Otham
village in Kent, England, UK
Otham () is a village and civil parish in the Maidstone district of Kent, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 523, with 204 dwellings.
Buildings
The village itself has been in existence since before the time of the Domesday Book. The village was given by William the Conqueror to his half-brother Odo, bishop of Baieux, although the lands were later handed to the crown. Under Henry III, the land was held by knight Peter de Otham, with the land changing hands several more times throughout time.
One of the village's oldest buildings, the 12th-century parish church of St Nicholas, is a Grade I listed building. The vicar is Reverend Steven Hughes MBE. Otham also has a number of listed mediaeval houses including Otham Manor (Grade I), Synyards (Grade I) and Stoneacre (Grade II*). Stoneacre itself is a small National Trust property, which is a private residence but is opened to visitors on Saturdays and Bank Holiday Mondays from April to September.
Otham has a circular walk of 7 km which includes the Spot Lane Nature Reserve and Stoneacre. Much of the central village is protected as part of the Otham Conservation Area, due to the village being a "well-preserved example of an affluent medieval village which still maintains a strong sense of identity".
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Otham” as village in Kent, England, UK. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as village in Kent, England, UK. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 18, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q740620. Authority coordinates are 51.250, 0.567. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2011.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Otham”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Otham primary sources, Otham archive and Otham research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Otham”?
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- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Otham” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.