Kennington, Kent

Kennington was an ancient parish, which became a civil parish in 1866. In 1934 the civil parish was abolished and absorbed into Ashford.[3] On the 1st of April 2019 a new parish was created.[4]

New Borough ward boundaries will take effect from May 2019,[5] and Kennington will also be represented by a parish council, which will be called Kennington Community Council.[6] The new Borough and Community Council wards are as follows:

There is one secondary school in the village, the Towers School, with a local junior school, Kennington CE Academy, and an infants school, Downs View Infants School. Since the county still operates a grammar school system, those who pass the Kent Test (which replaced the 11+) are given the opportunity to attend the grammar school in Ashford, the Norton Knatchbull School or Highworth Grammar School.[7]

The Rose Inn, Kennington

Kennington is home to 1st Kennington Scout group, a long running scout group that includes all factions of the Scouting association; Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, Explorers (also known as 'Big Cubs'), and a highly successful branch of Network, dubbed 'The Roosters', featuring local minor celebrity 'Little' John Sheret.

Kennington has four pubs, "The Old Mill" (formerly The Golden Ball), "The Conningbrook Hotel" (formerly The Pilgrims Rest), "The Rose Inn" and "The Pheasant". The "Kennington Carvery"[8] is a new business to the area, opening on Wednesday's, Sunday's & Bank holiday Monday's for an eat as much as you like Carvery. On Friday's & Saturday's the venue can be hired for weddings, parties & all other events.

At the 2001 UK census, the Kennington electoral ward had a population of 2,321. The ethnicity was 96.3% white, 1.1% mixed race, 1.6% Asian, 0.5% black and 0.5% other. The place of birth of residents was 93.1% United Kingdom, 0.6% Republic of Ireland, 1.9% other Western European countries, and 4.4% elsewhere. Religion was recorded as 79.5% Christian, 0.2% Buddhist, 0.7% Hindu, 0.2% Sikh, 0.1% Jewish, and 0.6% Muslim. 10.3% were recorded as having no religion, 0.3% had an alternative religion and 8.2% did not state their religion.[9]

The economic activity of residents aged 16–74 was 43.3% in full-time employment, 14% in part-time employment, 10.2% self-employed, 1.9% unemployed, 3.6% students with jobs, 4.9% students without jobs, 13.4% retired, 4.7% looking after home or family, 2.6% permanently sick or disabled and 1.5% economically inactive for other reasons. The industry of employment of residents was 16.1% retail, 13.8% manufacturing, 7.8% construction, 12.1% real estate, 10.9% health and social work, 8.4% education, 8% transport and communications, 6.6% public administration, 5.7% hotels and restaurants, 5% finance, 1.1% agriculture and 4.5% other. Compared with national figures, the ward had a relatively high proportion of workers in hotels and restaurants, and a relatively low proportion in agriculture. Of the ward's residents aged 16–74, 21.6% had a higher education qualification or the equivalent, compared with 19.9% nationwide.[9]