Kingston Bagpuize, Berkshire
Historical Description
Kingston Bagpuize, a parish in Berks, in the Vale of White Horse, 9 miles from Oxford, 6 from Abingdon, and 4¼from Wantage Road stations on the G.W.R. It has a post and telegraph office under Abingdon; money order office, Longworth. Acreage, 1109; population, 208. The manor was given by William the Conqueror to Sir Richard Bagpuize, and with Kingston House, a mansion of red brick said to have been designed by Inigo Jones, belongs to the Blandy-Jenkins family. The kennels of the old Berks hunt are here. At Newbridge, on the Thames, the Parliamentary army suffered a repulse in 1644. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Oxford; net value, £250 with residence. Patron, St John's College, Oxford. The church, a small, plain building of stone in the Italian style, was rebuilt in 1799. It has an apsidal chancel, and was renovated and repaired in 1882-83. There is a school endowment worth about £60. South Moor is an adjacent hamlet.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
| Ancient County | Berkshire | |
| Ecclesiastical parish | Kingston-Bagpuize St. James | |
| Hundred | Ock | |
| Poor Law union | Abingdon |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The register dates from the year 1538.
Churches
Church of England
St. John the Baptist (parish church)
The church of St. John the Baptist, rebuilt in 1799, is a small edifice of stone in the Italian style, consisting of chancel and nave, west porch and a western turret containing 2 bells: the interior was entirely remodelled in 1882, the galleries and high pews removed, the interior reseated with oak benches, new floors laid, and a proper chancel formed, furnished with a communion table and oak choir stalls, and in 1883 the walls were decorated in colour: all the work was executed under the direction of Mr. Edwin Dolby, architect, of Abingdon: there are 120 sittings.
Civil Registration
Kingston Bagpuize was in Abingdon Registration District from 1837 to 1974
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Kingston Bagpuize from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Kingston-Bagpuize (St. James))
- Kelly's Directory of Berkshire, 1915
Land and Property
The manor was held from 1542 to about 1670 by the Lattons, previously of Upton and Chilton, but in or about the latter year John Latton, of Kingston, who had married Lætitia, daughter of Sir Robert Pye, of Faringdon, knight, sold the Kingston estate and removed to Esher, in Surrey.
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Berkshire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Kingston Bagpuize 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 Berkshire papers online:
Visitations Heraldic
The Visitations of Berkshire 1532, 1566, and 1665-6 is available online.