Kington Magna

Kington Magna

All Saints' Church, Kington Magna
Kington Magna
 Kington Magna shown within Dorset
Population 389 [1]
OS grid referenceST765232
DistrictNorth Dorset
Shire countyDorset
RegionSouth West
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post town GILLINGHAM
Postcode district SP8
Dialling code 01747
Police Dorset
Fire Dorset
Ambulance South Western
EU Parliament South West England
List of places
UK
England
Dorset

Coordinates: 51°00′27″N 2°20′11″W / 51.0076°N 2.3364°W

Kington Magna is a village and civil parish in the Blackmore Vale in the English county of Dorset, situated about 3.5 miles (5.6 km) south-west of the town of Gillingham, in the North Dorset administrative district.

History

The name Kington Magna means 'great King's Town';[2][3] it derives from cyne- (later cyning) and tūn, Old English for 'royal estate or manor'. The affix magna, Latin for great, was added to distinguish it from Little Magna, a smaller settlement nearby.[4][5] In 1086 in the Domesday Book these were recorded together in three entries as Chintone, which had 27 households and a total taxable value of 13 geld units, and was in the hundred of Gillingham.[6][7] In 1243 it was recorded as Magna Kington.[4] Most of the current buildings in the village are no older than the seventeenth century. In 1851 a Primitive Methodist chapel was built in the village; it was on Chapel Hill, which runs parallel to Church Hill.[5] In 1860 a pottery was established at Bye Farm, north of the main village; it manufactured tiles, drainpipes, bricks, and chimney and flower pots. The parish church of All Saints was restored and enlarged in 1862;[5] most of the building, except for the late 15th-century west tower, was rebuilt.[8] Near the church is a pond which was a medieval fishpond.[5]

Geography

The parish covers about 2,000 acres (810 ha) and, as well as the main village, includes the small settlement of Nyland in the west.[8] The main village is sited on the slopes of a Corallian limestone hill,[9] overlooking the flat Oxford Clay valley of the small River Cale, which drains into the Stour. In 1905 Sir Frederick Treves wrote that the village "straggles down hill like a small mountain stream."[2]

Demography

In the 2011 census the parish had a population of 389.[1]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 "Area: Kington Magna (Parish), Key Figures for 2011 Census: Key Statistics". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 8 January 2015.
  2. 2.0 2.1 Sir Frederick Treves (1905). Highways and Byways in Dorset. Macmillan and Co. Ltd. p. 23.
  3. North Dorset District Council (c. 1983). North Dorset Official District Guide. Home Publishing Co. Ltd. p. p37.
  4. 4.0 4.1 Mills, David (2003). A Dictionary of British Place Names. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780191578472.
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Legg, Rodney; Hannay, Clive (December 2006). "Kington Magna". Dorset Life Magazine. Retrieved 12 January 2015.
  6. "Place: [Little] Kington and Kington [Magna]". Open Domesday. domesdaymap.co.uk. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
  7. "Dorse H-R". The Domesday Book Online. domesdaybook.co.uk. Retrieved 11 January 2015.
  8. 8.0 8.1 "'Kington Magna', in An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Dorset, Volume 4, North (London, 1972), pp. 41-43". British History Online. University of London. 2014. Retrieved 11 January 2015.
  9. Ralph Wightman (1983). Portrait of Dorset. Robert Hale Ltd. p. 17. ISBN 0-7090-0844-9.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kington Magna.