Kineton, Warwickshire Family History Guide
Kineton is an Ancient Parish and a market town in the county of Warwickshire. Combrook is a chapelry of Kineton.
Alternative names: Kington
Other places in the parish include: Little Kineton
Parish church: St. Peter
Parish registers begin:
- Parish registers: 1538
- Bishop’s Transcripts: 1611; see also Combrook
Nonconformists include:
Table of Contents
Adjacent Parishes
Parish History
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870
KINETON, or KINGTON, a small town, a parish, and a sub-district in Stratford-on-Avon district, Warwick.
The town stands on an eminence in the midst of a valley, 2½ miles SE of the Fosse way, 4¼ NW of the boundary with Oxfordshire, 6 W by S of Fenny-Compton r. station, and 11 S by E of Warwick; comprises two streets, at right angles; is a seat of petty sessions; had formerly a weekly market; and has now a post office under Warwick, two inns, a church, a Wesleyan chapel, a national school, a middle school and reading room, and fairs on 5 Feb. and 2 Oct.
The church stands in the middle of the town; is cruciform, with an added N aisle; was partly rebuilt in 1775; and has a fine old doorway and a tower.
The parish contains also the hamlet of Little Kineton and the township of Combrook. Acres, 3,810. Real property, £5,502. Pop. in 1851, 1,270; in 1861, 1,305. Houses, 293.
The manor was anciently known as Chineton; 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 occasionally 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 I., was fought on the S border; and has bequeathed to the place the name of Battle-Farm. The Warwickshire hounds are kennelled at Little Kineton.
The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Worcester. Value, £116. Patron, Lord Willoughby de Broke.
The p. curacy of Combrook is a separate benefice.
A Baptist chapel is at Little Kineton; and there are charities £40.
The sub-district contains also three other parishes. Acres, 10, 166. Pop., 2, 378. Houses, 518.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
Leonard’s Gazetteer of England and Wales 1850
Kineton, or Kington, 84 m. N.W. London. Mrkt. Tues. P. 1248
Source: Leonard’s Gazetteer of England and Wales; Second Edition; C. W. Leonard, London; 1850.
A Topographical Dictionary of Great Britain and Ireland 1833
Kineton, co, Warwick.
London 83m. NW b W. Pop. 1071. M.D. Tues., St. Paul, (Jan. 25) for seed and corn; St. Luke, (Oct. 18; for cattle and cheese.
A small market-town and parish in the hundred of Kington, which was originally the name of the town, and which was derived, according to some antiquaries, from the manor having been a royal demesne in the reign of Edward the Confessor. In a grant of the estate by Henry I. to the canons of Kenilworth, this place, however, is called Chinton, whence Camden deduces the name of Kineton from an ancient market held for the sale of black-cattle, or kine.
A castle existed here at an early period, which was situated westward of the town, where King John occasionally held his court; and a neighbouring spring is still named King John’s Well.
The living is a vicarage in the archdeaconry of Coventry and diocese of Lichfield and Coventry; valued in K.B. 8l. 6s. 8d.; patron, the Lord of the Manor. The church, which is dedicated to St. Peter, is a small structure.
Kineton is pleasantly situated on the banks of a stream which falls into the Avon; and it comprises two streets, through one of which passes the turnpike-road from Warwick to Banbury. Lord Willoughby de Broke, who is the proprietor of the manor, has a noble seat at Compton Verney, about two miles and a half from the town.
Source: A Topographical Dictionary of Great Britain and Ireland by John Gorton. The Irish and Welsh articles by G. N. Wright; Vol. II; London; Chapman and Hall, 186, Strand; 1833.
Universal British Directory 1791
Kineton, situated eighty miles from London, was, as the name imports, the King’s town, and held by our kings, if not before yet certainly by Edward the Confessor and William the Conqueror. King John kept his court in a castle here. Market on Tuesday, chiefly for black cattle; fairs, June 24 and September 21.
Itchington-Bishops, on the river Ichene, to the north-east of Kineton, is so called from the bishops of Coventry and Litchfield, once its possessors. It has a market on Wednesday.
Edgehill, near Kineton, was the field of the signal battle, in 1642, between the armies of Charles I and the parliament. It lies at the west end of the Vale of Red Horse, and gives a most extensive prospect. It is steep to the north, and has a strong large intrenchment on the top. The battle was fought on the descent of the hill, between Radway and Kineton.
The Vale of Red Horse is a fruitful pleasant tract, south of Avon, to the east of Edgehill, so called from the figure of a horse cut by the country-people on the side of a hill near Tysoe, out of red-coloured earth; the trenches that form it being cleansed and kept open by a neighbouring freeholder, who enjoys lands by that service.
Tysoe, at the skirt of Edgehill, had a market on Tuesday, and a fair at Lammas-tide for four days; but the market is discontinued.
Source: The Universal British Directory of Trade, Commerce, and Manufacture 1791. Vol. 5.
Edgehill Warwickshire Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales Circa 1870
Edgehill, a low hilly ridge on the S border of Warwick; 3 miles SE of Kineton. It was the scene of the first battle between Charles I and the parliament, fought in 1642.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
Parish Records
FamilySearch
Directories
Kineton Bennett’s Business Directory for Warwickshire, 1914
Administration
- County: Warwickshire
- Civil Registration District: Stratford on Avon
- Probate Court: Court of the Bishop of Worcester (Episcopal Consistory)
- Diocese: Worcester
- Rural Deanery: Kineton
- Poor Law Union: Stratford on Avon
- Hundred: Kington
- Province: Canterbury