Kirtlington is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire about 6+1⁄2 miles (10.5 km) west of Bicester.

[2] The Portway is a pre-Roman road[2] running parallel with the Cherwell on high ground about 1 mile (1.6 km) east of the river.

Akeman Street Roman road bisects the parish east–west passing just north of Kirtlington village.

[5] The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that in AD 977 King Edward the Martyr held a witenagemot at Kyrtlingtun attended by Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury.

[2] The Domesday Book of 1086 records that Certelintone, Cortelintone or Cherielintone had been a royal manor of Edward the Confessor and was now held by the conquering Norman monarchy.

The Domesday Book records the manor being a large and valuable estate of 11½ hides yielding an income of £52 a year.

[2] The oldest visible parts of the Church of St Mary the Virgin include the early 12th-century Norman arches supporting the central bell tower, and a tympanum of the same date that is now over the vestry door.

[9] The transeptal chapel of Our Lady on the south side of the tower may be of the same date, and the apse was replaced with a rectangular chancel late in the 13th century.

[13] St Mary the Virgin is now part of the Akeman Church of England Benefice, which includes the parishes of Bletchingdon, Chesterton, Hampton Gay, Middleton Stoney, Wendlebury and Weston-on-the-Green.

[14] Kirtlington's first nonconformist meeting house was licensed in 1821 and was a member of the Oxford Methodist Circuit by 1824.

[2] In 1583 a draper called John Phillips bequeathed the rental income from a house in Woodstock to employ a schoolmaster in Kidlington.

[2] That year Thomas Blount and Josiah Beckwith wrote: At Kidlington in Oxford-shire the Custom is, That on Monday after Whitson week, there is a fat live Lamb provided, and the Maids of the Town, having their Thumbs ty'd behind them run after it, and she that with her mouth takes and holds the Lamb, is declared Lady of the Lamb, which being dress'd with the skin hanging on, is carried on a long Pole before the Lady and her Companions to the Green, attended with Musick and a Morisco Dance of Men, and another of Women, where the rest of the day is spent in dancing, mirth and merry glee.

[citation needed] Later the festival extended to a whole week and in 1849 three special constables were sworn in "for the better preservation of peace and order at the ensuing Lamb Ale Feast".

Kirtlington Park is a Palladian country house[18] about 1⁄2 mile (800 m) east of the village,[19] built in 1742–46.

[20] It is set in 3,000 acres (1,200 ha) of parkland, landscaped by Lancelot "Capability" Brown,[21] with views over the gardens to the Chiltern Hills.

[22] The house was built for Sir James Dashwood, 2nd Baronet (1715–79), after he had married an heiress, Elizabeth Spencer.

[19] In 1926 Hubert Budgett founded the polo club after Major Deed, who had lived in Argentina, persuaded him to play the game.

[24] In 1954, after the Second World War, Hubert Budgett's son Alan reopened the club and added a second ground.

Famous players who started by playing at Kirtlington Park include Malcolm Borwick, Henry Brett, Robert Thame[22] and Thor Gilje.

Melissa left her job at London Heathrow airport to build the polo school with David.

[31] The nearest railway station is Tackley on the Cherwell Valley Line, 1 mile (1.6 km) from Kirtlington.