Kineton, Warwickshire

Historical Description

Kineton or Kington, a small town and a parish in Warwickshire. The town stands on an eminence in the midst of a valley, 2½ miles SE of the Fosse Way, 4 NW of the boundary with Oxfordshire, and 11 S by E of Warwick. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Warwick, and a station on the East and West Junction railway. It comprises two streets at right angles, is a seat of petty sessions, had formerly a weekly market, and has fairs on 5 Feb. and 2 Oct. The parish contains also the hamlet of Little Kineton. Acreage, 2495; population, 1021. The manor was anciently known as Chine-ton, belonged to the Confessor, was given to Kenilworth Abbey, and belongs now to Lord Willoughby de Broke. A castle stood anciently on Castle Hill, a little W of the town, and is said to have been erected by King John, who occasion ally held his court in it, but it has completely disappeared. A spring, called King John's Well, is at the foot of the hill. The Battle of Edge Hill, notable for the defeat of Charles L, was fought on the S border, and has bequeathed to the place the name of Battle Farm. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Worcester; net value, £115 with residence. Patron, Lord Willoughby dc Broke. The church stands in the middle of the town, is cruciform, partly Early English partly Perpendicular, was partially rebuilt in 1775, and was restored in 1884. It contains the sepulchral effigy of a priest. There are Wesleyan and Congregational chapels.

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.

Church Records

The Warwickshire County Record Office hold the following registers for Kineton:

Most of the records prior to 1911 have been digitised and are available on Ancestry.co.uk

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Kineton from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Kington, or Kineton (St. Peter))

Land and Property

The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Warwickshire is available to browse.

Maps

Online maps of Kineton are available from a number of sites:

• Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• Google Streetview.
• National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
• OpenStreetMap.
• old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
• Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)

Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Warwickshire papers online:

• Leamington Spa Courier

Visitations Heraldic

The Visitation of Warwickshire 1619 is available on the Heraldry page.