Largest village in England
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Many villages claim to be the largest village in England. This title is essentially a meaningless one, as it cannot be verified because of the lack of a common definition of a village, the absence of any particular benefits associated with the status, and the vagueness of 'largest' (population or area?).
The claim is complicated by disputes over what exactly constitutes a village. Definitions can refer to population, area, a key building (e.g. school, retail outlet, church or village hall), a village nameplate or a minimum number of houses (e.g. 20). One tongue-in-cheek requirement is that its High Street should not have a Woolworths.
The definition of a town is equally complex. One definition is a settlement with a town charter (see the list of towns in England). One thing that confuses popular definitions is the complicated system in Britain of "postal towns". Many Britons presume that anywhere that needs to be linked to a nearby city/town in an address is a village. For example, West Yorkshire's address system sees Mirfield, Heckmondwike and Liversedge all count as postal towns when they are legally just villages, and it classifies Hemsworth as coming under the postal town of Pontefract when Hemsworth is legally a town.
The typical English local government district contains a variety of settlements and their boundaries are not formally determined. Civil parishes do exist, but parishes can contain several distinct villages or hamlets. Informally, many settlements are described both as a town and a village by different people. Furthermore, settlements have a tendency to become larger and, when they do, many residents tend to prefer to think of their home as a village rather than a town, and institutions such as a village green or village hall will tend to retain the name that they were given when the settlement was smaller. For these reasons it is most unlikely that any definitive answer to the question could ever be obtained.
A typical contender is Kidlington in Oxfordshire, which has a population of around 11,000. Whilst Kidlington might be described as a town in colloquial use, it has not formally taken on this status and still has a parish council rather than a town council. Also, Kidlington has never in its past had a town charter. Many other villages are in a similar position. Some of the claimants below (Cottingham and Lancing included) are part of larger urban areas, and it can be contended that such claimants are now suburbs rather than villages. Although, like in the case of Cottingham, there is a clear green belt between the village and city, and it does not fall under the cities administrative control.
Contenders
Places for which this claim has been made (with an estimate of their current population in brackets) include:
- Ashington in Northumberland (28,000) Considered to be the "world's largest coal-mining village" during the peak time of coal-mining.
- Anston in South Yorkshire (11,000)
- Barnt Green in Worcestershire (2,974)
- Bayston Hill in Shropshire (5,200)
- Bembridge on the Isle of Wight (4,600) makes the claim to be one of the largest villages in Europe[link]
- Birchington in Kent (16,000)
- Braunton in Devon (8,000)
- Cranleigh in Surrey (11,000)
- Cottingham in the East Riding of Yorkshire (17,750) has made the claim on the basis of including the 93 km² grounds of Cottingham manor.
- Gnosall in Staffordshire (5,000); whether neighbouring Gnosall Heath is part of the village is disputed.
- Haddenham in Buckinghamshire (4,800)
- Hunmanby in North Yorkshire (6,000) (They claim this because they are controlled by the nearby town, Filey, which has a population of 8,000)
- Horsforth in West Yorkshire (23,000)
- Kidlington in Oxfordshire (18,000)
- Lancing in West Sussex (19,000)
- Ruskington in Lincolnshire (5,169)
- Street in Somerset (11,000)
- Studley in Warwickshire (6,624)
- Wombourne in Staffordshire (13,600)
The largest civil parish in England not to have town status is Ecclesfield, with 31,609 people at the 2001 census.
Similar claims
There are also claimaints to the titles of smallest and largest village, town and city in England.
- Smallest village claimants: Ault Hucknall, Stoke Gabriel
- Smallest town claimant: Fordwich
- Largest town claimant: Northampton
- Smallest city claimant: Wells, although the City of London is technically smaller
External links
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