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 to London (1.5 hours away) 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
23rd 2018 at 10.30am. It's 10km or 6.27 miles.
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
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