Hardwicke

The village of Hardwicke lies in the north west of the Stroud District, hard up against the borders of the City of Gloucester.

The area around the green and pond retain the feeling of the rural village whilst other parts have a distinct "Victorian" feel and there are, of course, the more modern estates. There was never a distinct centre to the village, the church lies near the track of the original Roman road to Bristol, but attention moved to the line of the present Bristol Road when that was established. Hardwicke has three public houses; The Pilot (on the Gloucester-Sharpness Canal), the Morning Star (on the Bristol Road) and the Cross Keys (on the old Bath Road). The village has grown greatly in the last twenty years, to around 1800 households in 2002, and may yet have further growth to come.

Hardwicke has a very well attended, resourced and respected Parochial Primary School. There is a wide range of activities and sports available for both children and adults, some meeting in the village hall or using the sports fields.

Hardwicke also boasts a free magazine, "Hardwicke Matters", that is delivered to every household and business in the parish and has kept the residents appraised of events and village news for the past 15 years.

There are two local shops, one a post office, with a supermarket and other shops a short distance away in Quedgeley. A frequent daytime bus service provides access to Gloucester.

With its name deriving from the Old English heorde wic, "herd keeping settlement" it is not surprising that farming is still the major industry of the parish. Hardwicke was once renowned for its cider and cheese, which may have led to its being unscathed during the battle for Gloucester in the Civil War - perhaps neither side wanted to endanger a source of much appreciated sustenance!

St Nicholas' Church (Class I listed), a typical medieval small village church, has foundations that almost certainly date from Saxon times and contains a good selection of ancient monuments to past lords of the manor and some ancient gravestones. Hardwicke Court (Class II* listed), the private home of the Lloyd Baker family, was built in 1815 on the site of other ancient manor houses.

Amongst other listed buildings is Madam's End Farm. Local lore has it that this name derives from the time when Henry VIII, en route to Gloucester, reached the farm. His then queen, Anne Boleyn, tired and refusing to face the necessary ceremonies involved in entering the city itself, ended the day's progress and spent the night there.

"The Reformatory", almost certainly the first "approved" school for boys in the world, with a strict but fair regime, was established in Hardwicke in 1852 with T. B. Lloyd Baker being one of the founders. Remaining open until 1922 many boys taught at the school gained honours during the First World War and a roll of honour is in the church. Unfortunately the building was demolished in 2001.