Kirtlington

The Portway is a pre-Roman road Just east of the moated site are the remains of fish ponds. ==Toponym and manor==

The toponym "Kirtlington" is derived from the Old English for "the enclosure (tūn) of Cyrtlas people". The earliest known record of it is as Cyrtlinctune in a Saxon charter of AD 944–6, now included in the Cartularium Saxonicum. In the Anglo-Saxon era, Kirtlington was a king's vill. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that in AD 977 King Edward the Martyr held a witenagemot at Kyrtlingtun attended by Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury. ==Church and chapels==

Parish church The earliest known record of a parish church at Kirtlington is in the Domesday Book of 1086. The rebuilt bell tower has a ring of eight bells. Henry III Bagley of Chacombe, Northamptonshire cast three of the bells in 1718, presumably at his then bellfoundry in Witney. Abel Rudhall of Gloucester Methodist Kirtlington's first nonconformist meeting house was licensed in 1821 and was a member of the Oxford Methodist Circuit by 1824. A Wesleyan chapel was built in 1830 and replaced by a stone-built chapel in 1854. In 1867 it belonged to the United Methodist Free Churches, which in 1907 became part of the United Methodist Church. By 1954 the chapel had only about six members. ==Economic and social history==

Kirtlington had two water mills on the River Cherwell. They are recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086, and in subsequent documents in about 1240, 1538 and 1689. All documents thereafter refer to only one mill in the parish. There was once a horse mill in the village. ==Lamb Ale==

The annual village festival is called the Lamb Ale. By 1679 it was an established tradition that would start the day after Trinity Sunday and last for two days. in a modified form. Every year since the Ale has been held at the end of May or in early June. Typically about 20 morris sides attend the festival. ==Kirtlington Park==

Kirtlington Park is a Palladian country house about east of the village, built in 1742–46. It is a Grade I listed building. It is set in of parkland, landscaped by Lancelot "Capability" Brown, with views over the gardens to the Chiltern Hills. The house was built for Sir James Dashwood, 2nd Baronet (1715–79), after he had married an heiress, Elizabeth Spencer. In 1740 he was elected a knight of the shire (MP) for Oxfordshire. Kirtlington Park, still unfinished at Dashwood's death, Kirtlington remained in the family until 1909, when Sir George John Egerton Dashwood, 6th baronet, sold the house to the Earl of Leven and Melville. By 1922 it was owned by Hubert Maitland Budgett. In the Second World War the park was used as a victory garden. Kirtlington Park is licensed to hold civil weddings. They celebrated 30 years of Kirtlington Park Polo School in 2024. ==Amenities==

Kirtlington has an 18th-century hotel, the Dashwood Hotel and Restaurant, and an 18th- or 19th-century pub, the Oxford Arms. The village used to have a sub-post office and village store, which closed in early 2020. There was a tea shop by the Oxford Canal at Pigeon Lock. It was open only two Saturdays and Sundays a month, and only from April to October. It is now closed. Kirtlington has a Women's Institute. Kirtlington Golf Club is about southwest of the village. Kirtlington Football Club plays behind the village hall. Public transport The nearest railway station is on the Cherwell Valley Line, from Kirtlington. Grayline bus route 24 serves Kirtlington, linking the village with Oxford via Bletchingdon and in one direction and Bicester via Weston-on-the-Green and Wendlebury in the other. Buses run from Mondays to Saturdays, six times a day in each direction. There is no late evening service, and no service on Sundays or bank holidays. The A4095 road passes through the village, as do the Oxfordshire Way long-distance footpath and the Oxfordshire Cycleway. Junction 9 of the M40 motorway is about east of the village. ==References==