Charlton Kings
| Charlton Kings | |
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 Charlton Kings
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| Charlton Kings shown within Gloucestershire | |
| Population | 10,396 (2011) |
| OS grid reference | SO9715221074 |
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | CHELTENHAM |
| Postcode district | GL53 |
| Dialling code | 01242 |
| Police | Gloucestershire |
| Fire | Gloucestershire |
| Ambulance | South Western |
| EU Parliament | South West England |
| UK Parliament | |
Charlton Kings is an affluent suburb of Cheltenham in Gloucestershire, England. The area constitutes a civil parish with a population of just over 10,000 residents. Famed for being the location of the mirror which inspired the author, Lewis Carroll, to write the story Through the Looking-Glass, the mirror remains displayed in a Charlton Kings residence.
Located in the Cotswolds, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the surroundings of Charlton Kings are protected by natural conservation directives. Lineover Wood SSSI lies on the Cotswold District side of the eastern boundary. Charlton Kings Common and Leckhampton Hill are also designated as SSSIs by Natural England.
The River Chelt enters the suburb of Charlton Kings from an easterly direction. The Cotswold Way National Trail is on its eastern boundary and runs alongside Dowdeswell Reservoir and Woodland.
The name Charlton Kings comes from Anglo-Saxon times, the word "Charlton" evolved from the term ceorls' tun, a ceorl or churl being the Saxon term for an independent peasant landowner and tun meaning a fenced enclosure with a dwelling. This particular ceorl's tun was established as part of the royal manor and Hundred of Cheltenham, hence the term "Kings" in the name.
Evidence of settlement in Charlton Kings as early as the middle Iron Age was found underneath a Roman villa discovered in 1980. There are many other Roman settlements close by such as Chedworth, Whittington and notably a field called Wycomb (formerly Wickham), and the area of Charlton Kings is well suited to settlement due to the well drained sand and gravel composition of the soil making early settlement much more likely. Much of early Charlton Kings was used for agriculture, tended to by small homesteads. This is evidenced by place names surviving until today. These small homesteads gave way to larger manor houses, for example, Charlton House which is now the headquarters of the engineering company Spirax Sarco and the Cheltenham Park Hotel which was previously called Lilleybrook House. There is evidence in local place names of the crops previously grown in Charlton Kings, such as Hempcroft (hemp), Flaxley (flax) and Crab End (crab apples). Other crops known to be grown in the area were cherries and grapes.
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Wikipedia