Leamington Hastings is a small village and larger

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

, England. The civil parish covers Leamington Hastings itself, plus the nearby

hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. Its size relative to a parish can depend on the administration and region. A hamlet may be considered to be a smaller settlement or subdivision or satellite entity to a lar ...

of Broadwell,

Hill A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. It often has a distinct Summit (topography), summit. Terminology The distinction between a hill and a mountain is unclear and largely subjective, but a hill is universally con ...

and

Kites Hardwick Kites Hardwick is a hamlet in east Warwickshire, England, in the Leam Valley ward of Rugby Borough and in the civil parish of Leamington Hastings The village straddles the A426 Rugby to Southam road two miles (3 km) south of Dunchurch. I ...

. Its population in the 2011 census was 440, increasing slightly to 466 at the 2021 census.

Village

The village is about 7 miles (11 km) south-west of

Rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby league: 13 players per side *** Masters Rugby League *** Mod league *** Rugby league nines *** Rugby league sevens *** Touch (sport) *** Wheelchair rugby league ** Rugby union: 1 ...

and west of the

A426 road A4 most often refers to: *A4 paper, a paper size defined by the ISO 216 standard, measuring 210 × 297 mm A4 and variants may also refer to: Science and mathematics * British NVC community A4 (''Hydrocharis morsus-ranae - Stratiotes aloide ...

between Rugby and

Southam Southam () is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district of Warwickshire, England. Southam is situated on the River Stowe (called 'The Brook' by many locals), which flows from Napton-on-the-Hill and joins Warwickshire's R ...

. To the north of the village is the

Draycote Water Draycote Water is a reservoir and country park near the village of Dunchurch, south of Rugby in Warwickshire, England, owned and operated by Severn Trent Water. It draws its water from the River Leam, and supplies drinking water to Rugby and ...

reservoir. Administratively, Leamington Hastings forms part of the

Borough of Rugby The Borough of Rugby is a local government district with borough status in eastern Warwickshire, England. The borough comprises the town of Rugby where the council has its headquarters, and the rural areas surrounding the town. The borough has a ...

. The name of the village is due to it being just south of the

River Leam The River Leam (), anciently Leame, etc, is a river in England which rises at Hellidon Hill in Northamptonshire then flows through Warwickshire, including the town of Leamington Spa, named after it. It then flows into the River Avon near Warwi ...

, and the 'Hastings' part is due to the 'Hastang' family, the medieval

lords of the manor Lord of the Manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England, referred to the landholder of a rural estate. The lord enjoyed manorial rights (the rights to establish and occupy a residence, known as the manor house and demesne) as well as seigno ...

.Allen, Geoff. (2000). ''Warwickshire Towns and Villages''. Pages 77-78. Sigma Leisure. . The village contains the historic Church of All Saints and some preserved 17th-century

almshouse An almshouse (also known as a bede-house, poorhouse, or hospital) was charitable housing provided to people in a particular community, especially during the medieval era. They were often targeted at the poor of a locality, at those from certain ...

s, which date from 1608, but were extensively restored during 1980-81. The

Christopher Saxton Christopher Saxton (c. 1540 – c. 1610) was an English cartographer who produced the first county maps of England and Wales. Life and family Saxton was probably born in Sowood, Ossett in the parish of Dewsbury, in the West Riding of Yorkshire ...

map of Warwickshire (1637 edition) includes a curious transposition: Leamington Hastings appears as ''Lemington priors'', and what is now called

Leamington Spa Royal Leamington Spa, commonly known as Leamington Spa or simply Leamington (), is a spa town and civil parish in Warwickshire, England. Originally a small village called Leamington Priors, it grew into a spa town in the 18th century following ...

, or Royal Leamington Spa, appears as ''Lemington hastings''. The first mention of a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

in Leamington Hastings was in September 1845, when a type of

postmark A postmark is a postal marking made on an envelope, parcel, postcard or the like, indicating the place, date and time that the item was delivered into the care of a postal service, or sometimes indicating where and when received or in transit. ...

known as an undated circular handstamp was issued. The village post office closed in May 1979. Leamington Hastings Infant School is located in the village.

Notable residents

The Victorian philosopher

Richard Congreve Richard Congreve (4 September 1818 – 5 July 1899) was the first English philosopher to openly espouse the Religion of Humanity, the godless form of religious humanism that was introduced by Auguste Comte, as a distinct form of positivism. Co ...

was born at Leamington Hastings. A branch of the Sitwell family lived at Leamington Hastings, where they had inherited their holdings from a Wheler heiress. Edward Sacheverell Wilmot was lord of the manor from 1801 to 1819. From them the later Wilmot-Sitwell family of

Horsley, Derbyshire Horsley is a small village roughly 5 miles north of the City of Derby, England, with a population of 973 at the 2011 Census. The St Clement's Church, Horsley, parish church of St Clement and St John, which dates from the 13th century, was rededi ...

descended. Rev. Degge Wilmot Sitwell, who lived at The Manor House at Leamington Hastings, served as vicar of the church. His grandson was Major General Hervey Degge Wilmot Sitwell, born in 1896, who served as General Officer commanding the British troops on

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

in 1942, when he was captured by

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese forces and spent the next three years in Japanese

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of wa ...

camps. He was made a Companion of the

Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved Bathing#Medieval ...

in 1946. From 1953 until 1968 he was

Keeper of the Jewel House The Master of the Jewel Office was a position in the Royal Households of England, the Kingdom of Great Britain and the United Kingdom. The office holder was responsible for running the Jewel House The Jewel House is a vault housing the British ...

in London.

References

External links

Village website

Leamington Hastings archives
- Our Warwickshire {{authority control Villages in Warwickshire