[1] Kington is 2.0 miles (3.2 km) from the border with Wales, and lies on the western side of Offa's Dyke.

After the Norman Conquest Kington then passed to the Crown on the downfall in 1075 of Roger de Breteuil, 2nd Earl of Hereford.

[citation needed] Before 1121, King Henry I gave Kington to Adam de Port, who founded a new Marcher barony in this part of the early Welsh Marches.

He returned in 1174 with a Scottish army, only to flee from the resulting Battle of Alnwick to the great mirth of the Norman court.

With this his barony of Kington was taken by the Crown and became an appurtenance of the office of Sheriff of Hereford, finally being granted to William de Braose, 4th Lord of Bramber in 1203 for £100.

All that remains of Kington Castle today is a great outcrop of rock topped by a few fragmentary earthworks.

The old town clustered around the castle and Norman church on top of a defensive hill above the River Arrow.

The new Kington, called Kyneton in the Fields, was laid out between 1175 and 1230 on land bordering the River Arrow and possibly designated as part of the Saxon open-field system.

[citation needed] In the chapel of St. Mary's Church, there is the alabaster tomb of Sir Thomas Vaughan of nearby Hergest Court, slain at the Battle of Banbury in 1469, and his wife, Elen Gethin.

[8] Census data is as follows:[9] As with the rest of the UK, Kington benefits from a maritime climate, with limited seasonal temperature ranges, and generally moderate rainfall throughout the year.

The nearest met office weather station is Lyonshall, around 2.5 miles (4.0 km) to the east of the town.

About four miles west of the town are the Old Radnor lime rocks, which are celebrated for their superior quality for building and for agricultural purposes.

There were administrative buildings, labs, operating theatres and dental clinics as well as personnel quarters, chapels, rehabilitation wards, cinemas, mess halls, warehouses, and laboratories.

After the war buildings were used by the Polish Resettlement Corps (many of the Poles who had fought alongside Western allies did not wish to return to a newly communist dominated Poland).

Its rural location and lack of good transport connections means local unemployment has been high for many decades, with low pay rates and many part-time occupations in small businesses including farming and the retail and service sectors.

There is a small tourist industry, though concentrated in the summer months, but it maintains the air of an unspoilt town on the borders.

KC3 was begun in 1993, when BT Group, Apple, the Department of Trade and Industry and the Rural Development Commission chose Kington to host a pilot study into the effect that IT and sophisticated telecommunications might have on small communities.

[21] The school is unique in having special permission from the Royal Navy to fly the White Ensign on its foundress day.

Bus services run to Newtown, Powys, Llandrindod Wells, Knighton, Presteigne, Leominster and Hereford.

[citation needed] Kington Museum is open April to September inclusive, and is on Mill Street in the town centre.

[31] Ye Olde Tavern is a late 18th/early 19th century Grade II listed public house at 22 Victoria Rd.

Sue Gee's 2004 novel The Mysteries of Glass is set in and around Kington and Lyonshall in 1860/61 and includes references to many local landmarks.