Kington Magna 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 ...
in the
Blackmore Vale area of
Dorset
Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...
, England, about southwest of
Gillingham.
History
The name Kington Magna means 'great King's Town';
it derives from ''cyne-'' (later ''cyning'') and ''tūn'',
Old English
Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...
for 'royal estate or manor'. The affix ''magna'',
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
for great, was added to distinguish it from Little Kington, a smaller settlement nearby.
In 1086 in the
Domesday Book
Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...
these were recorded together in three entries as ''Chintone'', which had 27 households and a total taxable value of 13 geld units, and was in the
hundred
100 or one hundred (Roman numerals, Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 (number), 99 and preceding 101 (number), 101.
In mathematics
100 is the square of 10 (number), 10 (in scientific notation it is written as 102). The standar ...
of Gillingham. In 1243 it was recorded as Magna Kington.
[ 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.][ 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 of All Saints was ]restored
''Restored'' is the fourth studio album by American contemporary Christian musician Jeremy Camp. It was released on November 16, 2004, by BEC Recordings.
Track listing
Standard release
Enhanced edition
Deluxe gold edition
Standard Aus ...
and enlarged in 1862;[ most of the building, except for the late 15th-century west tower, was rebuilt.][ Near the church is a pond which was a ]medieval
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 World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...
fishpond.[
]
Geography
The parish covers about and, as well as the main village, includes the small settlement of Nyland in the west.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 ...
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."[
]
Demography
In the 2011 census the parish had 180 dwellings,[
]
Transport
The nearest railway station is in Gillingham. Trains run on the Exeter to Waterloo line.
References
External links
{{Authority control
Villages in Dorset