Kingswear - Kinlet

Kingswear (St. Thomas à Becket)

KINGSWEAR (St. Thomas à Becket), a parish, in the union of Totnes, hundred of Heytor, Paignton and S. divisions of Devon, 3¼ miles (S. W. by S.) from Brixham; containing 270 inhabitants. The parish is situated on the eastern side of Dartmouth harbour, near the mouth of which are vestiges of a castle; and on the brow of a hill near the village, are some remains of military earthworks. From Dartmouth Castle, opposite to the ruins of a fort here, a chain was formerly stretched to prevent ships entering the harbour: this fort was taken from Sir Henry Carew by General Fairfax, in January, 1646. The living is a perpetual curacy; net income, £99; patron, the Vicar of Brixham. The impropriate tithes have been commuted for £4 per annum, and the vicarial for £7. 15.

King's-Weston.—See Weston, King's.

KING'S-WESTON.—See Weston, King's.

Kingswinford.—See Swinford, King's.

KINGSWINFORD.—See Swinford, King's.

Kingswood

KINGSWOOD, a hamlet, in the parish of Ludgershall, union of Aylesbury, hundred of Ashendon, county of Buckingham, 9 miles (W. N. W.) from the town of Aylesbury; containing 66 inhabitants.

Kingswood

KINGSWOOD, a township, in the parish of Delamere, union of Runcorn, First division of the hundred of Eddisbury, S. division of the county of Chester; containing 103 inhabitants. It comprises 1017 acres of land, of a light sandy soil.

Kingswood (St. Mary)

KINGSWOOD (St. Mary), a parish, in the union of Dursley, Upper division of the hundred of Berkeley, W. division of the county of Gloucester, 5¼ miles (S. by W.) from Dursley; containing 1321 inhabitants. A Cistercian monastery was founded here in 1139, and dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, by William de Berkeley, who placed in it brethren from Tintern Abbey. The society soon afterwards removed to Tetbury, but in 1170 returned to this parish, and settled at Mireford, near the site of their former establishment, where they continued to flourish till the Dissolution, when their revenue was returned at £254. 11. 2.: the only remains are, the foundations of the two churches, a gate-house, and some small ruins. The parish comprises 2200 acres by computation; the lands are watered by the Middle Avon, and on its banks are several extensive mills for the manufacture of woollen-cloth. The living is a perpetual curacy; net income, £99; patrons, the Inhabitants. There are places of worship for Independents and Wesleyans. A school was endowed in 1674, by John Mayo, with a farmhouse and 25 acres of land; the present income is £50 per annum. Josiah Sheppard, in 1726, bequeathed £1500 to purchase land for the benefit of the nonconformist minister and the poor of his congregation.

Kingswood

KINGSWOOD, an ecclesiastical district, in the parish of Bitton, union of Keynsham, Upper division of the hundred of Langley and Swinehead, W. division of the county of Gloucester, 4 miles (E. by N.) from Bristol; containing about 5000 inhabitants. Here are some extensive collieries, from which the city of Bristol and its vicinity are principally supplied with coal. The church, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, was built partly at the expense of the Parliamentary Commissioners. The living is a perpetual curacy; net income, £150; patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Salisbury. A parsonage-house, and a national school, were erected close to the church in 1823. A school was founded in 1748, by the Rev. John Wesley, for clothing and educating 100 boys, the sons of Wesleyan ministers.

Kingswood

KINGSWOOD, a liberty, in the parish of Ewell, union, and First division of the hundred, of Reigate, E. division of Surrey, 2½ miles (N. N. W.) from Gatton; containing 245 inhabitants. This place was given by Henry II. to the priory of Merton; and Henry III. granted to the prior the right of free warren here, in the 36th of his reign: at the Dissolution the estate went to the crown, and the lands have since been held by various families, some of them of consequence. The liberty comprises 1800 acres, of which 400 are woodland, and the remainder almost wholly arable: the ecclesiastical district of Kingswood includes part of Banstead parish. The church, dedicated to St. Andrew, was erected at a cost exceeding £1100, raised by subscription, aided by a grant of £150 from the Incorporated Society: it was consecrated on the 14th January, 1836. The living is endowed with about £60 per annum, and is in the gift of the Vicar of Ewell. The Unitarians have a place of worship. Here was formerly a chapel, of which mention occurs towards the close of the reign of Edward I.

Kingswood

KINGSWOOD, a hamlet, partly in the parish of Lapworth, Warwick division of the hundred of Kington, and partly in that of Rowington, Henley division of the hundred of Barlichway, union of Solihull, S. division of the county of Warwick, 5 miles (N. E. by N.) from the town of Henley-in-Arden. Here is a place of worship for Unitarians.

Kingthorp

KINGTHORP, a township, in the parish, union, and lythe of Pickering, N. riding of York, 2 miles (N. E. by E.) from Pickering; containing 52 inhabitants. It comprises by computation 1090 acres of land, and is situated on the road from Pickering to Lockton.

Kington

KINGTON, a tything, in the parish, union, and Lower division of the hundred, of Thornbury, W. division of the county of Gloucester, ¾ of a mile (W. N. W.) from Thornbury; with 745 inhabitants.

Kington (St. Michael)

KINGTON (St. Michael), a market-town and parish, and the head of a union, in the hundred of Huntington, county of Hereford; comprising the townships of Barton with Bradnor and Rushock, Both-Hergests, and Lilwall with Pembers-Oak and Chickward; and containing 3131 inhabitants, of whom 2091 are in the town, 19 miles (W. N. W.) from Hereford, and 154 (W. by N.) from London. This town, which is of considerable antiquity, is situated on the banks of the river Arrow, and consists of two spacious streets. Charles II. is said to have visited it prior to the fatal battle of Worcester, and to have slept at an inn then called the Lion, but now the Talbot. In a barn still standing, the celebrated tragic actress, Mrs. Siddons, made her first appearance on the stage. The manufacture of woollencloth, which was formerly carried on, has entirely ceased; and glove-making, which, until a recent period, furnished employment to a considerable number of the inhabitants, has much declined. There are, however, an iron-foundry, a nail-manufactory, and an extensive tannery; and stone of good quality for building is quarried. A railroad has been constructed from the foundry to Brecon, joining the canal at Newport, and extending to the lime rocks at Old Radnor. Here is a good market for provisions on Wednesday; and fairs are held on the Wednesdays before Candlemas-day and Easter, on Whit-Monday, August 2nd, and September 4th, for horses and cattle. Courts leet and baron for the manor, at the former of which a bailiff is appointed, take place annually; and the county magistrates hold petty-sessions for the hundred of Huntington every Friday. The powers of the county debt-court of Kington, established in 1847, extend over the greater part of the registration-district of Presteign and Kington, and over the parish of Almeley.

The parish comprises by measurement 6733 acres, of which about 500 are coppice-wood, 1600 open common, and the remainder inclosed and under cultivation. The soil is various; on the east and south of the town a reddish clayey loam, and to the north and west light and gravelly: the surface is generally hilly, and the lower grounds are watered by the river Arrow and a stream called Back Brook, which are both well stocked with trout, and which unite a little below the town. The living is a vicarage, with the rectories of Huntington and Michael-Church, and the vicarage of Brilley, valued in the king's books at £25. 2. 11.; net income, £666; patron and appropriator, the Bishop of Hereford. The church, an ancient structure in the early English style, was enlarged and thoroughly repaired in 1829. There are places of worship for Baptists and Wesleyans. A free grammar school was founded pursuant to the will of Lady Hawkins, who in 1619 bequeathed money for the purchase of an estate, now producing £224 per annum. The union of Kington comprises 26 parishes or places, 11 being in the county of Hereford, and 15 in that of Radnor, Wales; the whole population amounts to 15,738. On Bradnor Hill, about a mile north of the town, are traces of an ancient camp: there is a rocky eminence in the vicinity, called Castle Hill; and about a mile to the west of the town is a mound, which was once fortified. These works are supposed to have formed parts of a series of strongholds between Huntington Castle and the castle of Lyon's Hall, to the south of the parish.

Kington

KINGTON, a township, in the parish of Leintwardine, union of Ludlow, hundred of Wigmore, county of Hereford; containing 264 inhabitants.

Kington, or Kineton (St. Peter)

KINGTON, or Kineton (St. Peter), a markettown and parish, in the union of Stratford-uponAvon, Kington division of the hundred of Kington, S. division of the county of Warwick; containing, with the chapelry of Combrook, 1248 inhabitants, of whom 966 are in the town, 10½ miles (S. S. E.) from Warwick, and 82 (N. W. by W.) from London. This place, which gives name to the hundred, is so designated from its having been a royal residence. About a quarter of a mile to the south-west, on a spot still called Castle Hill, was a castle, in which King John is said to have held his court; but there are no vestiges of the building, traces of the moat by which it was surrounded being the only discernible remains: the site is planted with trees, and at a short distance from the spot is a well styled King John's Well. The name Kineton, which is more ancient than Kington, is thought by some to have been obtained from the place having been at a very early period a considerable mart for cattle, or kine. By this name it was given by Henry I. to the monks of Kenilworth; and coming afterwards into the possession of Milo de Kineton, it was taken from him by Stephen, and restored to the monks.

Edge-Hill

Edge-Hill, near the town, was the scene of the memorable battle of that name, which occurred in 1642, between the royal army, commanded by the king in person, and the parliamentarian forces under the Earl of Essex. The king, on his march towards London, having arrived near Banbury, received intelligence that the Earl of Essex was advancing on his rear; and he therefore ordered his army to retrograde, and rendezvous on EdgeHill on the morning of Sunday the 23rd of October. The republican troops drew up their line of battle in the valley below. About two o'clock in the afternoon, the king's forces advanced to the attack; the cavalry of the right wing, led on by Prince Rupert, made a charge which completely routed the parliamentarian horse, and Rupert's cavalry commenced a close and unsparing pursuit. Three regiments only withstood the attack; but during the absence of Prince Rupert, imprudently detained in plundering Kington, these, commanded respectively by Lord Brook, Col. Ballard, and Denzil Holles, having made good the ground abandoned by the fugitives, poured in from the flank upon the main body of the king's army, which at the same time was charged in front by the remainder of the infantry led by the Earl of Essex in person, and was ultimately forced to give way. The defeat of the royal army was prevented only by the approach of night, during which the main body of the troops of the Earl of Essex withdrew to Kington. On the next day both armies retired; the king to Oxford, and Essex to Warwick. The elevation of Edge-Hill above the sea is 700 feet, and the waters descend from it on one side into the Thames by the river Cherwell, and on the other into the Severn by the river Avon. The hill has two faces, one to the north-east and the other to the north-west, the angle between them being at the ascent of the turnpike-road from Kington towards Banbury, near which spot are the remains of an ancient camp. When seen from the vale, the northwestern face has the appearance of a steep ridge with a remarkably well-defined straight edge, from which circumstance the hill probably derived its name. The outline of the figure of a horse, anciently of colossal dimensions, cut in the red sandy loam on the side of the hill, in the lordship of Tysoe, gives the name of the Vale of Red Horse to the plain below; and the clearing out of the horse, which, since the inclosure, is of much smaller dimensions, is still an annual festival. From the brow of the hill, in its different parts, may be seen the great midland plain of England, extending from the Malvern hills, on the border of Herefordshire, to the hills of Charnwood Forest, in Leicestershire. The actual scene of the battle is within the parish of Kington, and the spot where the severest part of the conflict took place is called Bullet Hill, from the number of bullets dug up there in 1800.

The town is irregularly built: the houses are in general ancient, of stone, with thatched roofs, and bear a resemblance to the rudest features of the Elizabethan style; but in detached situations are some handsome modern houses, of stone and of brick. The inhabitants are amply supplied with water from wells; the air is salubrious, and the environs abound with pleasant walks. The market, which has almost fallen into disuse, is on Tuesday, and was formerly very considerable for grain. A fair takes place on February 6th, which used to regulate the price of beans for seed, but is now very thinly attended; and there is another on October 2nd, principally for the hiring of servants. A constable and headborough are appointed at the court leet of the lord of the manor, in October. The parish comprises by computation 3800 acres. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £8. 6. 8.; net income, £97; patron and impropriator, Lord Willoughby de Broke. The church is a cruciform structure, in the early and decorated English styles, with some remains of later Norman, and having a square embattled tower; the western entrance is by a richly-moulded and deeply-receding arch, in the most finished style of later Norman architecture: the chancel was rebuilt in 1315, and the nave, aisles, and transepts, in 1755. At Combrook is a chapel of ease.

Kington, or Little Chesterton

KINGTON, or Little Chesterton, a hamlet, in the parish of Chesterton, union of Southam, Warwick division of the hundred of Kington, S. division of the county of Warwick, 5 miles (N. N. E.) from Kington; containing 37 inhabitants.

Kington (St. Michael)

KINGTON (St. Michael), a parish, in the union of Chippenham, N. division of the hundred of Damerham, Chippenham and Calne, and N. divisions of Wilts; containing, with the tythings of Easton-Piercy and Langley, 1173 inhabitants, of whom 531 are in the tything of Kington, 3 miles (N. N. W.) from Chippenham. The parish is situated on the road from Chippenham to Malmesbury, and comprises by measurement 4000 acres; the soil is clay, sand, and stone brash, and the surface is flat, but not subject to inundation. There are several quarries of good building-stone. A fair for cattle and sheep is held on the 6th of October. The ancient manor-house near the church was the country residence of the abbots of Glastonbury. The living is a vicarage, valued in the king's books at £8. 9. 4½., and in the gift of the Earl of Mornington. The church, of which the tower and north aisle have been rebuilt within the last 60 or 70 years, has some fine Norman details. There are places of worship for Baptists and Independents. Isaac Lyte, alderman of London, who died in 1659, erected six almshouses, which he endowed with £20 per annum; and Mrs. White, in 1821, bequeathed the interest of £200 for their further endowment. In the parish are considerable remains of three religious houses, the principal of which, a Benedictine nunnery, in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary, was founded before the time of Henry II., as a cell to the abbey of Glastonbury; the revenue, at the Dissolution, was £38. 3. 10.: the remains have been converted into a farmhouse. Mr. Britton, the antiquary, is a native of the parish.

Kington (St. James)

KINGTON (St. James), a parish, in the union of Pershore, Upper division of the hundred of Halfshire, though locally in the Middle division of the hundred of Oswaldslow, Pershore and E. divisions of the county of Worcester, 9¾ miles (E.) from Worcester; containing 151 inhabitants. The parish is intersected by the road from Alcester to Worcester, and by the North Piddle river; and consists of 988 acres, of which two-thirds are arable, and the remainder pasture. The living is a discharged rectory, valued in the king's books at £8; net income, £99; patron, Thomas Bowater Vernon, Esq. The tithes were commuted for corn-rents, by an act of inclosure, in 1781; and under the recent tithe act, a rent-charge of £4 has been awarded. There are 17 acres of glebe, and a house. The church stands near the centre of the village, and is a neat stone edifice with 92 sittings.

Kington Magna (Holy Trinity)

KINGTON MAGNA (Holy Trinity), a parish, in the union of Wincanton, hundred of Redlane, Sturminster division of Dorset, 6½ miles (W.) from Shaftesbury; containing, with the tything of Nyland, 616 inhabitants. The parish is situated on the road from London, viâ Yeovil, to Exeter; and comprises by measurement 1884 acres. Stone of inferior quality for building is dug, as occasion requires. The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £13. 4. 7.; net income, £532; patron, the Duke of Rutland: the glebe comprises 66 acres. The church is an ancient structure. There are places of worship for Independents and Primitive Methodists.

Kington, West (St. Mary)

KINGTON, WEST (St. Mary), a parish, in the union and hundred of Chippenham, Chippenham and Calne, and N. divisions of Wilts, 8½ miles (W. N. W.) from Chippenham; containing 349 inhabitants, and comprising 2447a. 1r. 15p. There are quarries of stone for common building purposes. The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £11. 9. 9½., and in the gift of the Bishop of Salisbury: the tithes have been commuted for £553. 14., and the glebe comprises 73a. 3r. 37p. The church is a neat plain edifice. Near Ebbedown are vestiges of a small Roman camp. In the walk to the glebe-house is a small hollow oak, the favourite resort of Latimer, when that prelate held the incumbency.

Kingwater

KINGWATER, a township, in the parish of Lanercost-Abbey, union of Brampton, Eskdale ward, E. division of Cumberland, 9 miles (N. E.) from Brampton; containing 390 inhabitants. This place derives its name from a stream so called, which has its source in several rills issuing from the mountains to the north of Gilsland. The township comprises the hamlet of WestHall, and is beautifully situated in a vale; the soil is light, but of excellent quality, and the district is noted for its pastures. The village consists of irregularlybuilt houses, scattered along the vale. At the extremity of the vale are the ruins of Triermaine Castle, the baronial residence of the Vaux family, now almost entirely removed; and near West-Hall was the ancient tower of Torcrossock.

Kingweston (All Saints)

KINGWESTON (All Saints), a parish, in the union of Langport, hundred of Catsash, E. division of Somerset, 3½ miles (N. E.) from Somerton; containing 128 inhabitants. This place is memorable for the defeat of the western insurgents in the reign of Edward VI., and the capture of their leader, Humphrey Arundel, by Sir Hugh Powlet, after their repulse at Exeter in 1549. The parish comprises by measurement 1151 acres. Stone of excellent quality for building and paving is quarried. The living is a discharged rectory, valued in the king's books at £10. 6. 3., and in the gift of F. H. Dickenson, Esq.: the tithes have been commuted for £156, and the glebe comprises 29½ acres.

Kinlet (St. Peter)

KINLET (St. Peter), a parish, in the union of Cleobury-Mortimer, hundred of Stottesden, S. division of Salop, 5¼ miles (N. E. by N.) from Cleobury-Mortimer; containing 480 inhabitants. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £8. 2. 4.; patron and impropriator, W. L. Childe, Esq. The vicarial tithes have been commuted for £320, and there are 45 acres of glebe. The church is an ancient cruciform structure, in the Norman style, and contains several splendid monuments of the family of Blount, whose ancestors came over with the Conqueror.