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Kent Past

The History of Kent

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History of Offham

Offham comes from the Old English ‘hām’ meaning a ‘village, manor, homestead’ combined with a warlord’s name; therefore, ‘Offa’s homestead/village’. The Domesday Book chronicles Offham as Ofeham.

In 832AD, King Aethelwulf made a gift of the land at Offham to Christ Church, Canterbury.

Offham parish church is a Grade: I listed building, dedicated to Saint Michael. It dates to the Saxo-Norman overlap with additions in the 12th and 13th centuries and alterations in the following 100 years. In 1590, Giles Reve cast and hung a bell in the tower, with another added by John Wilnar in 1633, and John Hodson completing the three in 1674. In 1798, Edward Hasted described St Michael’s church as a ‘strong building of one isle and a chancel, having a tower steeple on the middle of the north side of it’. In 1873, the Victorians carried out a restoration to the roofs and replacement of much external window jambs and tracery…. more