36 



By the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 

 f^f^^HE original name of this Parish was simply Kington. Upon 

 j^jS^t ^^^ connection with Glastonbury Abbey it was called 

 Kington Monachorum or Moyne : sometimes, from a Priory of 

 Nuns settled here, Kington Monialium or Minchin Kington (Min- 

 chin being Saxon for Nun) ; and finally (about a.d. 1280) from 

 the Saint to whom the Parish Church was then newly dedicated, 

 Kington St. Michael. 



Including the two large Tythings of Easton Piers and Kington 

 Langley, the Parish contains 3950 acres, about 1300 inhabitants, 

 and 220 houses. Easton Piers is in the Hundred of Malmsbury ; 

 the rest in that of North Damerham. 



It lies about three miles north of Chippenham, the turnpike road 

 to Malmsburj'' passing between the two villages of Kington St. 

 Michael and Kington Langley, about three quarters of a mile from 

 each. Eastward of this road the soil is chiefly Oxford clay : west- 

 ward, combrash and Forest marble. The adjoining parishes are, on 

 the north, Leigh Delamere and Stanton St. Quintin : on the west, 

 Yatton Kaynell, and Allington (in Chippenham Parish) ; on the 

 east, Draycote Cerne ; and on the south, Chippenham and Langley 

 Burrell. There is a small outlying portion of Kington called 

 Peckingel on the bank of the Avon, between Langley BurreU and 

 the Tithertons : and it has also three or four pieces of detached 

 land between AUington and " The Long Stone," on the Marshfield 

 Road. 



As the name denotes, it was anciently crown property. In the 

 year 934 King Athelstan bestowed a large portion of it upon 

 Atheline one of his ofificers by a Deed,^ in substance as follows : 



1 Printed in the New Monasticon, vol. i., Glastonbiuy : p. 59. Is the name 

 of this Saxon officer to be recognized in that of the contiguous hamlet of 

 Allington : scH. Atheline-town ? 



