Kitwood

Kitwood is a hamlet in the parish of Four Marks, Hampshire, England. It is in the south east of the Parish and has been part of Four Marks since its creation in 1932. Prior to this, it was part of Ropley Parish.

Kitwood
Road junction in the centre of Kitwood
Kitwood Location within Hampshire
OS grid reference	SU6661633840
Civil parish	Four Marks
District	East Hampshire
Shire county	Hampshire
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Alton
Postcode district	GU34
Dialling code	01420
Police	Hampshire and Isle of Wight
Fire	Hampshire and Isle of Wight
Ambulance	South Central
List of places UK England Hampshire 51.100000°N 1.05°W / 51.100000; -1.05

Although the settlement was located at the junction of Kitwood road and Swelling, as is visible in older maps, the settlement now spreads all the way from Swelling hill pond to Kitwood farm near Hawthorn Road.

Map of Kitwood from 1870, showing the then newly built Kitwood Farm to the east

Etymology

First mentioned in AD 1403 as kyteswode ^[1] meaning the Kite('s) wood from Old English 'cýta' and 'wudu' .^[2] The actual woodland that is referred to stood somewhere near where Kitwood Plantation is nowadays.

History

The earliest signs of human activity in Kitwood are a number of Mesolithic flint implements that have been found near the hamlet since the 1950s. Later evidence of Roman activity may also be present nearby as it has been suggested that Swelling Lane, which runs through the hamlet toward Ropley, is the remains of a Roman Road.

Medieval

Archaeological evidence of activity in around the hamlet is minimal with only a few medieval potsherds found around the area. Since the early 1400s, Kitwood is also regularly mentioned in legal documents relating to Ropley. Kitwood Lane is recorded in a court roll record from 1413 ^[3] as "kitteswodeweye" and during a hedgerow dating survey, commissioned for the Four Marks Village Design Statement,^[4] the hedgerow on either side of Kitwood Lane was dated to "approximately 800 years old". The wealth of records suggests significant activity in the area since the 1400s but little evidence of settlement. It is known that since the 13th Century there was settlement near Old Down Wood, northwest of the Hamlet.

Post Medieval

Long, parallel field boundaries running on a NE-SW alignment are visible north of Kitwood Farm are said to have been laid as a result of the inclosure act of which Ropley was the first parish to be enclosed by act of Parliament, the Ropley Inclosure Act 1709 (8 Ann. c. 16 Pr.).^[5]

Kitwood Farm

This farm, not to be confused with the more modern 19th century farmhouse that sits to the east of the main hamlet, was an 18th-century farmhouse that existed from around the early 1700s up to about 1908/9 when it disappeared from maps. The farmhouse stood roughly where Autumn Cottage on Kitwood Lane stands now.