OTHAM ABBEY
SUMMARY and LOCATION:
NGR: TQ 58756 05707
The Premonstratensian abbey of Otham was established on a site about six miles north of Eastbourne in Sussex on the outskirts of what is now the small town of Polegate.
Otham Abbey was founded by Ralph de Dene around 1180. The site chosen for the abbey appears to have already had a chapel dedicated to St Lawrence established on it prior to the foundation. However, the site proved unsuitable for a monastery – It was said to be a bleak and unhealthy location which, together with poor endowments, made life there untenable.
The canons sought a new site and around 1208 they were given permission to move their community to Bayham, about twenty-five miles to the north, on the Sussex/Kent border. Here, with similarly displaced canons from Brockley Priory, they built a new abbey. The site at Otham became a grange of Bayham and was held until the dissolution.
No remains of the monastic buildings of Otham survive, but there is a listed farmhouse (Otham Court) on the site, elements of which may date to the fifteenth century and be associated with the monastic grange. Standing close by the farmhouse, on its north side, are the remains of a medieval chapel which dates from around 1350. This is presumably the chapel of Otham Grange, possibly on the site of the pre-existing chapel of St Lawrence. Records show that it later served as Otham parish church.
Following the reformation the chapel was used as a farm building and is recorded in use as a stable in the nineteenth century, and as a store in the mid twentieth century. It is now a scheduled monument and Grade II* listed building and has been restored for use as a wedding and party venue.
The site is on private land and there is no public access to Otham Court or Chapel . . . unless you hire it for a function.