Church Of St Bartholomew

The Church of St Bartholomew, Otford

This is a small, low parish church with a massive, squat west tower. The earliest fabric dates to the 11th century, with significant additions and alterations spanning the medieval period through to the 19th century.

The nave is 11th-century in date, possibly pre-Conquest, and the north and west walls retain early quoins. The tower is late 12th-century in origin. It is rendered, unbuttressed and undivided externally, with an embattled parapet and a low broach spire. It has tiny, narrow lights in the lower part. The tower is unusually short, and photographs taken with render removed show that the south-west corner, at least, is built in brick, suggesting a 17th-century repair. The chancel was rebuilt in the 14th century and features an excellent, very large east window of five lights with Decorated tracery, renewed around 1854. It also retains a blocked north window similar to one in the nave. The south aisle and south chapel are early 16th-century and were referred to as 'the newe ile' in a will of 1532. These retain 16th-century windows with cusped lights under depressed heads with hood moulds, and a 16th-century south door in the aisle, also with depressed head and hood mould. A north-east vestry, probably 16th-century, stands at right angles to the chancel with Tudor arched windows and an inserted north door. The west porch is dated 1637 and has particular character: a pair of panelled outer doors, walls with close-set heavy framing, and an open colonnade of chunky turned baluster shafts above, with an openwork pendant in the gable.

The building is constructed of flint and stone rubble, with some brick in the tower. It has tiled roofs and a shingled spire.

The interior contains significant monuments. The three-bay south arcade is dated 1863, designed by George Gilbert Street, replacing a timber arcade in a 13th-century style with round piers, moulded capitals and chamfered arches. Street also rebuilt the arch to the south chapel and replaced the chancel arch, which is wide with continuous chamfers. The entrance to the west tower is of door rather than arch proportions, is pointed, and probably dates to the late 12th century, with two orders towards the nave.

The north-east vestry contains an internal recess that has been identified as a wafer oven for baking communion wafers. The chancel is dominated by a very large monument to Charles Polhill, dated 1755.

The principal fixtures include an excellent early 16th-century Easter Sepulchre-style tomb in the chancel north wall, with a damaged panelled tomb chest and above it a recess with panelled vaulting and a canopy with a brattished cornice. There is a group of monuments to members of the Polhill family: David Polhill, died 1754, by Cheere, comprising a fine bust on a scrolly pedestal with an obelisk behind; Charles Polhill, died 1755, also by Cheere, a very large monument with a full-length standing figure in a toga leaning on an urn and below two reading female figures; and Charles Polhill, died 1805, by J Bacon Junior, a hanging monument with a portrait profile and a willow tree over an urn. The church has a good collection of hatchments.

There is a polygonal font with a good 17th-century font cover. The glass includes two small 17th-century panels in the east window, including the arms of Lennard, and two south aisle windows by Hardman dated around 1868. The nave benches are mid-19th century, low with shaped ends and doors, probably dating to around 1845.

The church is said to have been damaged by fire in the mid-17th century, after which the timber arcade was installed, presumably replacing a medieval arcade. The low door to the tower may also be a 17th-century reworking using older materials. There was refurnishing and repair around 1845, when the east window was renewed. The church was extensively restored in 1863 to designs by George Gilbert Street (1824-81), a leader of the Gothic Revival, including the replacement of the nave and chancel arcades and of the chancel arch. The buttresses on the north and west walls of the nave date from this 1863 restoration. Further repairs were carried out in the 20th century.

Otford has evidence of Bronze and Iron Age settlement, and Roman remains have been found. The Archbishops of Canterbury held Otford from as early as the late 9th century. The archiepiscopal palace there was rebuilt by Archbishop Warham in the early 16th century in magnificent style, though it is unclear whether this was connected to the rebuilding of the south aisle and chapel of the church at much the same time. Otford church was originally a chapel of nearby Shoreham.