King's Sutton is a village and civil parish in West Northamptonshire, Northamptonshire, England in the valley of the River Cherwell. The village is about south-east of Banbury,

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

. The parish includes the hamlets of Astrop contiguous with eastern end of King's Sutton and Upper Astrop about north-east, in the same area as the shrunken villages of Great and Little Purston.

History

Early history

The village toponym means the King's south estate.King′s Sutton Heritage Trust Site
/ref> Blacklands, in the parish north of the village, is the site of a Roman town. Coins from the 4th century AD have been recovered from the site.Pevsner & Cherry, 1973, page 279 The infant Saint Rumwold (or Rumwald, Rumbold or Rumbald) is said to have lived and died at King's Sutton in 662. Rumwold is said to have lived for only three days but professed his faith continuously during his life.

The English Civil War

The English Civil War helped develop Banbury’s then arms industry. The Royalist garrison was constantly at work early in 1645 digging saltpetre in King's Sutton and making gunpowder out of it in a house specially built near Banbury. Just over 10 years earlier a government saltpetreman had operated at Banbury for a year, having moved there from the then small market town of Coventry, before moving on to Hook Norton a short while afterwards. King's Sutton was a local centre for saltpetre excavation and digging at the time.

Parish church

The oldest parts of the

Church of England parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ca ...

Saints Peter and Paul Peter and Paul may refer to: * Saint Peter and Paul the Apostle considered together ** Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, 29 June in the Catholic liturgical calendar ** St. Peter and St. Paul's Church (disambiguation) * ''Peter and Paul'' (film), 1 ...

are the

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design. In mod ...

and largely Norman chancel. The north aisle was added in the 13th century and the south aisle early in the 14th century. The

bell tower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tower ...

and most of the windows are Decorated Gothic. The spire was added to the tower probably late in the 14th century, raising the steeple to a height of .Pevsner & Cherry, 1973, page 278 Sir Nikolaus Pevsner considered it ''"one of the finest, if not the finest, spire in this county of spires"''. The south porch, north aisle, west window and very fine east window of the chancel are

Perpendicular Gothic Perpendicular Gothic (also Perpendicular, Rectilinear, or Third Pointed) architecture was the third and final style of English Gothic architecture developed in the Kingdom of England during the Late Middle Ages, typified by large windows, four-c ...

. Ss. Peter & Paul parish is now part of a single Church of England benefice with the adjacent parish of Newbottle and

Charlton Charlton may refer to: People * Charlton (surname) * Charlton (given name) Places Australia * Charlton, Queensland * Charlton, Victoria * Division of Charlton, an electoral district in the Australian House of Representatives, in New South Wale ...

Other notable buildings

The Court House was built in about 1500, partly of stone and partly timber-framed. It was altered in the 16th and 18th centuries. The manor house was built in the middle of the 17th century.

Astrop House

Astrop Park, Kings Sutton (geograph 3398065)

Astrop house is a Grade II* listed country manor about north-east of the village. It is constructed of limestone ashlar in two storeys with a 7-bay frontage It was built c.1740 for

Sir John Willes Sir John Willes (29 November 168515 December 1761) was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the British House of Commons, House of Commons from 1724 to 1737. He was the longest-serving Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, Chief Justice o ...

Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas The chief justice of the Common Pleas was the head of the Court of Common Pleas, also known as the Common Bench or Common Place, which was the second-highest common law court in the English legal system until 1875, when it, along with the other ...

. Sir John Soane added wings for the Revd. William Shippen Willes, which were extended in the 19th century and demolished in 1961.Pevsner & Cherry, 1973, page 96 William Wilkinson added the Keeper's lodge, pheasantry and a cottage in 1868.

Lancelot "Capability" Brown Lancelot Brown (born c. 1715–16, baptised 30 August 1716 – 6 February 1783), more commonly known as Capability Brown, was an English gardener and landscape architect, who remains the most famous figure in the history of the English la ...

laid out the grounds. Astrop was the site of a famous Spa discovered in the 17th century. All that now remains is a small well known as St. Rumbald's Well, south of the house in a valley (see "History" section).

Transport

The Oxford and Rugby Railway between and was built between 1845 and 1850, passing through the west of King's Sutton parish between the village and the River Cherwell. The

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

had taken the line over by the time it opened, and in 1872 the GWR opened

King's Sutton railway station Kings Sutton railway station serves the village of King's Sutton in Northamptonshire, England. It is also one of the nearest railway stations to the town of Brackley. The station is managed by Chiltern Railways, who provide most of the servic ...

for the village.

Chiltern Railways Chiltern Railways, formally The Chiltern Railway Company Limited, is a British train operating company that has operated the Chiltern Railways franchise since July 1996. Since 2009, it has been a subsidiary of Arriva UK Trains. Chiltern Railw ...

trains to , ,

Great Western Railway (train operating company) Great Western Railway (GWR) is a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup that operates the Greater Western passenger railway franchise. It manages 197 stations and its trains call at over 270. GWR operates long-distance inter-cit ...

services to Oxford and now serve the station. King's sutton station Mk2 (5)

Governance

The village has a parish council with 15 members.

Heritage Trust

King's Sutton Heritage Trust Fund was formed in December 2005 with a Mission Statement which reads 'To promote, protect and enhance the history, facilities, structures, and amenities of the village of King's Sutton and the surrounding area for the benefit of its inhabitants.

Notable residents

Olga Kevelos Olga Kevelos (6 November 1923 – 28 October 2009) was an English Motorcycle trials and enduro rider who won a Gold Medal at the International Six-Day Trial.Arthur Halestrap Arthur Halestrap MBE (8 September 1898 – 1 April 2004) was one of the last surviving British soldiers of World War I. He was born in Southampton, Hampshire. In his youth he walked the decks of the ''Titanic'' before she sailed. He tried to e ...

, one of the last surviving British soldiers of the First World War, lived and died in the village.

Amenities

Kings Sutton Primary School is in Richmond Street.Kings Sutton Primary School website
/ref> It celebrated its centenary in 2008. Its last

Ofsted The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is a Non-ministerial government department, non-ministerial department of Government of the United Kingdom, His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament of the U ...

report was in 2010 and gave the school grade 2, stating: ''"This is a good school. The new headteacher provides focused leadership so that all the staff are supporting the good quality of education for the pupils."''2010 OFSTED report, accessed 20 January 2011
The school used to be in Astrop Road and those premises are now a private house. Kings Sutton has also a pre-school. King's Sutton has two public houses: The Butchers Arms (

Hook Norton Brewery Hook Norton Brewery is a regional brewery in Hook Norton, Oxfordshire, England, several miles outside the Cotswold Hills. Founded in 1849, the brewing plant is a traditional Victorian 'tower' brewery in which all the stages of the brewing pr ...

), and The White Horse. There is a lawn tennis club.King's Sutton Lawn Tennis Club
/ref>

References

Gallery

File:Kings Sutton mk1.png, King's Sutton in 2000. File:Kings Sutton 1 (3).png, King's Sutton in 2000. File:Kings Sutton 1 (2).png, King's Sutton in 2009. File:Kings Sutton 1 (4).png, King's Sutton in 2000. File:Kings Sutton 1 (6).png, King's Sutton in 2009. File:Kings Sutton 1 (7).png, King's Sutton in 2001.

External links

King’s Sutton website
{{authority control Villages in Northamptonshire Country houses in Northamptonshire History of Northamptonshire Tourist attractions in Northamptonshire Gardens by Capability Brown West Northamptonshire District