Kites Hardwick

[4] This spot was the location of frequent flooding of the road until in 2001 the Environment Agency constructed a gauging station immediately west of the bridge with associated works to ease the flow of the river.

It is less clear where the first part of the village's name originates but it may refer to red kites, a bird of prey common in England until the 19th century.

The first mention of the manor is in 1236, when Robert Hastang (whose family gives the name to Leamington Hastings) went to law against William de Herdewic regarding customs and services owed.

According to L. F. Salzman's History of the County of Warwick[8] an early-17th-century document states: The glebe land of Ougham and Westcroft (in Kites Hardwick) was capable of supporting 10 milch cows besides 'rearers' and two or three hundred sheep, and also contained 4 yard land of corn and hay Today, there is a mix of livestock (mostly sheep) and arable farming.

However, Salzman records that much of the arable land had once been pasture; this seems borne out as late as 1853 in a reference by RS Surtees to: ... the wide-stretching grazing grounds of Southam and Dunchurch.

[9] A ewe from the Manor Farm flock of Southdown sheep won Reserve Supreme Champion for Kites Hardwick farmer John Goode at the Royal Show at Stoneleigh in 2000.