Kingston Bagpuize () is a village in the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

Kingston Bagpuize with Southmoor Kingston Bagpuize with Southmoor is a civil parish in the English county of Oxfordshire, England. The two principal settlements in the parish are the adjacent villages of Kingston Bagpuize and Southmoor. The parish extends north of the villages t ...

, about west of Abingdon. It was part of

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

, England, until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to

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 2011 Census recorded the population of Kingston Bagpuize with Southmoor as 2,349.

Geography

The village is next to the junction of the A420 (

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

–

Swindon Swindon () is a town and unitary authority with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Wiltshire, England. As of the 2021 Census, the population of Swindon was 201,669, making it the largest town in the county. The Swindon un ...

) and A415 ( Abingdon–

Witney Witney is a market town on the River Windrush in West Oxfordshire in the county of Oxfordshire, England. It is west of Oxford. The place-name "Witney" is derived from the Old English for "Witta's island". The earliest known record of it is as ...

) main roads. It is contiguous with

Southmoor Southmoor is a village in the civil parish of Kingston Bagpuize with Southmoor, about west of Abingdon, Oxfordshire. Historically part of Berkshire, the 1974 boundary changes transferred local government to Oxfordshire. Southmoor village is j ...

village to the west and about southeast of

Longworth Longworth is a village and civil parish in the Vale of White Horse, England. The 1974 boundary changes transferred it from Berkshire to Oxfordshire. The village lies between Faringdon, to its west, and Oxford, to the north-east. The 2011 Cen ...

village.

History

Kingston Bagpuize House (geograph 2973184)

The

toponym Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...

Kingston Bagpuize is derived from the village's original name Kingston plus the surname of Ralph de Bachepuz, a

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 ...

nobleman from Bacquepuis in

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

who aided

William of Normandy William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 108 ...

in the Norman conquest of England in 1066. The Church of England parish church of Saint John the Baptist was designed by John Fidel of Faringdon and built in 1799–1800. The building was remodelled in 1882 to the designs of Edwin Dolby. Kingston Bagpuize House was built around 1660, but extensively re-modelled in about 1720. In the 20th century it was the home of John Buchan, 2nd Baron Tweedsmuir, the son of the novelist John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir. In the World War II, Second World War there was a satellite airfield of RAF Abingdon east of the village called RAF Kingston Bagpuize. Remnants of the control tower are still visible near the cricket club. The lower part of the avenue of trees leading down from Kingston Bagpuize House were cut down during this time for aircraft safety. Evidence of this is that the trees at the east end of the avenue are shorter. The ancient parish of Kingston Bagpuize was a strip parish, extending from the River Thames in the north in a thin strip to the River Ock in the south. It became a civil parish in 1866. In 1971 it was merged with the civil parish of Draycott Moor to form the parish of Kingston Bagpuize with Southmoor.

Amenities

Kingston Bagpuize Cricket Club plays in ''The Oxford Times'' Cherwell Cricket League. Kingston Bagpuize and Southmoor have a bowls club and a Women's Institute. Kingston Bagpuize has an amateur theatre group.

Film and television

In 2012 the feature film ''Tortoise in Love'' was filmed in the village. The film was funded entirely with crowd funding from Kingston Bagpuize and the neighbouring village of

. Kingston Bagpuize House was used as the set of Cavenham Park, the residence of Lord Merton, in the television series ''Downton Abbey''. It was also used as 'Mrs Goddard's School' in the 2020 feature film ''Emma (2020 film), Emma''.

Literature

Author J.R.R. Tolkien used "Kingston Bagpuize" as a pseudonym for some of his early (pre-1937) poetry.Nick Groom, "Twenty-First Century Tolkien: What Middle-earth Means to Us Today", (London: Atlantic Books, 2022), p. 2

References

Sources and further reading

* *

External links

Kingston Bagpuize with SouthmoorKingston Bagpuize with Southmoor a village snapshot
{{authority control Villages in Oxfordshire Former civil parishes in Oxfordshire