Distant Day Out - Otford and Dunton Green

A few weeks ago, I headed off to Kent, thinking I'd visit two different places. In the end, I saw neither; one of them seemed like it would be too similar to Rochester, the other was far too big for me to take in across a few hours. Besides, they also seemed like places I could hang out with my friends at some point. So instead I decided to compromise and go somewhere more quaint and manageable. 

Otford

I fear all the places I visited have rather unfortunate names. There's nothing wrong with calling your village Otford, it's more that at first glance, it will probably be mistaken for a certain university town.

Otford station

Otford's strange in that it's a village of just over 3,000 people, and yet it gets superb transport links. What do you mean Otford station is served by both Southeastern and Thameslink, with regular trains to both Victoria and Blackfriars? Perhaps ironically, the first station built here was opened in 1874 as an interchange, just before two railway lines diverged, with no access for the villagers living nearby.

Although even so, why would anyone travel to Otford in the first place, unless they had way too much free time on their hands due to avoiding studying? It's already quite remote, hidden in the Darent Valley, with lush countryside surrounding the village. Hell, a short walk away from the centre will see you near sheep grazing in the fields. 

Whilst there's nothing wrong with wanting to go out and ramble around green pastures, on the surface that's also all you can pretty much do here. And, rather suitably, you've got many options for that:

• The North Downs Way, running from the Surrey Hills near Farnham right up to the Kent Downs by Dover, passes through Otford midway. The nearest towns on the trail are Oxted, which is in a completely different county, and Cuxton. 
• The Darent Valley Path also runs here. This time, you're following the Darent Valley along the banks of the River Darent, from Dartford up to Sevenoaks. 
• Finally, there's the old Pilgrims Way, which is the supposed routes pilgrims would take when travelling from Winchester to Canterbury to see Thomas Becket's shrine.

I wouldn't have had enough time to walk any of these trails if I wanted to, though occasionally I did follow them on my visit. Otherwise, though, there are still some lovely buildings in Otford.

Otford Palace

This is the main attraction, and there's only one tower left. This was where the then archbishop of Canterbury, William Warnham, used to live. Warnham started building the palace in 1514, extending an old manor which used to stand here (and where Thomas Becket, himself a former archbishop, once resided); in the end, the palace was said to have one of the largest courtyards in Europe. Apparently, the palace was so great, it inspired the design of Hampton Court Palace.

Otford Palace

Come 1537, King Henry VIII took control of the palace, but after his reign, it fell into disrepair, and the palace was torn apart by builders seeking materials. So now all's that's left is this lonely tower, and I can't lie, I'm surprised it's even still around after all these years.

 

Now all you can really do is walk around what used to be the courtyard, maybe rest for a while by the narrow stream of the Darent, then make your way off. Even the Otford Society's posters encouraging you to count all the "disco eggs" in the field wasn't enough for me to stick around much longer, though I also doubt I was in the target demographic anyways. 

The village centre

Otford town centre, with duck pond

Okay, the palace is literally a minute away from the centre, with its roundabout that doubles as a duck pond, but either way, the village centre itself is ripe with loads of historical buildings. Most notable of them is possibly St Bartholomew's Church, likely named after Queen Emma of Normandy; in 1020, she returned from Rome with a relic of St Bartholomew. In fact, it's likely the church dates back to the Anglo-Saxon era, though most of the church dates back to the 14th century at the latest. Inside the church lies the Easter Sepulchre, apparently considered one of the finest in England, but I didn't go inside so I don't have much else to say about it.

 

Otherwise, you also have the Chantry, built in the 14th century and serving as the manor court for the then archbishop of Canterbury, standing directly beside the church. Colet's Well lies to the left of the church, and was built in 1790, with the mansion housing various wealthy families during Edwardian and Victorian times. 

   

There's also another grand building in Pond House, which, alongside acting as a grand mansion since it was built in the 1600s, also used to house the village surgery for a while. It's been on the market as recently as 2015.

The recreation ground

Admittedly, Otford's history is mainly centred around the village centre, which is understandable though also means any day out might feel a bit geographically limited. I did, however, also head over to the nearby recreation ground which is on the whole ordinary, except for the solar system model.

 

The model was the brainchild of local resident David Thomas, and is one of the largest scale models in the world, depicting the positions of the planets with respect to the Sun at the start of 2000 at a scale of 1:4,595,700,000. At that scale, most of the planets fit within the ground. The Sun, marked by a plinth with a shiny hemi-sphere on top, is extremely close to Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, only taking a few seconds to walk between all of them. Jupiter's also not too far away, standing by the edge of the ground. However, the rest of the planets are dotted around the rest of Otford, and as such I didn't go round on a hunt for all of them.

The Sun in the Otford Solar System

Otherwise, the rest of the ground is particularly ordinary - it's an open field, albeit with a lovely view of the distant countryside to boot. It's also where local football side Otford United play their matches, and the village hall's not too far from here either. After that, though, I don't have much else to add. 

 

And that's where my visit to Otford ended. I'm pleasantly surprised I managed to see as much as I did, considering the size of the area and that I only came here on a whim. 

Walk onwards to Dunton Green

When I headed to Otford, I only bought a single, and it would have been way too easy for me to buy another ticket back into London from there. So instead I decided to go on a walk to the next nearest station, Dunton Green. It only took about an hour, and the weather was good enough, so off I went.

Not too far from Otford, you'll find the Darent flowing through the village once more, and Otford Mill used to stand here. There had been a mill here since the time of the Domesday Book, initially for corn grinding, but come 1880, the mill had started to produce electricity to manufacture furniture instead. However, a fire destroyed the mill in 1924, burning it completely despite everyone's best efforts. There's also the peculiar looking Pickmoss building on the other side of the road. The building dates back to the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, clad in timber frames and looking slightly out of place around here.

   

I continued walking onwards, supposedly passing "Uranus" on the way, though when I tried to find it in a nearby field, all I could find was distant sheep. Soon enough, I'd supposedly be heading into a separate village, Twitton, which probably has a more unfortunate name than Otford. I will admit I barely spent any time here, though, since I soon turned left and headed away from housing altogether. I did spot "Neptune", though, half an hour after I visited "the Sun". 

"Neptune"

It was a pleasant walk afterwards, with sloping hills bordered by trees, and a not too distant railway track dissecting the pathway. Soon enough, I reached the Kent Valley Path, where the road excitingly became officially footpath, not even horses were allowed. I was officially a rambler!

   

It started raining ever so slightly as I headed down the route leading to Dunton Green. There was another person not too far away taking a similar route, but soon it turned out we were heading off in different ways, so I was mostly alone for the whole journey. Not that that mattered, of course. The trip itself was rather scruffy from this point onwards, with muddier paths, telegraph poles, and the grim arrival of the M26 motorway above me. Not to mention the railway was now running parallel to me, so I was greeted by a train rushing past towards London. 

   

And I would have continued following all the signposts down this miserable footpath, but I was halted by a particularly heavy section of mud. So instead I turned back and went the long way to Dunton Green, where I eventually crossed the M26 again, and made my way into the village centre.

   

Dunton Green is home to just over 2,000 people, but it too gets startlingly great transport, courtesy of the railways, which have run here since 1868. Part of the reason for this is because it has an industrial background, consisting of former brickfields and a corn mill, as well as miners who worked to construct parts of the railway in the area. 

   

I didn't hang around for long, but I did manage to see the old village hall, which has stood here since 1851, and the war memorial beside it. I also caught the village sign, which is apparently double-sided but I somehow didn't catch that. But otherwise, it was just a walk down to the station, which actually lies quite far away from the village centre. I didn't even remember to take a photo of the platforms, I must have been particularly keen on heading back home. 

Epilogue 

One final thing I'll mention is that Otford and Dunton Green are also where Orbital, the techno band from the 90s, come from. They even took their name from the M25, which runs not that far from here. I only mention them because I've been listening to their second album loads lately, and in theory they are the most famous people to come from this neck of the woods. 

Overall, I think Otford's quite a lovely village. I'm not sure if I'll ever go back, indeed I'd probably first head over to those two places I mentioned at the start before ever doing so. Though of course, that's not a mark against it.