Lighthorne Heath is a village and civil parish

Civil parish

In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...

  in Warwickshire

Warwickshire

Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It is located some six miles to the south east of Leamington Spa

Leamington Spa

Royal Leamington Spa, commonly known as Leamington Spa or Leamington or Leam to locals, is a spa town in central Warwickshire, England. Formerly known as Leamington Priors, its expansion began following the popularisation of the medicinal qualities of its water by Dr Kerr in 1784, and by Dr Lambe...

 and is very close to the M40 motorway

M40 motorway

The M40 motorway is a motorway in the British transport network that forms a major part of the connection between London and Birmingham. Part of this road forms a section of the unsigned European route E05...

. The village began life in the 1950s, situated to the north of RAF Gaydon

RAF Gaydon

RAF Gaydon is a former Royal Air Force station in Warwickshire in the UK located east of Wellesbourne and north west of Banbury.-Second World War:During World War II a RAF station was built near the village of Gaydon...

 it housed the married airmen and officers (those unmarried lived in barracks). Before that time the site was just farmland between Gaydon

Gaydon

Gaydon is a parish and village in Warwickshire, England, close to Leamington Spa. In the 2001 census, the parish had a population of 376.The village is at the junction of the B4100 and B4451 roads, a mile from Junction 12 of the M40 motorway, and is two miles north-east of Kineton.-Motor...

 and Lighthorne

Lighthorne

Lighthorne is a village in Warwickshire, England. It is about south of Leamington Spa.Lighthorne is a small village in a valley and is near Moreton Morrell, Kineton and Wellesbourne....

 with a few isolated buildings. After just over thirty years of active service most of the smaller houses on the base were sold off to Stratford District Council

Stratford-on-Avon (district)

Stratford-on-Avon is a local government district of southern Warwickshire in England.The district is named "Stratford-on-Avon" to distinguish it from its main town of Stratford-upon-Avon where the district council is based, although this name often causes confusion .The district is mostly rural and...

 between 1976 and 1981. Throughout the 1980s the larger houses were sold on the open market by the Ministry of Defence. The runway and RAF buildings were taken over in 1978 by British Leyland, and became a proving ground for its cars. This evolved into the Gaydon centre (where Land Rover has its headquarters) and the Heritage Motor Centre, a museum of many British cars. More recently Aston Martin built a factory here for its car production. The village got its own parish council in 2003. Before 2003 it shared a Parish Council with Lighthorne, a village 800m to the west. According to the 2001 UK Census the parish has a population of 1,225 living in 517 dwellings. The village has had a primary school for many years. The school used to be called Gaydon Primary School but changed its name to Lighthorne Heath Primary School in the 1990s.

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