Hardwicke, Stroud

Hardwicke is a village on the A38 road some 4 miles / 7 km south of the city of Gloucester, England. Despite its proximity to Gloucester, the village comes under Stroud (district) Council. The population of the village taken at the United Kingdom Census 2011 was 3,901.

With its name deriving from the Old English heorde wic, "herd [tending] settlement", farming is still the major industry of the parish. Hardwicke was once renowned for its cider and cheese, this may have led to its survival during the battle for Gloucester in the Civil War – neither side wanted to damage a source of much appreciated sustenance.

Though there is a typical village green and pond on Green Lane, along with some of the village's oldest cottages, there was never a distinct centre to the village and other parts have a distinct "Victorian" feel. Added to this are the newer developments of the 1970s.

The village had two pubs, 'The Pilot' (on the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal) and 'The Starting Gate' (formerly 'The Morning Star', on the Bristol Road (B4008)). The latter has now closed and been refitted and opened as a convenience store in 2015 There is also a branch of The Royal British Legion, a village hall and a shop.

In the centre of the village is the Hardwicke Parochial School, a Church of England school that teaches children from the ages of four to eleven.

Hardwicke Court has since the late 18th century been the principal Gloucestershire seat of the Lloyd-Baker family. The extant house was designed in neo-Classical style by Robert Smirke in 1817–19, although it retains a canal feature from the early 18th-century gardens of the Trye family. The house and gardens are occasionally open to the public in the summer. It is a grade II* listed building.

An electoral ward in the same name exists. This ward starts in the north west at Elmore, passes by Harwicke and ends in the south west at Haresfield. The total ward population taken at the 2011 census was 4,783.

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