Lighthorne Heath is a village in the

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 ...

of Upper Lighthorne, in Stratford-on-Avon District,

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...

, England. The parish boundaries of Upper Lighthorne - a name chosen in 2019 - have been set to encompass the existing Lighthorne Heath and provide several thousand planned new homes. Lighthorne Heath is located some six miles to the south east of Leamington Spa and is very close to the M40 motorway.

History

The village was established in the 1950s, situated to the north of RAF Gaydon it housed the married airmen and officers (those unmarried lived in barracks). Before that time the site was just farmland between Gaydon and Lighthorne with a few isolated buildings. After just over thirty years of active service most of the smaller houses on the base were sold off to Stratford District Council between 1976 and 1981. Throughout the 1980s the larger houses were sold on the open market by the Ministry of Defence. The runway and RAF buildings were taken over in 1978 by

British Leyland British Leyland was a British automotive engineering and manufacturing Conglomerate (company), conglomerate formed in 1968 as British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd (BLMC), following the merger of Leyland Motors and British Motor Holdings. It wa ...

, and became a proving ground for its cars. This evolved into the Gaydon centre (where Land Rover has its headquarters) and the British Motor Museum, a museum of many British cars. More recently Aston Martin built a factory here for its car production. A parish council was established in 2003. Before 2003 it shared a

Parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

Council with Lighthorne, a village 800m to the west. According to the 2011 Census Lighthorne Heath parish had a population of 898 living in 370 households. It is possible that

Office for National Statistics The Office for National Statistics (ONS; ) is the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority, a non-ministerial department which reports directly to the Parliament of the United Kingdom, UK Parliament. Overview The ONS is responsible fo ...

has used incorrect parish boundaries to compile their statistics. The village has had a

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

for many years. The school used to be called Gaydon Primary School but changed its name to Lighthorne Heath Primary School in the 1990s. Lighthorne Heath is part of the Mid-Fosse parishes which consist of a

benefice A benefice () or living is a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services. The Roman Empire used the Latin term as a benefit to an individual from the Empire for services rendered. Its use was adopted by ...

of four parishes: Chesterton, Lighthorne, Moreton Morrell and Ashorne & Newbold Pacey. The Lighthorne Heath Community Church hold a Cafe Church style service based on the principles of the Fresh Expressions movement.

Governance

The village is in the

Westminster Westminster is the main settlement of the City of Westminster in Central London, Central London, England. It extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street and has many famous landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, ...

parliamentary constituency of Kenilworth and Southam. The village is part of the Harbury ward of Stratford-on-Avon District Council. On 1 April 2020 the parish was renamed from "Lighthorne Heath" to "Upper Lighthorne".

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Warwickshire Stratford-on-Avon District