Largest village in England

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Many villages claim to be the largest village in England. This title is essentially a meaningless one, as it cannot be verified because of the lack of a common definition of a village, the absence of any particular benefits associated with the status, and the vagueness of 'largest' (population or area?).

A typical contender is Kidlington in Oxfordshire, which has a population of around 17,000. Whilst Kidlington might be described as a town in colloquial use due to its sheer size, it has not formally taken on this status and still has a parish council rather than a town council. Also, Kidlington has never in its past had a town charter. Many other villages are in a similar position. Some of the claimants below (Cottingham and Lancing included) are part of larger urban areas, and it can be contended that such claimants are now suburbs rather than villages.

The claim is complicated by disputes over what exactly constitutes a village. Definitions can refer to population, area, a key building (e.g. school, retail outlet, church or village hall), a village nameplate or a minimum number of houses (e.g. 20). One tongue-in-cheek requirement is that its High Street should not have a Woolworths^[1].

The definition of a town is equally complex. One definition is a settlement with a town charter (see the list of towns in England). Another is that a town has a regular market. One thing that confuses popular definitions is the complicated system in Britain of "postal towns". Many Britons presume that anywhere that needs to be linked to a nearby city/town in an address is a village. However this not the case: for example, West Yorkshire's address system sees Liversedge count as a postal town despite being considered a village whilst Hemsworth, which is a town, comes under the postal town of Pontefract.

The typical English local government district contains a variety of settlements and their boundaries are not formally determined. Civil parishes do exist, but parishes can contain several distinct villages or hamlets. Informally, many settlements are described both as a town and a village by different people. Furthermore, settlements have a tendency to become larger and, when they do, many residents tend to 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, drawing the precise definition of town boundaries has not been important for local government. Somewhere such as Seacroft in West Yorkshire was not part of Leeds prior to 1974; it is often spoken of as a suburb of Leeds now, but, if it is still a village, then it is one of the largest in England. Such difficulties in measurement mean that it is most unlikely that any definitive answer to the question could ever be obtained.

1 Contenders
2 Similar claims
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Contenders

Places for which this claim has been made, and the reported population in the 2001 census (most recent available figures) include:

Village	County	Population 2001 census	Notes (NB for clarification only. All discussion of contenders should be on the pages of the settlements concerned, not here)
Anston	South Yorkshire	19,086 sm=n	Population figure includes Dinnington.
Barnt Green	Worcestershire	5,249
Bayston Hill	Shropshire	5,247
Bembridge^[2]	Isle of Wight	3,492	Occasionally also claimed as the "largest village in Europe" ^[3]
Bessacarr	South Yorkshire	19,803
Birchington	Kent
Braunton^[4]	Devon	8,420
Broughton Astley	Leicestershire	8,290	Claimed to be the largest commuter village in Europe.
Cheadle Hulme	Greater Manchester	28,952
Codnor	Derbyshire
Cranleigh^[5]	Surrey	9,046
Crofton	West Yorkshire	5,978	Claimed To Be The Largest Commuter Village in Yorkshire
Cottingham^[6]	East Riding of Yorkshire	17,768	Has made the claim on the basis of including the 93 km² grounds of Cottingham Manor.
Churchdown	Gloucestershire	12,998	Population figure includes Innsworth; for census purposes considered part of the Gloucester Urban Area.
Flackwell Heath	Buckinghamshire	12,795	Population figure includes Bourne End; for census purposes considered part of the High Wycombe Urban Area.
Gnosall	Staffordshire	4,080	Whether neighbouring Gnosall Heath is part of the village is disputed.
Great Baddow	Essex	14,000
Haddenham	Buckinghamshire	4,720
Heysham	Lancashire	16,136	Combination of the Heysham South, North and Central wards.
Horsforth^[7]	West Yorkshire	21,562	Claim made in 19th century - now has a town council.
Horndean	Hampshire
Hunmanby	North Yorkshire	3,279
Kidlington^[8]	Oxfordshire	14,945	Described by its parish council as the "second largest village in England".^[9]
Kingsteignton^[10]	Devon	10,503
Lancing^[11]	West Sussex	30,360	Population figure includes Sompting; for census purposes considered part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation.
Marple	Greater Manchester	18,475
Marske-by-the-Sea	Redcar and Cleveland	8,921
Nazeing	Essex	[4,675][1]	Nazeing Parish has an area of 16.44 km². Which is larger if Neighbouring Bumbles Green is included
Paulton	Somerset	4,896	New housing expected to double population.^[12]
Rainworth	Nottinghamshire	7,829
Rawmarsh	South Yorkshire	17,443
Ruskington	Lincolnshire	4,950
Sawston	Cambridgeshire	7,150
Seaton	Cumbria	5,126	For census purposes considered part of the Workington Urban Area.
Street^[13]	Somerset	11,669
Studley	Warwickshire	6,257
Wombourne^[14]	Staffordshire	12,768
Wroughton	Wiltshire	7,047
Yaxley	Cambridgeshire	20,675	^{[citation needed]}

Totton used to claim the title, but is now part of the town of Totton and Eling.

The most populous civil parish in England not to have town status is Ecclesfield, with 31,609 people at the 2001 census.

[edit] Similar claims

There are also claimants to the titles of smallest and largest village, town and city in England.

Smallest village claimants: Ault Hucknall, Duncannon (Devon)
Smallest town claimants: Fordwich, Manningtree
Largest town claimants: Northampton, Dudley, Reading, Milton Keynes, Warrington, Huddersfield
Smallest city claimant: Wells, City of London, St David's

An interesting oddity is Llandaff, a small district of Cardiff in South Wales. Llandaff contains its own cathedral, quite separate from Cardiff's Cathedral, that is the seat of the Bishop of Llandaff. As a consequence the district was historically and widely referred to as the City of Llandaff. If the claim was still current and valid Llandaff would be the smallest UK city by a very long way, however the parish of Llandaff was gradually absorbed administratively first into the Borough and now into the city and county of Cardiff during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Ashington, Northumberland has claimed to be the "world's largest coal mining village". Although now considered a town by many, and far from its peak as a coal mining centre, its current population of over 27,000 would place it third in the list above if it was classed as a village.