Population 1,221 (2001 Census) Civil parish Kilsby Country England Shire county Northamptonshire District Daventry District UK parliament constituency Daventry | OS grid reference SP562712 Region East Midlands Sovereign state United Kingdom Local time Monday 10:23 PM Dialling code 01788 | |
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Weather 8°C, Wind SW at 8 km/h, 89% Humidity | ||
Kilsby is a village and civil parish in the Daventry district of Northamptonshire, England. It is situated a short distance south of the border with Warwickshire approximately five miles south-east of Rugby.
Map of Kilsby, UK
According to the 2001 census Kilsby had a population of 1,221, including Barby Nortoft but decreasing to 1,196 at the 2011 census. The village has grown considerably since the 1960s, with several new housing developments and a degree of in-filling. Amenities include a primary school,, two pubs and two churches - Church of England and URC, there is also a stove and fire shop which is slowly winding down business after several years.
Kilsby's name comes from Anglo-Saxon cildes + old Norse býr, literally meaning "child's dwelling", but "child" here probably means "young nobleman". Its church, St Faith's, may originally have been the daughter chapel of the neighbouring parish of Barby.
The parish's eastern side is bounded by the old route of the Roman Watling Street, and the village itself is sited on the crossing of two former mediaeval drove-routes. It gives its name to the Kilsby Tunnel on the West Coast Main Line. The tunnel measures 1 mile 666 yards (2,216 m). Between 1881 and 1960, the village used to have a railway station Kilsby and Crick station but this was on the Northampton Loop further away from the village.
One of the village's more unusual claims to fame is that the A361 road terminates here at a junction with the A5. The A361 runs to Ilfracombe in Devon making it the longest '3-digit' road in Britain.
"Kilsby Jones" is the name by which James Rhys Jones is usually known. He was a Welsh congregationalist minister and writer in Kilsby from 1840 to about 1850, when he moved to Birmingham.