Бишопс-Ичингтон: История и география деревни в Уорикшире

Village and civil parish in Warwickshire, England

Bishop's Itchington is a village and civil parish in the Stratford on Avon district of Warwickshire, England. It is about 3 mile (5 km) south southwest of Southam and about 6.5 mile (10 km) southeast of Royal Leamington Spa. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 2,082. The River Itchen flows north through the parish. The village is in the northern part of the parish just west of the river, and stands on boulder clay and Lower Lias. The parish covers It is bounded to the south by a minor road, to the east partly by the A423 road and on other sides by field boundaries. The Chiltern Main Line passes through the parish less than 0.5 mile (1 km) east of the village. Junction 12 on the M40 motorway is about 2 mile (3 km) southwest of the village.

The village's toponym is derived from the River Itchen. Its affix refers to the Bishops of Lichfield, who by 1152 had succeeded St. Mary's Priory, Coventry as Lord of the Manor. It was formerly called Upper Itchington. Lower Itchington to the southwest was depopulated in 1547 by Thomas Fisher. An open field system prevailed in the parish until an Inclosure Act passed by Parliament in 1774 was implemented. The Birmingham and Oxford Junction Railway was built through the parish and in 1852 Southam Road and Harbury railway station was opened at Deppers Bridge 1 mile (2 km) north of the village. The railway became part of the Great Western Railway until 1948, when was nationalised as part of British Railways. BR closed the station to goods traffic in 1963 and passenger traffic in 1964. It has since been demolished. The railway remains open as part of the Chiltern Main Line, carrying both Chiltern Railways and CrossCountry passenger trains and much freight traffic.

In 1820 Richard Greaves started a lime kiln using Blue Lias from a quarry just north of the village. Completion of the railway in 1852 made it easier for the works to obtain coal and distribute its lime and cement. The business became Greaves, Bull and Lakin and in 1855 opened a new cement works. By 1882 it had four bottle kilns and was making 120 tons of Portland cement a week. The Great Western revised the railway junction to the works in 1883 and had a signal box built for it in 1899. By 1907 there were 18 chamber kilns making 600 tons a week, and more railway track was laid including a second connection to the works. Quarrying extended across the parish boundary into Harbury. In 1909 Krupp installed the first rotary kiln at the works. It was long and made 78 tons of cement clinker a day. In 1912 Ernest Newell and Company of Misterton, Nottinghamshire supplied a second and larger rotary kiln, and the old chamber kilns were taken out of use. In 1918 the GWR replaced the 1899 signal box. In 1924 Edgar Allen and Company of Sheffield supplied a third rotary kiln, which was 160 feet (49 m) long. In the same year the Newell kiln was lengthened to 160 feet and the Krupp kiln was extended to 48 feet (15 m), raising total production to 343 tons a day. In 1970 Blue Circle ceased cement making at the site and turned it into a depot. The site was cleared in 1994. Deteriorating church fabric, and in particular the tower, led to a restoration programme that was completed early in 2011. The bells were out of use for many years, but were rung on the weekend of 12–13 February 2011. The village's Congregational chapel was built in 1836 or 1837 and is now a private house. A Methodist chapel for the village was built in 1859.

Bishop's Itchington has one pub, The Butchers Arms. It has also a working men's club that is still called the Greaves Club after the original name of the cement works. The Royal British Legion had a branch in the village, but it has closed and its premises are now a café. There is a village shop, newsagent and sub post office (sub post office closed 2017). The parish has a primary school.