Kemble, Gloucestershire


Kemble is a village and civil parish in the Cotswold District of Gloucestershire, England. Historically part of Wiltshire, it lies from Cirencester and is the settlement closest to Thames Head, the source of the River Thames. At the 2011 census it had a population of 1,036.

Governance

The village lies in Thames Head electoral ward, which stretches from Kemble in the south to Frampton Mansell in the north-west. The population of the ward as recorded in the 2011 census was 1,955.

Church and history

Kemble was the site of a 7th-century pagan, Anglo-Saxon cemetery. The village church today has a Norman door and a tower dating from 1250, to which a spire was added in 1450. The full restoration in 1872 included bringing here brick by brick the chapel of ease at nearby Ewen, to form a new south transept.
Kemble Church is part of the Thameshead benefice, covering the congregations of Kemble, Ewen, Poole Keynes, Somerford Keynes, and Shorncote. The benefice since 2001 also includes Coates, Rodmarton, Sapperton, Tarlton and Frampton Mansell.

Air facilities

on the edge of the village hosted the RAF Red Arrows aerobatic display team from 1966 until 1983. After the Red Arrows moved to RAF Scampton, the station was used by the US Air Force as a maintenance facility. The airfield is used by light industry, by flying clubs and by private aircraft owners, for events including two annual air displays, and for scrapping and storage of airliners. Delta Jets rebuild, maintain and fly historic jet aircraft, particularly Hawker Hunters. The Bristol Aero collection had a museum at the airfield until 31 May 2012.
Aston Down airfield, to the north-west, formerly belonged to the RAF but is now used for gliding by the Cotswold Gliding Club.

Amenities

is on the Golden Valley Line, served by eastbound Great Western Railway trains to Swindon and London Paddington, and westbound services to Gloucester and Cheltenham Spa. Kemble was once an important railway junction. The branch lines from Cirencester and Tetbury were dismantled in the 1960s.
Kemble Primary School has around 100 pupils. The pub, The Tavern, is next to the station. There is also a combined post office and local store.