Kennington, Kent

Kennington is a suburb of Ashford and civil parish in Kent, England. It is about a mile northeast of the town centre and north of the M20 motorway, and contains the 12th-century church, St Mary's. The main A28 Canterbury Road and A2042 Faversham Road run through the village, and the A251 Trinity Road skirts the western edge. In recent years the village has expanded with the building of new housing estates in the Little Burton and Towers View areas.

Kennington
Kennington Memorial Gate and Shelter
Kennington Location within Kent
Population	2,400 (2005)[1] 4,076 (2011)[2]
OS grid reference	TR021449
Civil parish	Kennington
District	Ashford
Shire county	Kent
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	ASHFORD
Postcode district	TN24, TN25
Dialling code	01233
Police	Kent
Fire	Kent
Ambulance	South East Coast
UK Parliament	Ashford

The Great Stour river and the Kennington stream run through the area.

History

Kennington was an ancient parish, which became a civil parish in 1866. In 1934 the civil parish was abolished and absorbed into Ashford.[3] On the 1st of April 2019 a new parish was created.[4]

Local Government

New Borough ward boundaries will take effect from May 2019,[5] and Kennington will also be represented by a parish council, which will be called Kennington Community Council.[6] The new Borough and Community Council wards are as follows:

Borough Ward	Councillor	Party	Community Council Ward	Number of Community Councillor Seats
Bockhanger	Diccon Spain	Labour	Grosvenor Hall	4
Kennington	Nathan Iliffe	Conservative	Kennington	4
Bybrook	Howard Turner	Ashford Independent	Bybrook	4
Conningbrook and Little Burton Farm	Katherine Ovenden	Ashford Independent	Little Burton Farm	3
Goat Lees (part)	Winston Michael	Ashford Independent	Kennington North	1

Schools

There is one secondary school in the village, the Towers School, with a local junior school, Kennington CE Academy, and an infants school, Downs View Infants School. Since the county still operates a grammar school system, those who pass the Kent Test (which replaced the 11+) are given the opportunity to attend the grammar school in Ashford, the Norton Knatchbull School or Highworth Grammar School.[7]

Amenities

The Rose Inn, Kennington

Kennington is home to 1st Kennington Scout group, a long running scout group that includes all factions of the Scouting association; Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, Explorers (also known as 'Big Cubs'), and a highly successful branch of Network, dubbed 'The Roosters', featuring local minor celebrity 'Little' John Sheret.

Kennington has four pubs, "The Old Mill" (formerly The Golden Ball), "The Conningbrook Hotel" (formerly The Pilgrims Rest), "The Rose Inn" and "The Pheasant". The "Kennington Carvery"[8] is a new business to the area, opening on Wednesday's, Sunday's & Bank holiday Monday's for an eat as much as you like Carvery. On Friday's & Saturday's the venue can be hired for weddings, parties & all other events.

Demography

Kennington compared
2001 UK Census	Kennington	Ashford district	England
Population	2,321	102,661	49,138,831
Foreign born	6.9%	5.5%	9.2%
White	96.3%	97.6%	90.9%
Asian	1.6%	0.9%	4.6%
Black	0.5%	0.4%	2.3%
Christian	79.5%	76.5%	71.7%
Muslim	0.6%	0.6%	3.1%
Hindu	0.7%	0.3%	1.1%
No religion	10.3%	14.6%	14.6%
Unemployed	1.9%	2.4%	3.3%
Retired	13.4%	13.8%	13.5%

At the 2001 UK census, the Kennington electoral ward had a population of 2,321. The ethnicity was 96.3% white, 1.1% mixed race, 1.6% Asian, 0.5% black and 0.5% other. The place of birth of residents was 93.1% United Kingdom, 0.6% Republic of Ireland, 1.9% other Western European countries, and 4.4% elsewhere. Religion was recorded as 79.5% Christian, 0.2% Buddhist, 0.7% Hindu, 0.2% Sikh, 0.1% Jewish, and 0.6% Muslim. 10.3% were recorded as having no religion, 0.3% had an alternative religion and 8.2% did not state their religion.[9]

The economic activity of residents aged 16–74 was 43.3% in full-time employment, 14% in part-time employment, 10.2% self-employed, 1.9% unemployed, 3.6% students with jobs, 4.9% students without jobs, 13.4% retired, 4.7% looking after home or family, 2.6% permanently sick or disabled and 1.5% economically inactive for other reasons. The industry of employment of residents was 16.1% retail, 13.8% manufacturing, 7.8% construction, 12.1% real estate, 10.9% health and social work, 8.4% education, 8% transport and communications, 6.6% public administration, 5.7% hotels and restaurants, 5% finance, 1.1% agriculture and 4.5% other. Compared with national figures, the ward had a relatively high proportion of workers in hotels and restaurants, and a relatively low proportion in agriculture. Of the ward's residents aged 16–74, 21.6% had a higher education qualification or the equivalent, compared with 19.9% nationwide.[9]

References

1. "2005 Ward Level Population Estimates" (PDF). Kent County Council. September 2006. Retrieved 20 August 2007.
2. "Civil Parish population 2011". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 9 September 2016.
3. Vision of Britain website
4. "The Ashford Borough (Reorganisation of Community Governance) (Kennington Community Council) Order 2019" (PDF). Local Government Boundary Commission for England. Retrieved 15 May 2019.
5. The Ashford (Electoral Changes) Order 2017 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2017/9780111159033
6. Ashford Borough Council (Reorganisation of Community Governance) (Kennington Community Council) Order 2018 https://ashford.moderngov.co.uk/documents/s4633/Approval%20of%20Orders%20for%20New%20Parish%20Community%20Councils.pdf
7. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 8 September 2008. Retrieved 29 February 2008.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
8. http://thekenningtonevents.co.uk
9. "Neighbourhood Statistics". Statistics.gov.uk. Retrieved 22 February 2008.