IT HAS a rich history and a Civil War battle named after it.

But the parishioners of Gosford and Water Eaton say they face a fight to preserve their identity from encroaching Kidlington.

Community leaders say people repeatedly state that Thames Valley Police Headquarters, Sainsbury’s and Gosford Hill School are in Kidlington, when, in fact, they all fall within the Gosford and Water Eaton parish boundary.

Gosford and Water Eaton Parish Council member John Bunn said: “We are losing our identity and our worry is that we will get swallowed up by Kidlington.

“Gosford and Water Eaton has a lot of history.

“Take the Kings Arms pub, Oliver Cromwell stayed there in the days of the Roundheads.”

The western side of Oxford Road and the road itself are in Kidlington, but the eastern side is in the Gosford parish.

But Mr Bunn said the boundary had been blurred over the years: “It is eroding away.”

In the 1980s, boundary changes meant Gosford lost parts of Five Mile Drive, Linkside Avenue and Cutteslowe Park to Oxford.

And Kidlington Parish Council applied to Cherwell District Council to get Gosford and Water Eaton merged with in 1998, but a campaign by Gosford and Water Eaton residents stopped it.

Gosford and Water Eaton has a population of about 1,500, compared to Kidlington’s population of about 15,000.

In 1644, the village was the location of an English Civil War battle, known as the Skirmish of Gosford Bridge.

Many internet web pages claim businesses and organisations on the east side of Oxford Road are in Kidlington. And the organisations themselves, in-cluding Sainsbury’s, Thames Valley Police and Gosford Hill School, state the same on their websites.

Chairman of Gosford and Water Eaton Parish Council Maurice Billington said: “We work well with Kidlington, but we are Gosford, not Kidlington.”

He said residents would fight any future calls for Gosford and Water Eaton to join Kidlington.

Thames Valley Police declined to comment on why it uses Kidlington, and not Gosford, on its address.