Kingham Tourist Information
and Travel Guide

The Village of Kingham

Voted 'England's Favourite Village' 2006 by Country Life magazine.

Kingham is a beautiful unspoiled Cotswold village with a large open green and some elegant stone and thatch cottages mostly dating from the 17th and 18th centuries it is situated in the Evenlode valley in Oxfordshire, England. It is a short drive from the more well known town of Chipping Norton. The village is on the B4450 between Stow-on-the-Wold about 7 miles & Chipping Norton about 5 miles.

The village is unique amongst Cotswold villages, because it is served by a main line railway station about a mile from the village, the mainline railway station provides regular services to London with services operated by First Great Western Link.

On the hill as its name suggested, Churchill has a church tower visible for miles, a slimmer version of Magdalen College tower in Oxford.

Kingham has a Norman church dedicated to St. Andrew.

St Andrew's church has a fine old rectory built in the 17th century and a really lovely outlook, it's well worth a visit.

The village has one shop, one Royal British Legion (club), one pub, two hotels, a railway station and an assorted amount of houses. Kingham Hill School is just on the outskirts.

In the village itself there is plenty to see and a local inn, so why not try the local ale and enjoy a hearty meal.

The Kingham Run.
The race was first run in 1976 as a result of a request from the local church who wanted to encourage more punters into the local area to visit the local church fete. It was organised by Chris Harvey with help from Bill Adcox, the one-time marathon great, and others in the village. In all over 40 runners attended that first run. Since then at times over 200 runners have taken part. Next year's race will be on Saturday June 29th 2008 at 11.00am. It's 12km or 7.5 miles and will be their 32nd anniversary.

Kingham's first telephone service, introduced at the beginning of the century, was a party line from Chipping Norton connecting the post offices of local villages. The provision of an exchange in the village was refused by the Post Office for many years until eight potential subscribers could be found. Kingham exchange serves three large villages - Kingham, Churchill and Bledington plus the smaller communities of Adlestrop, Sarsden, Cornwall, Foscot and Daylesford.

The Pevsner Architecural Guide praises the church, St Andrews, its rectory 'one of the finest small houses of this date (late 17th century) in the county' and its school. Kingham Hill School, founded under charitable auspices and built between 1886 and 1914 in traditional Cotswolds style. The main school buildings are placed at random on the hillside and connected by narrow tracks.

Nearby Attractions

The Kingham Run, Blenheim Palace,

Neighbouring Towns

Stow-on-the-Wold, Chipping Norton, Burford, Moreton-in-Marsh

Kingham Tourist Information Guide
Cotswolds England UK