Kington Magna
| Kington Magna | |
| Dorset | |
|---|---|
 All Saints' Church, Kington Magna | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | ST765232 |
| Location: | 51°0’27"N, 2°20’11"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 389 (2011) |
| Post town: | Gillingham |
| Postcode: | SP8 |
| Dialling code: | 01747 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Dorset |
Kington Magna is a village in the Blackmore Vale in Dorset, situated about three and a half miles south-west of the town of Gillingham, in the north of the county.
The village sits in the 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."[1]
The 2011 census recorded for the whole parish, including the hamlet of Nyland, 180 dwellings and a population of 389.
History
The name 'Kington' means 'great King's Town';[1][2] from cynetun, 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.[3][4] 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, in the hundred of Gillingham.[5]
In 1243 the village was recorded as Magna Kington.[3]
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.[4] 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, All Saints, was restored and enlarged in 1862;[4] most of the building, except for the late 15th-century west tower, was rebuilt. Near the church is a pond which was a mediæval fishpond.[4]
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Kington Magna) |
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sir Frederick Treves, 1st Baronet (1906). Highways and Byways in Dorset. Macmillan and Co. Ltd. p. 23. https://archive.org/details/cu31924028032351.
- ↑ North Dorset District Council (c. 1983). North Dorset Official District Guide. Home Publishing Co. Ltd.. p. 37.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Mills, Anthony David: 'A Dictionary of British Place-Names' (Oxford University Press, 2003) ISBN 978-0-19-852758-9
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Legg, Rodney; Hannay, Clive (December 2006). "Kington Magna". Dorset Life Magazine. http://www.dorsetlife.co.uk/2006/12/kington-magna/. Retrieved 12 January 2015.
- ↑ "Dorse H-R". The Domesday Book Online. domesdaybook.co.uk. http://www.domesdaybook.co.uk/dorset2.html. Retrieved 11 January 2015.