Kempsford 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 ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

, England, about south of Fairford.

RAF Fairford Royal Air Force Fairford or more simply RAF Fairford is a Royal Air Force (RAF) List of Royal Air Force stations, station in Gloucestershire, United Kingdom. While being an RAF station, Fairford hosts United States Air Force personnel. Since 20 ...

is immediately north of the village. The parish, which includes the hamlets of Whelford, Horcott, and Dunfield, had a population around 1,120 at the 2011 census.

History

The village was known as Kynemereforde, which translates as ''the Ford of the Great Marsh''. The Battle of Kempsford occurred on 16 January 800 AD when

Æthelmund Æthelmund, an Anglo-Saxon noble, was Ealdorman of Hwicce in the late 8th and early 9th centuries. He was killed in 802 at the Battle of Kempsford by Ealdorman Weohstan and the Conscription#Medieval levies, levies of West Saxon Wiltshire.William ...

led a group of Hwiccians from

Mercia Mercia (, was one of the principal kingdoms founded at the end of Sub-Roman Britain; the area was settled by Anglo-Saxons in an era called the Heptarchy. It was centred on the River Trent and its tributaries, in a region now known as the Midlan ...

in a raid against the Wiltsaetas people of Wessex. However Weoxtan led the Wiltsaetas against them, driving them back across the river. Both leaders were slain. There is a field on the banks of the Thames called Battlefield where spearheads were dug up in 1670, encouraging the view that this is where the battle took place. Sir Thomas Thynne (died 1639) built a new

country house image:Blenheim - Blenheim Palace - 20210417125239.jpg, 300px, Blenheim Palace - Oxfordshire An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a Townhou ...

at Kempsford, demolishing an important fortified house which in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

had defended a crossing of the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, s ...

. A wharf on the Thames and Severn Canal was built in the 1780s, from which the Wharf House still exists. The Hannington Bridge over the

was built in 1841. Much of the canal in the parish has been filled in but restoration is being planned.

Airfield

In 1944

was built, to serve as an airfield for British and American troop carriers and gliders for the

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

invasion of

Normandy Normandy (; or ) is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy. Normandy comprises Normandy (administrative region), mainland Normandy (a part of France) and insular N ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The RAF used it to lift British troops for Operation Market Garden during

, with part of the site falling within the parish. Its most prominent use in recent years has been as an airfield for

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

B-52s during the 2003

Iraq War The Iraq War (), also referred to as the Second Gulf War, was a prolonged conflict in Iraq lasting from 2003 to 2011. It began with 2003 invasion of Iraq, the invasion by a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition, which ...

Operation Allied Force The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) carried out an aerial bombing campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War. The air strikes lasted from 24 March 1999 to 10 June 1999. The bombings continued until an a ...

in 1999, and the first

Gulf War , combatant2 = , commander1 = , commander2 = , strength1 = Over 950,000 soldiers3,113 tanks1,800 aircraft2,200 artillery systems , page = https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-PEMD-96- ...

in 1991. It is the US Air Force's only European airfield for heavy bombers. RAF Fairford was the only TransOceanic Abort Landing site for

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable launch system, reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. ...

in the UK. As well as having a sufficiently long runway for a shuttle landing (the runway is long), it also had NASA-trained fire and medical crews stationed on the airfield. RAF Fairford has been the home of the Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT), an annual air display, since 1985.

Geography

The Thames and River Coln have deposited alluvial soil on the underlying

Oxford Clay The Oxford Clay (or Oxford Clay Formation) is a Jurassic marine sedimentary rock formation underlying much of southeast England, from as far west as Dorset and as far north as Yorkshire. The Oxford Clay Formation dates to the Jurassic, specific ...

. Some of the land was drained with drains being dug possibly starting in the 12th century. Whelford Meadow is a

biological Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain, or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland, is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...

.Natural England SSSI information on the citation
/ref> The site lies on the gravels of the Upper

Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after th ...

basin. It is of significant importance as it contains two nationally rare plants as well as uncommon plants. It is grassland (as its name implies). Whelford Pools (part of the Cotswold Water Park SSSI) are nearby. These are owned and managed by the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust as a nature reserve. The meadow is dominated by species such as meadowsweet and common couch. A number of different species of sedge have been record and these include the nationally rare downey-fruited sedge (''Carex tomentosa''). Orchids present include southern marsh orchid. Adder's tongue flourishes on this site. The meadow supports fritillary which is nationally rare. The margins of the meadow are scrubland and this area provides cover for breeding birds such as warblers.

Religious sites

The Anglican Church of St Mary the Virgin was built in the 12th century. The

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 ...

was added in the 13th century with further alterations in subsequent centuries. A

Victorian restoration The Victorian restoration was the widespread and extensive wikt:refurbish, refurbishment and rebuilding of Church of England church (building), churches and cathedrals that took place in England and Wales during the 19th-century Victorian era, re ...

was carried out by

George Edmund Street George Edmund Street (20 June 1824 – 18 December 1881), also known as G. E. Street, was an English architect, born at Woodford in Essex. Stylistically, Street was a leading practitioner of the Victorian Gothic Revival. Though mainly an eccl ...

around 1858. It is a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

. The church has an eight- bay

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

, chancel with wagon roof and three-stage tower supported by diagonal

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient (typically Gothic) buildings, as a means of providing support to act ...

es. Many of the monuments in the churchyard are also listed.

References

External links

Village website
{{authority control Civil parishes in Gloucestershire Villages in Gloucestershire Cotswold District