Warwickshire


Warwickshire is a ceremonial county in the West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire to the south, and Worcestershire and the West Midlands county to the west. The largest settlement is Nuneaton.
The county is largely rural, with an area of and an estimated population of in. It contains a number of towns, including Nuneaton and Bedworth in the north-east, Rugby in the east, Stratford-upon-Avon in the south-west, and Warwick and Leamington Spa adjacent to each other in the centre. For local government purposes, Warwickshire is a non-metropolitan county with five districts. The county historically included the city of Coventry and the area to its west, including Sutton Coldfield, Solihull and the city centre of Birmingham.
Warwickshire is a flat, lowland county, but its far south contains part of the Cotswolds, which have been designated a national landscape. The River Avon, a major tributary of the Severn, flows through the south of the county.
The region was part of Roman Britain and later the Roman road called Watling Street became the boundary between the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia and the Danelaw. The county was relatively settled during the rest of the Middle Ages and Early Modern period; Coventry developed as a major centre of the textiles trade. The playwright William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564, living much of his life there, and the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 was planned near Snitterfield. During the Industrial Revolution, the Warwickshire coalfield was exploited and Coventry and the west of the county became manufacturing centres; Leamington Spa developed as a tourist resort at the same time. The Victorian novelist Mary Ann Evans, better known as George Eliot, was born just outside Nuneaton in 1819.

Geography

Warwickshire is bordered by Leicestershire to the northeast, Staffordshire to the northwest, Worcestershire and the West Midlands to the west, Northamptonshire to the east and southeast, Gloucestershire to the southwest and Oxfordshire to the south. The northern tip of the county is only from the Derbyshire border. An average-sized English county covering an area of, it runs some north to south.
The majority of Warwickshire's population live in the north and centre of the county. The market towns of northern and eastern Warwickshire were industrialised in the 19th century, and include Atherstone, Bedworth, Coleshill, Nuneaton, and Rugby. Major industries included coal mining, textiles, engineering and cement production, but heavy industry is in decline, being replaced by distribution centres, light to medium industry and services. Of the northern and eastern towns, Nuneaton and Rugby are best known outside of Warwickshire. The prosperous towns of central and western Warwickshire, including Leamington Spa, Warwick, Stratford-upon-Avon, Kenilworth, Alcester, Southam and Wellesbourne, harbour tourism, gaming and services as major employment sectors.
The north of the county, bordering Staffordshire and Leicestershire, is mildly undulating countryside and the northernmost village, No Man's Heath, is only south of the Peak District National Park's southernmost point.
The south of the county is largely rural and sparsely populated, and includes a very small area of the Cotswolds, at the border with northeast Gloucestershire. The plain between the outlying Cotswolds and the Edgehill escarpment is known as the Vale of Red Horse. The only town in the south of Warwickshire is Shipston-on-Stour. The highest point in the county, at, is Ebrington Hill, again on the border with Gloucestershire, at the county's southwest extremity.
There are no cities in Warwickshire since both Coventry and Birmingham were incorporated into the West Midlands county in 1974 and are now metropolitan authorities in themselves. According to the 2011 United Kingdom census, the largest towns in Warwickshire were: Nuneaton, Rugby, Leamington Spa, Bedworth, Warwick, Stratford and Kenilworth

Arden and Felden

Much of western Warwickshire, including the area now forming part of Coventry, Solihull and Birmingham, was covered by the ancient Forest of Arden. Thus the names of a number of places in the central-western part of Warwickshire end with the phrase "-in-Arden", such as Henley-in-Arden, Hampton-in-Arden and Tanworth-in-Arden. The remaining area, not part of the forest, was called the Felden – from fielden - and is now an undulating and agricultural landscape, through which the rivers Avon and Leam flow.

Historic county boundaries

Areas historically part of Warwickshire include Coventry, Solihull, Sutton Coldfield, and much of Birmingham including the city centre, Aston, Castle Bromwich, Digbeth, Edgbaston, Erdington, Hodge Hill, Ladywood, Nechells, Saltley, Shard End, Sheldon, Small Heath and Sparkbrook. Other areas historically in Warwickshire, all now in the West Midlands county following local government re-organisation in 1974, include Marston Green, Meriden, Chelmsley Wood, Kingshurst, and Smith's Wood.
In 1986 the West Midlands County Council was abolished and Birmingham, Coventry, and Solihull became effective unitary authorities. However, the West Midlands county name has not been altogether abolished, and still exists for ceremonial purposes. Since 2016, it has been used as part of the West Midlands Combined Authority, with powers over transport, economic development and regeneration. Some organisations, such as Warwickshire County Cricket Club, which is based in Edgbaston, in Birmingham, observe the historic county boundaries.
The flag of the historic county was registered in October 2016. It is a design of a bear and ragged staff on a red field, which is long associated with the county.
Coventry is effectively in the centre of the Warwickshire area, and still has strong ties with the county. Coventry and Warwickshire are sometimes treated as a single area and share a single Chamber of Commerce, Local Enterprise Partnership and BBC Local Radio Station.
Coventry was administered separately from the rest of Warwickshire between 1451 and 1842. It formed the County of the City of Coventry, a county corporate from 1451. In 1842 the county corporate of Coventry was abolished and remerged with the rest of Warwickshire.
The town of Tamworth was historically divided between Warwickshire and Staffordshire, but since 1888 has been fully in Staffordshire.

Green belt

Warwickshire contains a large expanse of green belt area, surrounding the West Midlands and Coventry conurbations, and was first drawn up from the 1950s. All the county's districts contain some portion of the belt.

Places of interest

  • Anne Hathaway's Cottage
  • Arbury Hall
  • Battle of Edgehill
  • The Belfry
  • Brinklow Castle
  • British Motor Museum
  • Burton Dassett Hills
  • Caldecotte Park
  • Charlecote Park
  • Charlecote Water Mill
  • Chesterton Windmill
  • Compton Verney House
  • Compton Wynyates
  • Coombe Abbey
  • Coombe Country Park
  • Coughton Court
  • Coventry Canal
  • Draycote Water
  • Grand Union Canal
  • Guy Fawkes House
  • Hartshill Hayes Country Park
  • Hatton Country World
  • Jephson Gardens
  • Kenilworth Castle
  • King Edward VI School
  • Kingsbury Water Park
  • Ladywalk Reserve
  • Lunt Roman Fort
  • Lord Leycester Hospital
  • Lowsonford
  • Mary Arden's House
  • Midland Air Museum
  • Newbold Quarry Park
  • Nuneaton Museum & Art Gallery
  • Oxford Canal
  • Ragley Hall
  • River Avon
  • Rollright Stones
  • Royal Pump Rooms
  • Royal Shakespeare Theatre
  • Rugby Art Gallery and Museum
  • Rugby School
  • Ryton Pools Country Park
  • Shakespeare's Birthplace
  • Shakespeare's New Place
  • St. Nicholas' Park
  • Swift Valley Nature Reserve
  • The Forest Hermitage
  • University of Warwick
  • Warwick Castle
  • Warwick School
  • Webb Ellis Rugby Football Museum
  • Wellesbourne Wartime Museum

    Economy

Warwickshire has a strong and growing economy with the automotive industry being a major contributor. In the north, BMW's Hams Hall plant employs over 1,000 people, while Jaguar Land Rover and Aston Martin Lagonda have headquarters, including a giant advanced production creation centre, at Gaydon in the south.
Warwickshire is also establishing a growing reputation as a global hub of the video game industry. One of Britain's oldest still-running game studios, Codemasters, has operated out of Southam for decades; the greater "Silicon Spa" area, including Southam, Royal Leamington Spa and Warwick, is now home to dozens of game studios which employ a combined total of over 2,000 highly skilled people, equating to more than 10% of the UK's games development workforce.
Increasingly the region is establishing itself as one of the leading areas in battery technology with major developments announced in 2021 that include a £130 million UK Battery Industrialisation Centre based in Coventry.
Tourism is also a key area of employment with country parks, rural areas and historic towns across the county. It generates a total business turnover of over £1 billion to the local economy and supports almost 20,000 jobs.

Settlements

Main Warwickshire towns and villages, with a population of at least 5,000:
Warwickshire came into being as a division of the kingdom of Mercia in the early 11th century. The first reference to Warwickshire was in 1001, as Wæringscīr, named after Warwick. The prefix wara- is the genitive plural of the Old English noun waru, which means "those that care for, watch, guard, protect, or defend". It was used as an endonym by both Goths and Jutes. The suffix -wick is an Old English cognate for the Latin word for village, vicus. Near Warwick are the villages of Long Itchington and Bishop's Itchington along the River Itchen.
During the Middle Ages Warwickshire was dominated by Coventry, at the time one of the most important cities in England because of its prominence in the textiles trade. Warwickshire played a key part in the English Civil War, with the Battle of Edgehill and other skirmishes taking place in the county. During the Industrial Revolution Warwickshire became one of Britain's foremost industrial counties, with the large industrial cities of Birmingham and Coventry within its boundaries.