King's Sutton is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

West Northamptonshire West Northamptonshire is a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Northamptonshire, England, and was created in 2021. It contains the county town of Northampton, as wel ...

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...

, England, in the valley of the

River Cherwell A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of its course if it ru ...

. It is sited about south-east of

Banbury Banbury is an historic market town and civil parish on the River Cherwell in Oxfordshire, South East England. The parish had a population of 54,335 at the 2021 Census. Banbury is a significant commercial and retail centre for the surrounding ...

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire ( ; abbreviated ''Oxon'') is a ceremonial county in South East England. The county is bordered by Northamptonshire and Warwickshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the east, Berkshire to the south, and Wiltshire and Glouceste ...

. The parish includes the hamlets of Astrop, contiguous with eastern end of King's Sutton, and Upper Astrop, about north-east, in the same area as the shrunken villages of Great and Little Purston.

History

Early history

The village

toponym Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of ''wikt:toponym, toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage, and types. ''Toponym'' is the general term for ...

means the King's south estate. Blacklands, north of the village, is the site of a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

town. Coins from the 4th century AD have been recovered from the site. The infant Saint Rumwold (or Rumwald, Rumbold or Rumbald) is said to have lived and died at King's Sutton in 662. Rumwold is said to have lived for only three days, but professed his faith throughout.

The English Civil War

The

English Civil War The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...

helped develop Banbury’s then arms industry. The

Royalist A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of gove ...

garrison was constantly at work early in 1645 digging

saltpetre Potassium nitrate is a chemical compound with a sharp, salty, bitter taste and the chemical formula . It is a potassium salt of nitric acid. This salt consists of potassium cations and nitrate anions , and is therefore an alkali metal nitrate ...

in King's Sutton and making

gunpowder Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, charcoal (which is mostly carbon), and potassium nitrate, potassium ni ...

out of it in a house specially built near Banbury. Just over ten years earlier, a government saltpetreman had operated at Banbury for a year, having moved there from the then small market town of

Coventry Coventry ( or rarely ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands county, in England, on the River Sherbourne. Coventry had been a large settlement for centurie ...

, before moving on to

Hook Norton Hook Norton is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in Oxfordshire, England. It lies northeast of Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, Chipping Norton, close to the Cotswold Hills. The United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 Census recorded ...

a short while afterwards. King's Sutton was a local centre for saltpetre excavation and digging at the time.

Notable buildings

The Court House was built in about 1500, partly of stone and partly

timber-framed Timber framing () and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy Beam (structure), timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and Woodworking joints, joined timbers with joints secure ...

. It was altered in the 16th and 18th centuries. The

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were usually held the lord's manorial courts, communal mea ...

was built in the middle of the 17th century.

Parish church

The oldest parts of the

Church of England parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ...

Saints Peter and Paul Peter and Paul may refer to: * Saint Peter and Paul the Apostle considered together ** Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, 29 June in the Catholic liturgical calendar ** St. Peter and St. Paul's Church (disambiguation) * ''Peter and Paul'' (film), 19 ...

are the

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 9th and 10th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norma ...

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a ''typeface'', defined as the set of fonts that share an overall design. For instance, the typeface Bauer Bodoni (shown in the figure) includes fonts " Roman" (or "regul ...

and largely Norman

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

. The north

aisle An aisle is a linear space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, in buildings such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, parliaments, courtrooms, ...

was added in the 13th century and the south aisle early in the 14th century. The

bell tower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell to ...

and most of the windows are

Decorated Gothic English Gothic is an architectural style that flourished from the late 12th until the mid-17th century. The style was most prominently used in the construction of cathedrals and churches. Gothic architecture's defining features are pointed a ...

. The

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spire ...

was added to the

tower A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...

, probably late in the 14th century, raising the

steeple In architecture, a steeple is a tall tower on a building, topped by a spire and often incorporating a belfry and other components. Steeples are very common on Christian churches and cathedrals and the use of the term generally connotes a relig ...

to a height of . Sir

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (195 ...

considered it "one of the finest, if not the finest, spire in this county of spires". The south porch, north aisle, west window and very fine east window of the chancel are

Perpendicular Gothic Perpendicular Gothic (also Perpendicular, Rectilinear, or Third Pointed) architecture was the third and final style of English Gothic architecture developed in the Kingdom of England during the Late Middle Ages, typified by large windows, four-ce ...

. Ss. Peter & Paul parish is now part of a single Church of England benefice with the adjacent parish of Newbottle and Charlton.

Astrop House

Astrop house is a Grade II* listed country manor about north-east of the village. It is constructed of limestone ashlar in two storeys, with a 7-bay frontage It was built c.1740 for Sir John Willes,

Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas The chief justice of the common pleas was the head of the Court of Common Pleas (England), Court of Common Pleas, also known as the Common Bench, which was the second-highest Common law#History, common law court in the English law, English lega ...

. Sir

John Soane Sir John Soane (; né Soan; 10 September 1753 – 20 January 1837) was an English architect who specialised in the Neoclassical architecture, Neo-Classical style. The son of a bricklayer, he rose to the top of his profession, becoming professor ...

added wings for the Revd. William Shippen Willes, which were extended in the 19th century and demolished in 1961. William Wilkinson added the Keeper's lodge, pheasantry and a cottage in 1868.

Lancelot "Capability" Brown Lancelot "Capability" Brown (born c. 1715–16, baptised 30 August 1716 – 6 February 1783) was an English gardener and landscape architect, a notable figure in the history of the English landscape garden style. Unlike other architects ...

laid out the grounds. Astrop was the site of a famous Spa discovered in the 17th century. All that now remains is a small well, known as St. Rumbald's Well, south of the house in a valley.

Governance

The village has a parish council with 15 members.

Transport

King's Sutton railway station is served by two

train operating companies In the railway system of Great Britain, a train operating company (TOC) is a railway undertaking operating passenger trains under the collective National Rail brand. TOCs have existed since the privatisation of the network under the Railways ...

: *

Chiltern Railways Chiltern Railways (legal name The Chiltern Railway Company Limited) is a British train operating company that has operated the Chiltern Railways franchise since July 1996. Since 2009, it has been a subsidiary of Arriva UK Trains. Chiltern Rail ...

operates regular services between and , via *

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, ...

runs services to and .

Amenities

Kings Sutton Primary School is in Richmond Street. It celebrated its centenary in 2008. Its last

Ofsted The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is a non-ministerial department of His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament. Ofsted's role is to make sure that organisations providing education, training ...

report was in 2010 and gave the school grade 2, stating: "This is a good school. The new headteacher provides focused leadership so that all the staff are supporting the good quality of education for the pupils." The school used to be in Astrop Road and those premises are now a private house. Kings Sutton also has a pre-school. King's Sutton has two

public house A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption Licensing laws of the United Kingdom#On-licence, on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the ...

s: the ''Butchers Arms'' ( Hook Norton Brewery) and the ''White Horse''. There is also a

lawn tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

club.

Heritage Trust

''King's Sutton Heritage Trust Fund'' was formed in December 2005, with a mission statement that reads: "To promote, protect and enhance the history, facilities, structures and amenities of the village of King's Sutton and the surrounding area for the benefit of its inhabitants."

Notable residents

* Olga Kevelos, motorcycle racer, was landlady of The Three Tuns in King's Sutton for a number of years. * Arthur Halestrap, one of the last surviving British soldiers of the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, lived and died in the village.

Gallery

File:Kings Sutton mk1.png, King's Sutton in 2000. File:Kings Sutton 1 (4).png, King's Sutton in 2000. File:Kings Sutton 1 (3).png, King's Sutton in 2000. File:Kings Sutton 1 (7).png, King's Sutton in 2001. File:Kings Sutton 1 (2).png, King's Sutton in 2009. File:Kings Sutton 1 (6).png, King's Sutton in 2009.

References

Citations

Sources

* * * *

External links

King’s Sutton website
{{authority control Villages in Northamptonshire Country houses in Northamptonshire History of Northamptonshire Tourist attractions in Northamptonshire Gardens by Capability Brown West Northamptonshire District