Kilkhampton is a village and civil parish in northeast Cornwall

Cornwall

Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

, United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. The village is situated on the A39 approximately four miles (6 km) north-northeast of Bude

Bude

Bude is a small seaside resort town in North Cornwall, England, at the mouth of the River Neet . It lies just south of Flexbury, north of Widemouth Bay and west of Stratton and is located along the A3073 road off the A39. Bude is twinned with Ergué-Gabéric in Brittany, France...

.

Kilkhampton was mentioned in the Domesday Book

Domesday Book

Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

 as "Chilchetone". The population of the parish was 1,193 in the 2001 census.

The remains of a late Norman period motte-and-bailey castle known as Penstowe Castle are located 500 metres west of the village. Further west, at Stowe, is the site of the grand mansion of John Granville, 1st Earl of Bath

John Granville, 1st Earl of Bath

John Granville, 1st Earl of Bath PC was an English royalist statesman, whose highest position was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland....

, built in 1680 but demolished in 1739: some of the stonework was reused at Penstowe, also in the parish.

Kilkhampton has a post office, a primary school, and a community centre called the Grenville Rooms. There are two general stores, two pubs, and a selection of shops. There is also an MOT test station and an agricultural supply depot. The village was surveyed for the Survey of English Dialects

Survey of English Dialects

The Survey of English Dialects was undertaken between 1950 and 1961 under the direction of Professor Harold Orton of the English department of the University of Leeds. It aimed to collect the full range of speech in England and Wales before local differences were to disappear...

.

History

The manor of "Chilchetone" was very valuable at the time of Domesday Book. It had paid tax on 7 hides in the previous reign and there was land for 40 ploughs. 26 villagers and 23 smallholders had 26 ploughs between them and there was also 30 acres (121,405.8 m²) of meadow, 20 sq furlongs of pasture and a considerable woodland. The livestock were 50 cattle, 600 sheep, 20 pigs and 40 goats; the annual value was £18.

Kilkhampton Church

Kilkhampton Church, with its magnificent Norman south doorway and lofty buttressed Perpendicular tower of eight bells, is dedicated to St James the Great and is at least 450 years old. But some historians claim parts of it to be around 1000 years old. It is one of many churches dedicated to this saint on a pilgrims' route, which leads ultimately to Santiago de Compostela

Santiago de Compostela

Santiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia, Spain.The city's Cathedral is the destination today, as it has been throughout history, of the important 9th century medieval pilgrimage route, the Way of St. James...

 in northern Spain. The church contains an impressive monument to the Cornish hero Sir Bevil Grenville

Bevil Grenville

Sir Bevil Grenville was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons of England between 1621 and 1642. He was a Royalist soldier in the English Civil War and was killed in action at the Battle of Lansdowne.-Backgound:...

. Other features of interest are the south porch (dated 1567), a fine series of benchends of the first half of the 16th century. (The benchends are from the same workshop as those of Launcells and Poughill.)

The tenor bell was found to be cracked in 2006: after repairs, it was re-hung and the full peal of eight bells were first heard again on Sunday 23 September 2007.

Notable residents

See also People from Kilkhampton

• The England rugby union captain Phil Vickery
  Phil Vickery (rugby player)
  Philip John Vickery MBE is a former English rugby union tighthead prop and member of the England squad. He was a member of England's World Cup winning squad in 2003, playing in all seven matches in the tournament, and is a former England captain. Vickery ended his club rugby career at Wasps,...
  
   grew up in the village and his family still own a substantial amount of the surrounding farmland
• Thomas Greenway
  Thomas Greenway
  For the American character actor , see Tom Greenway.Thomas Greenway was a politician, merchant and farmer. He served as the seventh Premier of Manitoba, Canada, from 1888 to 1900...
  
  , Premier of the Canadian province of Manitoba
  Manitoba
  Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
  
  , was born in the village.
• Sir Bevil Grenville
  Bevil Grenville
  Sir Bevil Grenville was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons of England between 1621 and 1642. He was a Royalist soldier in the English Civil War and was killed in action at the Battle of Lansdowne.-Backgound:...
  
  , Royalist commander in the Civil War
• John Grenville, vicar 1524-1580

External links

• Kilkhampton Parish website