Kidlington
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kidlington is a large village and civil parish in the Cherwell district of Oxfordshire in the United Kingdom. It is located 10 km (6 miles) north of Oxford and 27 km (17 miles) south of Banbury, between the River Cherwell and the Oxford Canal.
Kidlington is claimed to be the largest village in England (as well as Europe), with a population, including neighbouring Gosford (in Gosford and Water Eaton parish), of over 17,500 (compared to 1,300 in 1901). Kidlington parish (ie, the main town) itself has a population of 13,719 according to the 2001 census (2006 est. 14,000).
It has so far resisted all proposals to become a town; whether or not the community would be better-served by town status, the change was voted down in a ballot by 98% of the local electorate. Nevertheless, the ' village' is expanding in all directions. In reality, it is a town in all but name, with a number of industrial and business parks, a large Sainsbury's supermarket and a well-developed central business district, although there are purposely no 'town centre' directional signs in or around Kidlington.
At the centre of the 'village' lies a church dating from the 13th century, with a Tudor rectory. The settlement, mentioned in Domesday (1086) grew steadily from an ancient village round the church. There are as many 18th century (Georgian) buildings as modern houses. Until the Enclosure acts in 1818, a large section south of the village was unenclosed common land, and the village was widely known as Kidlington-on-the-Green. Just prior to World War II, this land was built up in a Garden City estate.
A major event in the Kidlington Calendar is the annual barge race held thrice yearly. This tradition dates back to the late 1800s where the barges were pulled by a large group of pack donkeys.
The village is the Headquarters of The Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service, as well as the Thames Valley Police. Kidlington is also home to Oxford Airport, which has had a pilot training school since 1962. It has trained thousands of pilots for many airlines in over 40 different countries. Fox FM's "Flying Fox" is also based there. There are several industrial and business parks in the north of the 'village'. The major European publishing company Elsevier has its head office in Kidlington.
There is a secondary school (Gosford Hill) and a handful of primary schools to deal with the expanding population.
The most famous resident of Kidlington is Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, who still has a property in the 'village'.
