List of the largest villages in England

Several places claim to be the largest village in England. This title is disputed as there is no standard definition of a village as distinct from a town and 'largest' can refer to population or area.

A typical contender is Lancing in West Sussex with a population of around 19,000. Whilst Lancing might be described as a town in everyday use, it has not formally taken on this status and, in this case with three tiers of local government, it has a parish council rather than a town council. Also, it has a village hall instead of a town hall. All claimants must avoid having had a town charter or licence to hold a market from the Crown. Many other villages are in a similar position. Some of the claimants below, such as Cottingham, Lancing and Rawmarsh, are part of larger urban areas and it can be contended that such claimants are suburbs or 'suburban villages' rather than 'standalone villages' which have a clear surrounding open space buffer zone.

The old simple definitions of a town is a settlement with:

These two features have been long surpassed by large 'new towns' on former villages such as Harlow which have neither feature yet have virtually no claims that they are villages.

The claim is therefore complicated by disputes over what renders a village a town, the usual trichotomy in current use of British English being village, town or city.[1]

Typical factors

Definitions can refer to history of population growth or popular formulae based on types and quantities of key buildings (e.g. schools, retailers, railway/tram station, more than one church or community hall), limited business parks and maximum limits to the density of housing. The few large dispersed settlements, historically tied to one church community, and major changes to boundaries allow more elaborate claims. A third common criterion is simply stating it is a 'village' in a nameplate or whole community organisation, which leads to city district such as Blackheath, London having a strong claim.

Impact of postal towns and boroughs

The country is split up into postal towns: settlements from village to city scale that can contrast markedly, but are carefully cited by some village contenders to rule out other villages. Others point to the fact that a rival village is in a borough.

Parish criterion

The typical English local government district contains a variety of settlements and, while planning law encourages the existence of buffers, the term village has no formal use and wards are not permanently fixed. Civil parishes exist in many such districts to add an extra rung to local government, with fewer major changes – they can contain divorced villages, neighbourhoods hamlets, often based on old ties to what was one community, an ecclesiastical parish which may be lost, such as by the building of a motorway.

Popularly, many settlements are described both as a town and a village by different people and/or can change over small areas. For example, Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire is widely considered a "town"[2] yet its population is half that of Birstall in the same county, most organisations of which and writers about which describe it as a village.

Furthermore, settlements have a tendency to become denser and/or expand wider and, when they do, many residents may 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. Since 1974, separation of rural settlements from urban settlements has not been important for local authorities themselves, and became less so with the new top-level authorities created that year e.g. Bessacarr, South Yorkshire was not part of the town of Doncaster before 1974; it is often spoken of as a suburb of Doncaster now, but, where described as a village today, then it was a ward with Cantley having 14,408 people in 2011.

Consensus

Such difficulties in measurement, and desires for different organisations to be called a town or a village, mean that the media has been free to pick whichever criteria it sees fit when choosing whether to describe a settlement as a town or a village.[1]

Contenders

Places for which this claim has been made, and the reported population in the 2011 census (most recent all households census) include:

Village Ceremonial county Population
2011 Census		 Area (km²)[3] Notes on basis of claim
Bradfield South Yorkshire 17,100 142.92 Largest civil parish. No more than 500 metres (550 yd) separates High Bradfield from Low Bradfield its twin settlements.
Broughton Astley Leicestershire 11,940 Broughton Astley is a large village and civil parish located in the Harborough district of Leicestershire, England.
Rawmarsh South Yorkshire 13,389 6.63 One ward, buffered. No civil parish council
Chalfont St Peter Buckinghamshire 12,766 16.1 Contiguous with Chalfont St Giles.
Cranleigh[4] Surrey 11,492 32.78 Based on area.
Cottingham[5] East Riding of Yorkshire 17,164 12.13 Has made the claim on the basis of including the grounds of Cottingham Manor. Contiguous with Kingston upon Hull.
Horsforth[6] West Yorkshire 18,895 8.07 Claim made in 19th century – parish council converted in name to a 'town council'. Contiguous with Leeds.
Kidlington[7] Oxfordshire 15,046 9.12 Described by its parish council as the "second largest village in England".[8]
Lancing[9] West Sussex 18,810 14.14 Adjacent to Shoreham by Sea – though largely separated by the River Adur and land covering Brighton Airport and farms.
Heath Hayes and Wimblebury Staffordshire 14,085 4.17
Wombourne Staffordshire 14,157 11.84 [10]
Ecclesfield South Yorkshire 32,073 21.36 The most populous civil parish in England not to meet either of the two official town criteria, nor a new town.
Rustington West Sussex 13,883 3.72 Often described as a sleepy village, Rustington has never acquired town status, despite its size.[11]
Unusual claims
Village Ceremonial county Population
2011 Census		 Area (km²)[3] Notes on basis of claim
Bembridge Isle of Wight 3,688 9.130 Claimed by a personal website to be the "largest village in Europe" based on parish council control, claiming that larger contenders are town council controlled[12]
Tiptree Essex 9,152 Unknown Home of the jam factory. Referendum in 1999 asked residents whether they wanted to remain a village. Response was overwhelming positive.
Theydon Bois Essex 4,062 8.32 No street lighting[13]
Meopham Kent 6,722 17 Although not the largest by population or area, Meopham is claimed to be the longest village in Europe, being 7 miles (11km) in length.[14][15][16][17]

References
  1. "City's Green Belt is at Risk Like Never Before", The Oxford Mail. 7 November 2013
  2. As described in their articles according to WP:CONSENSUS and WP:UKCITIES guidelines
  3. Key Statistics; Quick Statistics: Population Density United Kingdom Census 2011 Office for National Statistics Data by Parish (Civil Parish) Retrieved 21 November 2013
  4. "St Nicolas Cranleigh". Stnicolascranleigh.org.uk. Retrieved 12 October 2017.
  5. "REPORT OF ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER MR JAMES ALLEN, QC". Archived from the original on 27 January 2007.
  6. "Profile news from the Bradford Telegraph and Argus". Thetelegraphandargus.co.uk. Retrieved 12 October 2017.
  7. "Relocation". Oxtowns.co.uk. Retrieved 12 October 2017.
  8. "Kidlington Parish Council". Kidlington-pc.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 27 June 2014. Retrieved 12 October 2017.
  9. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 1 May 2007. Retrieved 10 June 2007.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  10. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 5 July 2009. Retrieved 31 August 2009.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  11. "FEATURE: The hidden village of Rustington". The Argus.
  12. "About". Web.archive.org. 13 May 2008. Archived from the original on 13 May 2008. Retrieved 12 October 2017.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  13. "Theydon Bois village design statement" (PDF). Theydon.org.uk. Retrieved 12 October 2017.
  14. "Meopham The Street : Conservation Area" (PDF). Web.gravesham.gov.uk. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 October 2017. Retrieved 12 October 2017.
  15. "About Meopham - Meopham Parish Council". Meopham.org. Retrieved 12 October 2017.
  16. "Pictures of Meopham Green". Picturesofengland.com. Retrieved 12 October 2017.
  17. "Towns and Villages Around Gravesend | Meopham". www.visitoruk.com.
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