Kington Magna Explained

Official Name:Kington Magna
Static Image Name:All Saints' Church, Kington Magna - geograph.org.uk - 475299.jpg
Static Image Caption:All Saints' Church, Kington Magna
Coordinates:51.0076°N -2.3364°W
Map Type:Dorset
Population:389
Population Ref:(2011)[1]
Os Grid Reference:ST765232
Unitary England:Dorset
Lieutenancy England:Dorset
Region:South West England
Country:England
Post Town:GILLINGHAM
Postcode Area:SP
Postcode District:SP8
Dial Code:01747
Constituency Westminster:North Dorset

Kington Magna is a village and civil parish in the Blackmore Vale area of Dorset, England, about NaNabbr=offNaNabbr=off southwest of Gillingham.

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 Kington, 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. Near the church is a pond which was a medieval fishpond.[5]

Geography

The parish covers about 2000abbr=offNaNabbr=off 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 1906 Sir Frederick Treves wrote in his Highways & Byways in Dorset that the village "straggles down hill like a small mountain stream."[2]

Demography

In the 2011 census the parish had 180 dwellings,[10] 169 households and a population of 389.[1]

Transport

The nearest railway station is in Gillingham. Trains run on the Exeter to Waterloo line.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Area: Kington Magna (Parish). Key Figures for 2011 Census: Key Statistics . Neighbourhood Statistics . Office for National Statistics . 8 January 2015.
  2. Book: Sir Frederick Treves. Sir Frederick Treves, 1st Baronet. Highways and Byways in Dorset. Macmillan and Co. Ltd. 1906. 23.
  3. Book: North Dorset District Council. North Dorset Official District Guide. Home Publishing Co. Ltd.. c. 1983. 37.
  4. Book: Mills, David . A Dictionary of British Place Names . Oxford University Press . 2003 . 9780191578472.
  5. Web site: Kington Magna . Dorset Life Magazine . December 2006 . Rodney . Legg . Clive . Hannay . 12 January 2015.
  6. Web site: Place: [Little] Kington and Kington [Magna] ]. domesdaymap.co.uk . Open Domesday . 15 January 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150112163223/http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/XX0000/little-kington-and-kington-magna/ . 12 January 2015 . dead .
  7. Web site: Dorse H-R . The Domesday Book Online . 11 January 2015 . domesdaybook.co.uk.
  8. Web site: 'Kington Magna', in An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Dorset, Volume 4, North (London, 1972), pp. 41-43 . 11 January 2015 . British History Online . University of London . 2014.
  9. Book: Ralph Wightman. Ralph Wightman. Portrait of Dorset. Robert Hale Ltd. 1983. 17. 0-7090-0844-9.
  10. Web site: Area: Kington Magna (Parish). Dwellings, Household Spaces and Accommodation Type, 2011 (KS401EW) . Office for National Statistics . Neighbourhood Statistics . 1 June 2015.