District Council aided by a substantial grant from the Department of the Environment. (7) Of the Palace, excavations revealed parts of both the south and east ranges of the great palace built by Archbishop Warham about 1518 and later taken by Henry VIII. The ranges overlay structures and defensive ditches of the 14th century manor house known to have been fortified and material of Norman date was recovered from different parts of the site. The east range contained at least four rooms and a passage on the west was crossed by a substantial sewer leading to a series of garderobes shafts in the south range. The junction of the ranges was marked by a massive tower more than 13 metres square and the whole was flanked by a broad moat. The site was abandoned at the end of the 16th century. (8) Numbers 1 and 3 (Castle Cottages) and Store Building at east end (formerly listed as Palace of the Archbishop of Canterbury), Grade II*, The Green, Otford. These building are part of the only surviving range of the palace built by Archbishop Warham in the the early 16th century. Remains of Walls of Archbishop's Palace in back gardens of numbers 5 to 11 (odd), Grade II, Bubblestone Lane, Otford. Early 16th century. Remains of Walls of Archbishop's Palace in front gardens of numbers 5 to 11 (odd), Grade II, Bubblestone Lane, Otford. Early 16th century. (For full descriptions see list.) (9) The walls of the three storeyed tower are now extremely dangerous. (10) Additional bibliography. (11-16)

<1> OS 1:2500 1962 (OS Card Reference). SKE48204.

<1> OS 6" 1961 (OS Card Reference). SKE48369.

<2> DOE(HHR)Dist of Sevenoaks RD Kent Jan 1975 189-90 (OS Card Reference). SKE41352.

<2> OS 25" 1962 (OS Card Reference). SKE48278.

<3> Arch Cant 31, 1915, 1-24 (plan, photos) (C Hesketh) (OS Card Reference). SKE35013.

<3> Bldgs of Eng W Kent and the Weald 1980 (J Newman) (OS Card Reference). SKE37967.

<4> A M England & Wales, 1961, 59 (OS Card Reference). SKE32824.

<5> F1 CFW 08.08.64 (OS Card Reference). SKE42477.

<6> Excavations in the Darent Valley, Kent 1984, 133-88, "The Archbishop of Canterbury's Palace at Otfor (OS Card Reference). SKE41690.

<7> Post Med Arch 9, 1975, 254 (OS Card Reference). SKE48546.

<8> Arch Excavs (DOE) 1974, 93 (B Philp) (OS Card Reference). SKE36500.

<9> DOE (HHR) Dist of Sevenoaks, Kent R D, Jan 1975, 187, 190 (OS Card Reference). SKE40337.

<10> Arch Cant 1980, XCVI, 367 (OS Card Reference). SKE34801.

<11> Arch Cant 1974, LXXXIX, 199-203 (OS Card Reference). SKE34798.

<12> Antiquary 15, 1887, 16-19 (OS Card Reference). SKE33273.

<13> Rescue News (Brit Trust for Arch) 7, Autumn 1974, 3 (OS Card Reference). SKE49175.

<14> Hist of King's Works 4 (2), 1982, 208, 217-9 (OS Card Reference). SKE44020.

<15> Moated Sites Research Group 6, 1979, 47 (ed C J Bond) (OS Card Reference). SKE47306.

<16> Kent A R 37, Autumn 1974, 195-6 (OS Card Reference). SKE45705.

<17> Field report for monument TQ 55 NW 18 - August, 1964 (Bibliographic reference). SKE2808.

Sources and further reading

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