Here in Kingham we are at the very centre of that weekend, part-time Cotswold country. The village has always been important. There has been a settlement here since well before the birth of Christ with evidence of Romano/British remains.

In 1086, in the Doomsday book, the Lord of the Manor is recorded as Geoffrey de Mandeville, Earl of Essex. In 1313 Ralph de Chasteleyn was appointed Knight of the shire of Oxfordshire and started the construction of the church in Kingham, and Ralph’s son Gilbert started sheep farming here in about 1360. Kingham survived extremely well on the wool industry.

In 1380 William of Wykeham bought the manor and used it to endow New College in Oxford.

In 1855 the railway came to Kingham, drawing a man called Caleb Lainchbury to move here with the company he had inherited from his Father, manufacturing threshing machines.

Lainchbury’s played a huge part in the commercial success of Kingham, right up until its closure in 1987.

The church, started, as we have seen, in the early 1300s, was thoroughly remodelled in 1852. It has a lovely late 14th century three stage tower, with battlements and pinnacles, but the startlingly beautiful 19th century gothic revival close-packed pews with bench ends and frontals carved from local freestone catch your eye and attention on entering the church.