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{{Cleanup bare URLs|date=August 2022}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}}
{{EngvarB|date=March 2024}}
{{Infobox UK place
|country =                     England
|official_name =               Kitwood
|coordinates = {{coord|51.100000|-1.05|display=inline,title}}
|civil_parish=                Four Marks
|shire_district =              [[East Hampshire]]
|shire_county =                [[Hampshire]]
|region =                      South East England
|constituency_westminster =
|post_town =                   [[Alton, Hampshire|Alton]]
|postcode_area =               GU
|postcode_district =           GU34
|dial_code =                   01420
|os_grid_reference =           SU6661633840
|static_image_name =           File:Road Junction, Kitwood - geograph.org.uk - 736597.jpg
|static_image_caption =           Road junction in the centre of Kitwood
}}
'''Kitwood''' is a [[hamlet (place)|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.
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.
[[File:Kitwood map 1870.png|thumb|Map of Kitwood from 1870, showing the then newly built Kitwood Farm to the east]]
==Etymology==
First mentioned in AD 1403 as ''kyteswode'' <ref>https://maps.hants.gov.uk/historicenvironment/herResults.aspx?monuid=39220</ref> meaning the [[Kite (bird)|Kite]]('s) wood from [[Old English]] '' 'cýta' '' and '' 'wudu' ''.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://old-engli.sh/dictionary.php | title=Old English Dictionary: Find Old English Words &#124; Old-Engli.sh }}</ref> 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 [[Stone Tools|mesolithic flint implements]] that have been found near to the hamlet since the 1950s. Later evidence of [[Roman Britain|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 can be seen by medieval potsherds found around the area. Since the early 1400s, the is also regularly mentioned in legal documents relating to Ropley. Kitwood Lane is recorded in a [[Manorial roll|court roll]] record from 1413 <ref>held in the records of Winchester College</ref> as "kitteswodeweye" and during a hedgerow dating survey, commissioned for the Four Marks Village Design Statement,<ref>https://cdn.easthants.gov.uk/public/documents/27.%20Four%20Marks%20Village%20Design%20Statement.pdf page 27</ref> 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 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 [[inclosure act|enclosed]] by act of Parliament, the [[Ropley Commons (Hampshire) Inclosure and Farnham Park (Surrey and Hampshire) Improvement Act 1709]] ([[8 Ann.]] c. ''16'').<ref>Heal, Chris, Ropley's Legacy, The Ridge Enclosures, 1709 to 1850: Chawton, Farringdon, Medstead, Newton Valence and Ropley and the birth of Four Marks (Chattaway and Spottiswood, Four Marks 2021) {{ISBN|978-1-9161944-3-4}}</ref>
===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==
{{Reflist}}
==External links==
* [http://www.postcode-info.co.uk/kitwood-info-73560.html Kitwood Postal Information]
{{EastHampshire}}
{{authority control}}
[[Category:Hamlets in Hampshire]]