Kennington, Oxfordshire

Kennington
Population	3,881 (2001 census)
OS grid reference	SP5202
Civil parish	Kennington
District	Vale of White Horse
Shire county	Oxfordshire
Region	South East
Land	England
Sovereign state	Vereinigtes Königreich
Post town	Oxford
Postcode district	OX1
Dialling code	01865
Police	Thames Valley
Fire	Oxfordshire
Ambulance	South Central
UK Parliament	Oxford West and Abingdon
Website	Kennington Online

Kennington is a village and civil parish in the Vale of White Horse district of Oxfordshire, just south of Oxford. The village occupies a narrow stretch of land between the River Thames and the A34 dual carriageway. It was in Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred to Oxfordshire.

Kennington was partly in South Hinksey parish and partly in Radley parish until 1936, when a new Kennington civil parish was constituted. Apart from the village, most of Kennington civil parish is wooded, including all of Bagley Wood and West Wood to the west of the village.

Manor house

The manor house is Jacobean, built in 1629 during the Great Rebuilding of England. It is half-timbered, i.e. its upper storey is timber-framed but its lower storey is not. In this case the lower storey is of local limestone.

Parish churches

The Church of England parish of St. Swithun has two churches. The first is a very early example of the Norman revival, designed by the architect Daniel Robertson and built in 1828. The second was built alongside it in 1956-58, designed by a local architect, Lawrence Dale, and the vicar, Rev. S.S. Davies.

Amenities

There are several local amenities in the village including three shops, a post office and a chemist. The village's public house is called The Tandem. It is located near the local health centre. There are two sports fields: Playfield Road and Forest Side.

Playfield has recently been fitted with floodlights to enable training after sunset.

Bildung

The local primary school is St Swithun's Church of England School. The village is in the catchment area for Matthew Arnold secondary school. Matthew Arnold School is not located in the village but a bus service is provided. Chandlings Manor School, an independent co-educational preparatory school, is nearby.

Building developments

Over the last few years there has been a great increase of building development in the village. This is to allow more housing. The developments are all large houses with large gardens which have been turned into flats. The two exceptions are the new houses at the site of the former public house The Scholar Gypsy (named after the local poet, Matthew Arnold) and flats on the site of the former Kennington Service Station. Recent developments include Strode Court, and Chestnut Place on Kennington Road, to the north of the village. A new development has been completed at the site of Cranbrook House in the south of the village on The Avenue.

Sources & further reading

• Page, W.H.; Ditchfield, P.H., eds. (1924). A History of the County of Berkshire, Volume 4. Victoria County History. pp. 410–416.
• Pevsner, Nikolaus (1966). Berkshire. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. pp. 159–160.