About Kingham
Kingham is a vibrant quintessential Cotswold village with people from all walks of life living here. We are lucky to have a very good primary school, 2 excellent pubs, our village shop & post office, playing fields, village hall and children’s playground.
Kingham is less than a 10 minute drive to the Cotswold market town of Chipping Norton, known locally and affectionately as ‘Chippy’. Chippy is convenient for everyday shopping supplies (we have everything from Aldi to M&S Food) and also great for a day out ‘mooching about the shops’ for unique finds in the many boutiques in the market square. Station Mill is a destination for those who love antiques and vintage finds, with over 50 dealers and constantly changing stock. Many of the antiques in our cottages have been sourced here.
Kingham is also the nearest village to Daylesford Organic Farm – a 5 minute drive or 20 minute walk up the farm track, right outside our cottage doors. This is not just any farm shop! It’s quite an extraordinary destination for all things beautiful: food, home, garden, pets, beauty, clothes, restaurants – in fact it’s a whole blog article in itself.
Local gossip
A few years ago Country Life magazine had a competition for ‘England’s favourite village’ and Kingham won. We do have a little laugh thinking of this, it was all estate agents’ puff really. Each of the shortlist of 12 or so villages was allocated a celebrity judge to visit, learn about the village and its community and amenities and report back. Olga Polizzi, the decorator, hotelier and sister of Rocco Forte, was allocated to us. She visited, walked around and sent in her report. She noted all the many clubs and organisations we have and ended with the comment “Kingham is the village I’d really like to be buried in”. That’s why we smile, it’s faint praise really – but it was enough, we won the competition and can boast we are ‘England’s Favourite Village’ and I hope you’ll agree, buried or not, this IS a great place to be!
Today Kingham has attracted a few more well-known names. Alex James from the band ‘Blur’ lives at his farm near the railway station, he holds ‘Feastival’ – a food & music festival there on the August bank holiday weekend.
You many see familiar faces such as Jeremy Clarkson, Rebekka Brooks, David & Victoria Beckham or David Cameron in the pubs around us or even shopping at the Co-op in Chippy!
Annual highlights include bonfire night, the village fete in July and Christmas celebrations. A church service is held every Sunday at St. Andrew’s. Every other year we hold our own Sculpture Show here in Kingham Lodge gardens for charity. There is a monthly village newsletter listing events and happenings, your cottage will have one for you to see what’s on locally.
Village History
Kingham was recorded in the Doomsday book (1086) and the first school here opened in 1717. Walking around our quintessential Cotswold village you’ll see pretty honey stone cottages and some wonderful large houses, including the glorious Old Rectory, now Kingham House, built in 1688 by William Dowdeswell.
Exploring our village you will come across pretty cottage gardens and see how the ancient buildings, restored buildings and more modern buildings all blend into our much loved village.
You may notice the variety of stone in the cottages. Many of the old cottages have ‘red’ and ‘white’ stone laid in bands. This is because Kingham’s historic building stone came from both the ‘red’ quarry and the ‘white’ quarry on adjacent hills. Both quarries are now defunct, so stone for new work, such as our Kite’s Gate and Ryeworth cottages, comes from further afield
