Hardwick

.Hardwick and Hardwicke are common place names in England - This is from the Old English pre 7th century word "heorde", meaning a herd or flock", with "wic", which like the later Viking word "thorp" described an outlying farm or settlement, which was dependent on a larger village. In some cases, "Hardwick" and "Hardwicke" are interchangeable and the spelling has evolved over time.

Places in England

Hardwick in England

Hardwick, Massachusetts

Hardwick is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States, about 20 miles (32 km) west of the city of Worcester. It had a population of 2,990 at the 2010 census. It includes the villages of Hardwick, Gilbertville, Wheelwright and Old Furnace.

History

Hardwick was first settled in 1737 and was officially incorporated in 1739, named in honor of Philip Yorke, Lord Hardwicke, an English nobleman. In 1762, General Timothy Ruggles, one of the leading Tories of New England, introduced the Hardwick Fair, now the oldest annual fair in the United States. During the late 1800s, Hardwick experienced an expansion of its manufacturing industry, textile and paper mills, both of which left the area by the 1930s. The town has retained its agricultural roots, a long-standing tradition in the region. Hardwick is the home of Eagle Hill School, founded in 1967.

Geography and transportation

Ruscote

The Ruscote, Hardwick and Hanwell Fields estates are three interconnecting Banbury estates that were built between the 1930s and 2000s (decade).

History

During excavations for the building of an office in Hennef Way in 2002, the remains of a British Iron Age settlement with circular buildings dating back to 200 BC were found. The site contained around 150 pieces of pottery and stone. Later there was a Roman villa at nearby Wykham Park. A small drinking-water reservoir lies to the north of Hennef way. The major road was named after Hennef in Germany.

Ruscote was a local village, that dated back to the 15th century, but did not develop until the late 19th century. It was formally incorporated into the borough of Banbury in 1889.

The 1919 Housing Act was followed by the building of the Easington housing estate of 361 council houses in what was one of the first slum clearance schemes in the country. By 1930 the medical officer reported 131 Banbury town centre houses unfit for habitation. So in 1933 Banbury council opened the Ruscote housing estate of 160 houses. The heavy increase in population between 1931 and 1949 was accommodated by the expansion of the town in three main areas, in each of which houses were built both by the town corporation and by housing private companies. The three areas were between the Oxford and Bloxham roads, where about 500 houses were built before 1939 to form the bulk suburb of Easington; in the area of the older village and suburb of Neithrop, where before 1939 some 500 houses were built both around the earlier houses and further west in new streets on either side of the Warwick road, a development which was extended to the south-west after 1945. In 1933 Banbury council opened the Ruscote housing estate of 160 houses, for working class families.