Leamington Hastings

Hill is a hamlet in the civil parish of Leamington Hastings and the borough of Rugby, in Warwickshire, England. The hamlet is between Leamington Hastings and the A426 road from Rugby to Southam.

Draycote Water is a 240-hectare (590-acre) reservoir and country park near the village of Dunchurch, 3.75 miles (6 km) south of Rugby in Warwickshire, England, owned and operated by Severn Trent Water. It draws its water from the River Leam, and supplies drinking water to Rugby and Coventry. It is named after the nearby hamlet of Draycote. The reservoir was created in the 1960s and was opened in 1970, with a new pipe and pump installed in 2012. It has a capacity of up to 5 billion gallons (23 million m³) and a maximum depth of 70 feet (21 m). It is a site for birdwatching and has a bird hide, with a feeding station sponsored by the West Midland Bird Club. Severn-Trent manage an adjacent 20 acres (8 ha) country park. Draycote is used by cyclists, runners, windsurfers, fly fishers and for boating. Fishing is for brown trout and rainbow trout from the banks or from boats. A farm to the north east of the site has a herd of alpacas.

Birdingbury is a village and civil parish in the Rugby district of Warwickshire, England, just south of the River Leam, and not far from Draycote Water. It is located roughly halfway between Rugby and Leamington Spa, about eight miles from each. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 327, increasing to 362 at the 2011 Census, decreasing to 341 at the 2021 Census.

Broadwell is a village in Warwickshire, England in the civil parish of Leamington Hastings roughly midway between Dunchurch and Southam on the A426 road.

Draycote is a small hamlet in Warwickshire, England. It forms part of the civil parish of Bourton and Draycote along with nearby Bourton-on-Dunsmore, which is located around half a mile to the west, uphill from Draycote. Draycote is located in a valley just to the west of Draycote Water reservoir, which is named after the hamlet and is home to Draycote Water Sailing Club. Draycote is quite remote, with only one narrow lane accessing the village from the B4453 road, which then loops back towards Bourton-on-Dunsmore. The remains of the former Rugby to Leamington Spa railway line run west of Draycote. Part of the former line between Draycote and Birdingbury has recently been converted into a cycleway as part of the National Cycle Network. Near the village is the Draycote Meadows nature reserve.

Birdingbury Hall is a 17th-century country house situated at Birdingbury, near Rugby, Warwickshire. It is a Grade II listed building and now serves as the head office of a commercial organisation.

Bourton and Draycote is a civil parish in the Rugby borough of Warwickshire, England which consists of the villages of Bourton-on-Dunsmore and Draycote. Of these, Bourton is the larger. In the 2001 Census the parish had a population of 231, increasing to 275 at the 2011 Census.

Birdingbury railway station was a railway station serving Birdingbury in the English county of Warwickshire on the Rugby to Leamington line. Among the many schemes to build a line between Rugby and Leamington was one by the Rugby, Leamington and Warwick Railway Company. This later became known as the Rugby and Leamington Railway and received Royal assent on 13 August 1846. It was sold to the London and North Western Railway almost immediately on 17 November 1846. It was not, however, until 1 March 1851 that the line opened with stations at Birdingbury and Marton, that at Dunchurch opening in 1871. Originally it was a single line, but was doubled in the 1880s, and the driveway leading to its level crossing was private property used by arrangement with the owners. The station building was of plain but substantial brick-built design and, on the opposite down platform, there was a waiting room with an awning (not present on the main platform). On the up side was a short double head shunt, with a siding leading to a loading stage. Unusually, on each platform was a small lever frame which could be used when the signal box was closed.At grouping in 1923 it became part of the London Midland and Scottish Railway. The goods yard closed in August 1953 and its track was lifted almost immediately. The station closed to passengers on 15 June 1959 when the Rugby and Leamington local service ended the track was lifted from Southam and is now a cycleway. The station buildings are now a private dwelling.

Napton and Stockton railway station was a railway station on the London and North Western Railway branch line between Weedon and Leamington Spa. The station was built of wood and opened on 1 August 1895. It had two platforms, one having the main station facilities and the other being on a passing loop. The station was about 0.75 miles (1.21 km) north of Stockton and 1 mile (1.6 km) south of Broadwell. Napton was at least 2.5 miles (4.0 km) away. British Railways withdrew passenger traffic on 15 September 1958 and freight services on 2 December 1963.No trace of the station now remains, as the cutting where it was located has been filled in. Although some former railway workers cottages are nearby.

Bourton-on-Dunsmore is a small village in Warwickshire, England. It is within the civil parish of Bourton and Draycote, along with the nearby hamlet of Draycote. Bourton is part of the borough of Rugby and is located around 5 miles (8.0 km) south-west of the town of Rugby, just south of the B4453 road. Bourton is located upon a ridge of high ground overlooking the Draycote Water reservoir. A short distance to the east, downhill of Bourton is the hamlet of Draycote, and a short distance west is the village of Frankton. Bourton-on-Dunsmore was mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. The village church of St Peter dates to the 13th century, but was mostly rebuilt in the 19th century, it is now grade II listed.In the village is the grade II listed Bourton Hall; a large stone mansion house which dates from 1791, with later additions. It once had gardens designed by Harold Peto, but had fallen into dereliction by the early-1980s. It was restored, and for many years was the headquarters of the development charity Practical Action (formerly known as Intermediate Technology). In 2019 the hall was bought by a company who sought to convert it into a luxury wedding venue. In 2021 the company was fined for carrying out renovation work to the hall without planning permission.

Draycote Meadows SSSI (grid reference SP451708) is a 10 acres (4.0 ha) Site of Special Scientific Interest, notified in 1973. The site is 4 miles (6.4 km) southwest of Rugby immediately to the north of Draycote village. It is accessed from the B4453, close to the A45's London Road interchange. The site is managed by the Warwickshire Wildlife Trust and is well known for its flower rich hay meadows and variety of butterflies.

Kites Hardwick is a hamlet in east Warwickshire, England, in the Leam Valley ward of Rugby Borough and in the civil parish of Leamington Hastings The village straddles the A426 Rugby to Southam road two miles (3 km) south of Dunchurch. It lies in the valley of the River Leam which passes under the A426 at Thurlaston Bridge, just north of Kites Hardwick. 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.Kites Hardwick takes the second part of its name from the Herdewyk family (who are mentioned in the Domesday Book and throughout the late Middle Ages): there are numerous references to the family (also spelled Herdwych and Herdewic) in medieval records from the midlands of England. 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. Kites Hardwick was a manor in its own right, separate from the manor of Leamington Hastings. 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. By the 16th century, the manor was known as Hardwick Grimbald.Leamington Hastings parish is entirely rural farming and Kites Hardwick remains an agricultural settlement. According to L. F. Salzman's History of the County of Warwick 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.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. Manor Farm is on the east side of the A426 road and is architecturally the most notable of the farms in the village. The house is a three-storey early Georgian red brick house with stone dressings and has been Grade II listed since December 1951. Kites Hardwick is served by a bus service running between Rugby and Leamington Spa although most residents have cars. The speed limit through the village was 60 mph but was recently reduced to 50 mph although, unusually, the police objected to the lowering of the limit. A golf driving range was constructed on agricultural land just north of the village in 1992. It now operates as Leam Valley Golf Centre and provides a 14-bay range which is floodlit at night, a nine-hole golf course and putting greens.Draycote Water lies north of the village. It is operated by Severn Trent Water as a domestic water storage reservoir. It was opened in 1970 and holds up to 5,000,000,000 imperial gallons (22,700,000 m3) of water. The reservoir sits beside and above the River Leam and water is pumped up from the river during the winter. Draycote supplies nearby Rugby by pipe and can also feed water back into the River Leam to supply the Leamington Spa area. There is a visitor centre, a sailing club and the reservoir is popular with walkers, birdwatchers and anglers. Kites Hardwick was once more of village status, with 3 pubs. They drank beer because of the lack of clean water. It is said that the people of Kites Hardwick were very drunk. The people who lived there were wiped out by the Black Death (the plague) in the 15th century. Kites Hardwick is also known as Kytes Hardwick.