Otterden

Otterden is a civil parish and village on the Kent Downs in the borough of Maidstone in Kent, England.[2]

Otterden
Otterden
Location within Kent
Population162 (2011 Census)[1]
District
Shire county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townFaversham
Postcode districtME13
PoliceKent
FireKent
AmbulanceSouth East Coast
UK Parliament

History

Otterden is mentioned in the Domesday Book under Kent in the lands belonging to Adam FitzHubert. The book which was written in 1086 said:

The same Adam[3] holds Otterden of the bishop. It is assessed as half a sulong There is land for two ploughs and two villans with four bordars having half a plough. There\are two slaves and one acre of meadow and woodland for 5 pigs. TRE[4] and aftgerwards worth about ten shillings now 30. To this manor belong two messuages in Canterbury giving 12 pence. Alweard had this manor from King Edward.[5]

Otterden has an important place in the history of science: Stephen Gray and Granville Wheler carried out their seminal experiments showing that electricity can be conducted over long distances at Wheler's estate there in 1729.[6]

From 1933 to 1940 and from 1946 to 1948, Otterden was the home of the Bunce Court School, founded by Anna Essinger when she closed her German boarding school after the Nazi Party seized power and moved her school to England.[7]

References
  1. "Civil Parish population 2011". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 16 September 2016.
  2. Otterden
  3. Adam Fitzhubert held several manors in Kent including Old Shelve, Langley, and Chart Sutton.
  4. Tempore Regis Edward ie in the time of King Edward before the Norman Conquest in 1066
  5. Domesday Book, a complete translation, Ann Williams and GH Martin (Eds), p19, ISBN 0-14-051535-6, 2002
  6. Clark, D. H. & Murdin, L. The enigma of Stephen Gray astronomer and scientist (1666–1736). Vistas in Astronomy 23, 351–404 (1979). doi:10.1016/0083-6656(79)90018-7
  7. Michael Luick-Thram, "Anna Essinger and the New Herrlingen School" Parish of Otterden website. Dissertation excerpt, Creating 'New Americans': WWII-era European Refugees': Formation of American Identities. Retrieved September 28, 2011

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