Warwickshire is a flat,lowland county,but its far south contains part of the CotswoldsAONB. 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 3 miles (5km) from the Derbyshire border. An average-sized English county covering an area of 1,975km2 (760sqmi),[5] it runs some 56 miles (90km) north to south.
The majority of Warwickshire's population live in the north and centre of the county.[6] 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 (as the birthplace of rugby football) 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 (rising to 178m / 581ft near Hartshill) and the northernmost village,No Man's Heath,is only 34 miles (55km) 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.[7] The only town in the south of Warwickshire is Shipston-on-Stour. The highest point in the county,at 261m (856ft),is Ebrington Hill,again on the border with Gloucestershire,grid referenceSP187426 at the county's southwest extremity.[8][9]
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 (+20,000 pop.) in Warwickshire were:Nuneaton (pop. 81,900),Rugby (70,600),Leamington Spa (49,500),Bedworth (32,500),Warwick (30,100),Stratford (25,500) and Kenilworth (22,400)[10]
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[11] (most of which was cut down to provide fuel for industrialisation). 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.[12]
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 (BBC CWR).
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.
Warwickshire contains a large expanse of green belt area, surrounding the West Midlands and Coventry conurbations, and was first drawn up from the 1950s.[clarification needed] All the county's districts contain some portion of the belt.
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,[16] while Jaguar Land Rover and Aston Martin Lagonda have headquarters, including a giant advanced production creation centre,[17] at Gaydon in the south.
Warwickshire is also establishing a growing reputation as a global hub of the video game industry.[18] One of Britain's oldest still-running game studios, Codemasters, has operated out of Southam for decades; the greater "Silicon Spa"[19] 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.[20]
Increasingly the region is establishing itself as one of the leading areas in battery technology with major developments announced in 2021 that include a £130million UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC)[21] 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.[22]
18 of the 20 largest settlements of Warwickshire, see the green section for Bidford and Wellesbourne. District centres in yellow. Cities which were historically in (or partially in) the county of Warwickshire.[23][24]– Orange. Settlements which have recently been targeted for planned population growth to become larger, suburban villages/towns, across the current and historic county boundaries.[25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34]– Green.
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 genitiveplural of the Old Englishnounwaru, which means "those that care for, watch, guard, protect, or defend". It was used as an endonym by both Goths[a] and Jutes.[b] The suffix -wick is an Old Englishcognate (-wic) for the Latin word for village, vicus. Near Warwick are the villages of Long Itchington and Bishop's Itchington along the River Itchen.[c]
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.
1891: The district of Balsall Heath, which had originally constituted the most northerly part of the Parish of King's Norton in Worcestershire, was added to the County Borough of Birmingham, and therefore Warwickshire, on 1 October 1891.
1909: Quinton was formally removed from Worcestershire and incorporated into the County Borough of Birmingham, then in Warwickshire, on 9 November 1909.
1931: The boundaries between Gloucestershire, Warwickshire, and Worcestershire were adjusted by the Provisional Order Confirmation (Gloucestershire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire) Act which transferred 26 parishes between the three counties, largely to eliminate exclaves. The town of Shipston-on-Stour was gained from Worcestershire and several villages, including Long Marston and Welford-on-Avon, from Gloucestershire, while the parish of Ipsley was ceded from Alcester Rural District to Redditch Urban District in Worcestershire.
1969: Matchborough was ceded to Worcestershire as part of the new town development of Redditch.
Atherstone is the headquarters of the North Warwickshire district, Nuneaton is headquarters of the Nuneaton and Bedworth District and Leamington Spa is the headquarters of the Warwick district.
Warwickshire County Council, based in Warwick is elected every four years. The last election was the held on 6 May 2021 and resulted in a Conservative majority. The county council operates a cabinet-style council. The county council is made of 57 councillors, who decide upon the budget and appoints the council leader. The council leader selects 8 councillors and together they form the cabinet. The Leader assigns portfolios on which cabinet members make decisions. Key decisions are made by the whole cabinet while others are made only by the portfolio holders for relevant areas.[36]
In addition many small towns and villages have their own town council or parish council as the most local tier of local government.
In August 2020 Warwickshire County Council put forward proposals for the five district and borough councils in the county to be abolished and replaced with a single county-wide unitary authority.[37] This prompted a backlash from the district and borough councils who commissioned their own report, which argued in favour of Warwickshire being split into two unitary authorities, one for the north of the county, covering the current districts of North Warwickshire, Nuneaton and Bedworth and Rugby, and one for the south of the county, covering Warwick and Stratford districts.[38] In September 2020, it was agreed that both proposals would be sent for consideration to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government.[39]
In the state sector, children start school in the school year in which they turn five. They stay at primary school for seven years (although this varies even within the county, as some people have previously gone for four years and then spent another four years at a 'middle school') until they are eleven. Warwickshire is one of 36 local authorities in England to still maintain the grammar school system in two districts: Stratford-on-Avon and Rugby. In the final year of primary school, children are given the opportunity of sitting the 11-plus exam to compete for a place at one of the 5 grammar schools: Stratford-upon-Avon Grammar School for Girls; King Edward VI School, a boys' school from year 7–11 with a mixed Sixth-Form; Lawrence Sheriff Grammar School for Boys; Rugby High School for Girls and Alcester Grammar School (mixed). The Warwickshire 11+ selection test consists of two papers, each containing a mixture of verbal reasoning, numerical reasoning and non-verbal reasoning multiple-choice questions.[40]
Warwickshire contains four colleges of further education: North Warwickshire & Hinckley College, King Edward VI Sixth Form College (K.E.G.S) in Nuneaton, Stratford-upon-Avon College and the Warwickshire College Group an institution made up of six main separate colleges that have merged (Leamington Centre, Rugby Centre, Moreton Morrell Centre, Pershore College, Henley-in-Arden Centre and the Trident Centre in Warwick).
There are no universities per se in Warwickshire, though the University of Warwick forms part of the border with Warwickshire on the southern edge of the city of Coventry. Some areas of the University of Warwick are within the boundaries of Warwickshire including Lakeside Village and Warwick Business School[41] The university has a small campus near Wellesbourne which houses the Warwick Horticultural Research Centre and an Innovation Centre.[42]
Transport
Roads
Several major motorways run through Warwickshire; these are:
The M40 motorway, which connects London to Birmingham, runs through the centre of the county; it serves Leamington Spa, Warwick and Stratford.
The M6 motorway, which connects North West England and the West Midlands to the M1 motorway (and then on to London), runs through the north of Warwickshire; it serves Rugby, Nuneaton and Bedworth on its way to Birmingham.
The M69 Coventry to Leicester motorway serves Nuneaton.
Other motorways pass briefly through Warwickshire including the M45 (a short spur south of Rugby connecting to the M1), the southern end of the M6 Toll and the M42; it passes through the county at several points.
Other major trunk routes in Warwickshire include:
A45 takes a route through Birmingham, Coventry and Rugby, then east into Northamptonshire
A46 connects the M40 to the M6 via Warwick, Kenilworth and Coventry
Birmingham-Nuneaton section of the Birmingham to Peterborough Line, which continues east of Nuneaton towards Leicester and Peterborough. Nuneaton has direct services to Birmingham and Leicester on this line; there are two intermediate stations at Water Orton and Coleshill in the extreme north-west of the county.
North Warwickshire Line from Birmingham to Stratford-upon-Avon. This line used to continue southwards to Cheltenham, but is now a dead-end branch. There is an intermediate station on this line at Henley-in-Arden and at several small villages. Stratford also has direct rail services to London via the branch line to Warwick.
Between 1965 and 2018, the only major town in Warwickshire without a station was Kenilworth. The Leamington to Coventry line passes through the town, but the station was closed as part of the Beeching cuts. Kenilworth railway station was rebuilt and opened in April 2018,[43] with an hourly service to Coventry and to Leamington provided by West Midlands Trains.
High Speed 2
HS2 construction near Leamington Spa in August 2021
The new High Speed 2 (HS2) line is a long-distance route that is being constructed through Warwickshire; however, there will be no stations in the county. It will pass south of Southam, then between Kenilworth and Coventry, before running into the West Midlands towards Birmingham.[44]
The Oxford Canal runs from near Coventry, then eastwards around Rugby and through the rural south of the county towards Oxford.
The Grand Union Canal runs through Leamington and Warwick, then onwards to Birmingham.
The restored Saltisford Canal Arm is close to the centre of Warwick and is now a short branch of the Grand Union Canal. The arm is the remains of the original terminus of the Warwick and Birmingham Canal; it dates back to 1799.
The Stratford-upon-Avon Canal runs from the Grand Union west of Warwick to Stratford, where it joins the Avon.
The River Avon runs through Warwickshire on a south-west to north-east axis, running through Stratford, Warwick and Rugby. It is navigable for 47 miles (76km) from the River Severn at Tewkesbury to Alvestonweir just east of Stratford-upon-Avon, making it the only navigable river in Warwickshire.[45] There have been proposals to extend the Avon navigation 13 miles (21km) to Warwick.[46] However, as of 2019, these plans look unlikely to proceed.[47]
Warwickshire's rural roads, canal towpaths and historic towns are increasingly popular with cycling enthusiasts.[50] Its reputation as a major cycling destination has been bolstered in recent years having hosted a stage of the Women's Tour since 2016[51] and the Men's Tour of Britain in 2018 and 2019.[52]
In 2022, St Nicholas Park in Warwick hosted the Elite Men's and Women's Road Race as part of the Commonwealth Games that took place in Birmingham.[53]
There are six Saturday morning 5km parkruns in Warwickshire for all ages and abilities: Leamington, Stratford upon Avon, Rugby, Bedworth, Southam and Kingsbury. There are also three Sunday 2km junior events at Stratford upon Avon, Rugby and Warwick.[54]
The Warwickshire County Board of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) (or Warwickshire GAA) is one of the county boards outside Ireland and is responsible for Gaelic games in Warwickshire. The county board is also responsible for the Warwickshire inter-county teams. They play their home games at Páirc na hÉireann.
Warwick Water Polo club play in the Midland League, and train in Warwick, Banbury and Coventry.[56]
Freedom of the county
In March 2014 the freedom of the county was bestowed on the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. The honour was officially bestowed following a parade through Warwick on 6 June 2014.[57]
↑ Itchen derives from Ytene, the genitive plural of Yte the exonym of "Jute", i.e. "of the Jutes".[35] Various place-names identify locations as Jutish. These include Bishopstoke (Ytingstoc), the River Itchen (Ytene) and the Meon Valley (Ytedene).
References
↑ "Warwickshire 2023/2024". High Sheriffs' Association of England and Wales. Retrieved 17 February 2024.
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