KINETON - Extract from National Gazetteer, 1868

"KINETON, (or Kington), a parish and decayed market town in the hundred of Kington, county Warwick, 11 miles S.W. of Warwick, its post town, 12 N.W. of Banbury, and 6 from Harbury station, on the Oxford and Birmingham Junction line of railway. It is situated on rising ground near a branch of the river Avon, and in the midst of a valley. A small brook runs through the parish. It contains the hamlet of Little Kineton and the chapelry of Combrook under Edge Hill, where Charles I. was defeated in 1642.

The elevation of Edge Hill above the sea is 700 feet, and the waters descend from it on one side into the Thames by the river Cherwell, and on the other into the Severn by the Avon. Kineton was formerly a place of great importance, and belonged to King Edward the Confessor. It subsequently was the residence of King John, whose palace stood on Castle Hill. It was given to Kenilworth Priory by Henry I. At Little Kineton is a well called King John's Well. It is a meet for the Warwick hounds. The market was discontinued in 1841. Petty sessions are held at the Swan Inn on the last Wednesday in each month.

The town is a polling-place for the southern division of the shire. It is irregularly built, and the houses, which are of the rudest style of Elizabethan architecture, are in general of stone, with thatched roofs. In detached situations are several modern houses, built of stone and brick. The living is a vicarage* in the diocese of Worcester, value £116. The parish church, dedicated to St. Peter, is an ancient cruciform structure with a tower containing six bells. The church was partly rebuilt in 1775. In the interior are effigies of a priest and several monuments.

There is also a district church at Combrook, the living of which is a perpetual curacy The charities produce about £107 per annum, of which £25 goes to Combrook school. On the site of the old market-place a schoolroom has lately been erected by Lord Willoughby de Broke. The Wesleyans and Baptists have each a place of worship. A statute fair is held 2nd October, and a bean fair 5th February.

"COMBROOK, a chapelry in the parish of Kineton, in the hundred of Kington, in the county of Warwick, 2 miles W. of Kineton, its post town, and 7 from Stratford-on-Avon. It is situated near the ancient Fosse Way. The living is a perpetual curacy in the diocese of Worcester, annexed to the vicarage* of Kineton, in the patronage of Lord Willoughby. The church is dedicated to God, the Blessed Virgin, and St. Margaret. The Wesleyans have a chapel, and there is a free school. The tithes were commuted in 1772."

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868)
Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]