Collingbourne Kingston

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Collingbourne Kingston
Collingbourne Kingston shown within Wiltshire
Population	456 (2001 census)
OS grid reference	SU240558
District	Kennet
Shire county	Wiltshire
Region	South West
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	MARLBOROUGH
Postcode district	SN8
Dialling code	01264
Police	Wiltshire
Fire	Wiltshire
Ambulance	Great Western
European Parliament	South West England
UK Parliament	Marlborough
List of places: UK • England • Wiltshire

Coordinates: 51°18′03″N 1°39′26″W / 51.30082, -1.65714

Collingbourne Kingston is a village and civil parish in the English county of Wiltshire in England. It is one of several villages on the River Bourne, which is a seasonal river usually dry in summer.

The name Collingbourne originates from the Bourne as the stream of Cola's people. Collingbourne Kingston was so named to distinguish it from its southerly neighbour Collingbourne Ducis. Until the 14th century Collingbourne Kingston was called Collingbourne Abbot's: with reference to Hyde Abbey, Winchester, the owner of the principal manor. The change to Kingston was a reference to the appearance of Collingbourne in the Domesday Book.^[1]

1 Local government
2 Location
3 Population
4 Amenities
5 Education
6 Places of Worship
7 Twinning Association
8 Trivia
9 See also
10 Sources
11 External links

[edit] Local government

Collingbourne Kingston is a civil parish with an elected parish council. It falls within the areas of Kennet District Council and Wiltshire County Council. All three councils are responsible for different aspects of local government.

The civil parish originally contained Collingbourne Kingston, Aughton, Brunton, and Sunton, and part of Cadley hamlet. In 1934, Sunton and the part of Cadley were transferred to Collingbourne Ducis and in 1987 it was further reduced when its south-east and south-west parts were also transferred to Collingbourne Ducis.^[2]

Charles Howard was elected District Councillor on May 3, 2007.

Collingbourne Kingston is part of the Tidworth Community Area.

[edit] Location

Position: grid reference SU240558

Nearby towns and cities: Marlborough, Andover, Devizes, Hungerford, Salisbury

Nearby villages: Collingbourne Ducis, Burbage, hamlet of Aughton, hamlet of Brunton.

The A338 trunk road runs through Collingbourne Kingston.

[edit] Population

No.	Year	Collingbourne Kingston	Wiltshire
1	1801	731	185,107
2	1811	746	193,828
3	1821	817	222,157
4	1831	913	240,156
5	1841	933	258,733
6	1851	922	254,221
7	1861	903	249,311
8	1871	841	257,177
9	1881	696	258,965
10	1891	739	264,997
11	1901	744	271,394
12	1911	748	286,822
13	1921	669	292,208
14	1931	585	303,373
15	1951	440	386,692
16	1961	397	422,950
17	1971	410	486,747
18	1981	441	518,545
19	1991	454	564,471
20	2001	456	613,024

^[3]

[edit] Amenities

The village has a petrol station with garage and small shop open Monday to Saturday. There is no post office in the village. The nearest post offices are in Collingbourne Ducis and Burbage. The nearest supermarkets are in Ludgershall, Tidworth and Pewsey.

There is one public house in the village called The Barleycorn Inn. This was previously known as the Kingston Hotel and The Cleaver. A former public house called the Windmill Inn is now a private house.

[edit] Education

The original school, now a bed and breakfast establishment called "The Old School House" was opened in 1845 and served the children of the local farmworkers and craftsmen. It was ahead of its time as universal education was not introduced until thirty years later.^[4] The village school closed in 1978 and the primary age children now attend the newly-built school in neighbouring Collingbourne Ducis.

Children of secondary school age are able to attend Pewsey Vale School, Castledown School in Ludgershall and St John's School and Community College in Marlborough.

[edit] Places of Worship

St Mary's Church is in the centre of the village. In 1344 it was called St John the Baptist but by 1763 it was known as St Mary’s. ^[5]In 1862 it was altered and extensively restored by John Colson. It is a Norman Church, dating from the 11th Century, and there is a possibility that the Church sits on an earlier Saxon Church. The oldest features of the Church are the round Norman pillars in the nave; each has a different capital, one with a lady facing the south door. There are four arches to the southern arcade, but only three to the northern one.

The 13th and 14th centuries gave the Church a beautiful chancel arch, with four depths of moulded spandrels and foliage capitals set on Purbeck marble piers. An engraving of the Church in 1806 shows the original lower ridge of the nave roof, giving a better proportion to its relationship with the fine tower with its carved pinnacles and strange gargoyles. At that time there were only four round clerestory windows on each side of the north and south walls of the nave. In the 1860s the roof was raised and the clerestory windows increased to six a side.

The magnificent Conacher two manual, 1210 pipe organ came from Lavenham Parish Church in Suffolk in 1997. It was blessed by the Bishop of Salisbury who then played a piece of Bach on it.

Two recent windows are the Wilson Memorial window on the north side of the chancel, and the tiny Ruth Fisher window in the vestry. The huge canopied Pile family tomb stands to the right of the altar, and therein lie Gabriel Pile who died in 1626, and his wife Anne.

St Mary’s six historic bells are amongst the finest in England and are played regularly by the local team of bellringers. The old second bell stands in retirement in the south aisle.^[6]

Further south in the village is a Methodist Chapel built in 1914 to replace an earlier chapel built in 1819. The chapel was sold as a private home in 1987.^[7]

[edit] Twinning Association

Collingbourne and District are twinned with Le Merlerault, Normandy in France. The twinning agreement was put in place on April 18, 1992.

[edit] Trivia

In 1943, a female pilot apparently crashed into the roof of No 54 The High Street taking off its thatched roof.^[8] This house was also used as the ticket office for the Collingbourne Kingston Halt railway station on the Midland and South Western Junction Railway.^[9] The station opened in 1932 on a line that had been open since 1882 and closed to passengers in 1961.^[10]