Hardwick a Brief history

Hardwick is situated on the A413 Aylesbury to Buckingham Road some 4 miles north of Aylesbury and 1 mile south of Whitchurch. The village itself is mostly off the main road apart from some properties on the A413 just north of the village centre. Part of the parish is on the south side of Bushmead Road in Whitchurch. .

The 2001 census shows a population of 314 in 113 households. The current figure must be more with the new houses that have been built. The parish comprises 2340 acres. The layout of the village roads is such that the main part of Hardwick is very compact with no sprawl despite the building of several new properties of late. There was a settlement here in Anglo Saxon times and parts of the church date from then. The Domesday Book of 1086 lists Saxi as the last Saxon Lord of the manor. He was a thane of King Edward the Confessor so the manor was owned by the King. The manor was then awarded to a Norman. At that time the manor also included Weedon and amounted to 19 hides say 2000 acres approx. The manor passed through many hands until the middle of the 13th century when the then Lord split the manor into two parts leaving it to 2 daughters, with each daughter holding parts of both villages. In 1385 William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester, purchased from a descendant of one of the 2 daughters one half of the original manor and presented it to New College, Oxford for the building and upkeep of Winchester School. This eventually gave New College the right to appoint the rectors of the parish which they retained until 1968. The last New College lands in Hardwick were sold in the mid 1990s.

Not many of the population now work on the land and we are now very much a dormitory village. Despite this the village retains a wonderful community spirit, a neighbourly atmosphere and faces the future with confidence