Kitwood is a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

in the parish of

Four Marks Four Marks is a village and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is southwest of Alton, on the A31 road. It is situated on the borders of the South Downs National Park on the Pilgrims' Way that leads from Winche ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

, 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 Ropley is a village and large civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It has an acreage of , situated east from New Alresford, and is served by a station on the Mid Hants Railway heritage line at Ropley Dean, just ov ...

Parish. 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. Kitwood map 1870

Etymology

First Mentioned in AD 1403 as ''kyteswode'' meaning the Kite('s) wood from

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

'' 'cýta' '' and '' 'wudu' ''. The actual woodland that is referred to stood somewhere near to 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 in the past few years. It is also suggested that Swelling Lane, leading west toward

from the hamlet, is the remains of a

Roman Road Roman roads ( la, viae Romanae ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Re ...

. Saxon origins are, as can be expected, vague. No finds or information relevant to this period are known.

Medieval

More is known about Kitwood in

Medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

times with the first records appearing in the early 15th century. The hamlet has evidence of medieval settlement with medieval potsherds found around the area. Kitwood Lane had some significance in these times too. A court roll record from 1413 mentions "kitteswodeweye" and during a hedgerow dating survey, commissioned for the Four Marks Village Design Statement, the hedgerow on either side of Kitwood Lane was dated to "approximately 800 years old". This wealth of records suggests significant activity in the area since the 1400s.

Post Medieval

Long, parallel field boundaries running on a NE-SW alignment are visible north of Kitwood Farm. These are said to have been laid as a result of the enclosures act of which Ropley was the first parish to be enclosed by act of parliament in 1709. The 1839 Ropley Tithe Map preserves some surnames of these early 1700s post enclosure tenants in the field names such as ''Withers piece'' and ''Davis' piece''.

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.

References

External links

Kitwood Postal Information
{{authority control Villages in Hampshire