Bledington (England)

Bledington is a village and civil parish in the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, England, about 4 miles (6 km) southeast of Stow-on-the-Wold and 6 miles (10 km) southwest of Chipping Norton. The population of the civil parish in 2014 was estimated to be 490. Bledington lies in the Evenlode valley, and forms part of the Gloucestershire–Oxfordshire boundary and stands on the Oxfordshire Way. There are deposits of alluvial soil, but most of the land is heavy clay, the parish being almost entirely on the Lower Lias. The village is built round a rectangle of streets, with the church in the south corner, and the green, with most of the older houses near it, on the northwest side. The southern part of the village has been developed extensively since 1920. The village green is a large unenclosed stretch of grass, with a stream running through it. The parish church dates from the 12th century and was extended in the 15th century. The village has a county primary school which dates from the late 19th century. It has a pub, The Kings Head, on the village green. Its former shop and post office closed in 2006, but a new community run shop was opened in 2019. The village hall, which stands near the centre of the village, is a converted 18th-century barn of rubble with a Cotswold stone roof. A trust was formed and the building was bought in 1920 for the use of the people of Bledington and Foscot hamlet. It was renovated and re-roofed in 2016.