Warwick ( with a silent w in
the middle)) is the county town of
Warwickshire
, England
.
The town
lies upon the River Avon,
18 km (11 miles) south of Coventry
and
4 km (2.5 miles) west of Leamington Spa
(although the towns are conjoined), with a
population of 25,434 (2001
census).
Culture
Warwick hosts annual
festivals ranging from
the Spoken Word to
Classical and
Contemporary Music to a
Folk Festival and a
Victorian Evening, held in late November or
early December. St. Mary's Church hosts a series of
Early Music concerts, and the Bridge House Theatre
hosts the
Music-in-Round concerts.
Warwick
Chamber of Trade helps to promote the town for visitors,
residents and businesses.
The town is also famous for Warwick Castle
, the construction of which began in 1068.
The town centre is also known for its historic architecture and
contains a mixture of
Tudor and
17th-century buildings. In recent years several high-profile
national and international companies have set-up large office
complexes in and around Warwick, notably
National Grid plc and
IBM.
Warwick is
also known for Warwick
Racecourse
, near the west gate of the medieval town which
hosts several televised horse racing meetings a year. Within
the racecourse is a small golfcourse.
Warwick
Hospital
, Royal Leamington Spa Rehabilitation
Hospital
and St Michael's Hospital
(a psychiatric that superseded Central
Hospital, Hatton
) are situated within the town.
Warwick is
twinned with Saumur
in France
and Verden,
Germany
. Warwick was twinned with Saumur in 1976.
Verden, already the twin town of Saumur, became Warwick's German
partner in 1989.
Havelberg
, in the former East Germany was adopted by Verden
on re-unification, and was welcomed as a friendship town by Warwick
and Saumur. As part of Warwick District, the town
participates in
One World Link (OWL), a friendship link with Bo in
Sierra Leone.
History
Mill Street in Warwick
Vikings
According
to the Anglo Saxon Chronicle,
Warwick was founded on the banks of the River Avon in the year 914
AD when Anglo Saxon Ethelfleda Lady of the Mercians
, sister of king Edward
the Elder of Wessex built a burh or
fortified dwelling to overwhelm the Danish
(Vikings)
who had settled in what had been the old Merian kingdom. She
was the widow of Alderman Aethelred her father, king
Alfred's ally.
This burh was the early origins of Warwick Castle.. The name 'Warwick' means "dwellings by the
weir".
In 1050 the Danes invaded Mercia and burned down much of Warwick
including the
nunnery (which stood on the
site of the present day St Nicholas Church).
Its fortifications
led Warwick to become the administrative centre of the new shire in the united English kingdom, and the shire
administered from Warwick became known as Warwickshire.
Mercia
In
medieval times, Warwick remained under
the control of various
Earls of
Warwick, mostly of the Beauchamp family, and became a
walled town. Today the only remains of the
town walls are the east and west
gatehouses.
The eastern gatehouse now serves as part of
the King's High School, a sister institution to Warwick
School
. Warwick was not incorporated as a
Borough until 1545.
The Eastgate, Warwick
During the
English Civil War the
town and castle were garrisoned for
Parliament. The garrison, under a Sir Edward
Peyto, withstanding a two week
siege by the
Royalists. Later
musters from 1644 to 1646 record a
garrison of up to 350 men under the command of Colonel
William Purefoy and Major John Bridges. The
middle of the 17th century also saw the founding of
Castle Hill Baptist Church, one
of the oldest
Baptist churches in the
world.
Fire
In 1694 a
great
fire
destroyed much of the medieval town and as a result
most of the buildings in the town centre are of 17th and 18th
century origin, although a number of older medieval timber framed buildings survive, especially
around the edges of the town centre.
The fire
burnt down much of the medieval church of St
Mary
; both the chancel and the
Beauchamp Chapel, however, survived, the latter having been built
between 1443 and 1464 according to the wishes of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick (who
had died in Rouen
in
1439). A full size reclining copper gilt
effigy of the Earl lies upon his
Purbeck marble tomb - a fine piece of
medieval metalwork cast in 1459
Governance
Population growth has led to Warwick
becoming joined to its larger neighbouring town Leamington Spa with which it forms a small conurbation. Both towns are now
administered as part of the Warwick District
, which has its headquarters in Leamington, although
each retains a separate town
council. Warwickshire County Council remains based in
Warwick itself.
James Plaskitt, of the Labour Party, is Member of Parliament for the Warwick and Leamington
constituency
.
Geography
Suburbs
Suburbs of Warwick include Bridge End,
Emscote, Forbes, Myton (connecting Warwick with Leamington Spa),
Packmores, The Cape, Warwick Gates, Woodloes Park and the newly
established Chase Meadows.
Warwick Gates
Warwick Gates is a newly developed housing estate and business park
in Heathcote, south-west Warwick.
Although separated from Warwick town
centre by open fields, Warwick Gates falls within the Warwick South
and Bishops
Tachbrook
parish. It is adjacent to Whitnash
, a small town near Leamington Spa, and nearby the village of Bishops
Tachbrook. The Tachbrook Park and Heathcote industrial
estates are located nearby.
The Royal Leamington Spa Rehabilitation
Hospital is adjacent to Warwick Gates.
Landmarks
Transport
Warwick is near the
M40 motorway and
the
A46 trunk road.
The town
also has good rail links, with direct rail
services to Leamington
Spa, London
, Birmingham
and Stratford-upon-Avon
provided by Chiltern
Railways from Warwick railway station
in the town and also from Warwick
Parkway
, an out-of-town station opened in 2000 a few miles
from the town. In addition, a few peak-hour trains to and
from Birmingham are operated by
London
Midland.
Regular
bus services to Leamington Spa, Stratford-upon-Avon and Coventry are operated by Stagecoach in Warwickshire from
the bus station in the town
centre.
There is also a
National
Express coach stop in the town with limited services.
The
nearby Warwick
Parkway railway station also has a coach stop with more
frequent services.
The
Grand Union
Canal
and the River
Avon also pass through the town. The restored Saltisford
Canal Arm, is close to the town centre, and is a short branch of
the Grand Union Canal.
The arm is the remains of the original
terminus of the Warwick and Birmingham Canal
and dates back to 1799. The Saltisford Canal
Trust have restored most of the surviving canal, which is now the
mooring for colourful
narrowboats and a
waterside park open to the public. Over 800 visiting narrowboats
come by water to Warwick each year and moor on the arm.
Education
There are
a number of secondary schools
located within Warwick, including Warwick School, an independent school for boys, The King's
High School For Girls
, an independent school for girls, Myton School
and Aylesford School
, both of which are state run co-educational
schools.
Warwick School
Warwick
School is an independent
school for boys which claims to be the oldest boys' school in
England. The actual date of its founding is unknown,
although 914 has been quoted in some cases. For some years the
school honoured the fact that King
Edward the Confessor (c.1004–1066)
chartered it, although there is no direct evidence for this, and
King Henry VIII re-founded the
school in 1545. Whatever the truth of the matter, there is no doubt
that there has been a
grammar school
in the town of Warwick since before the
Norman Conquest, and its successor, the
present independent school, has been on its current site south of
the
River Avon since
1879.
University of Warwick
The University of Warwick
The
University
of Warwick
, one of the leading universities in the UK
, is
somewhat confusingly named after the county of Warwickshire, rather than the town, and is in fact situated
several miles north of Warwick on the southern outskirts of
Coventry, near Kenilworth
. Adding to the location confusion is the fact
that Coventry is no longer in the county of Warwickshire, but instead is in the West Midlands, leading to the current
situation where the university straddles both
counties.
Economy
Due to its proximity to north-south and east-west motorway routes,
many companies have their head office in the town. Since November
2004,
National Grid plc has had
its National Gas Control Centre (NGCC) for the
National Transmission System on
the
Warwick Technology Park
south of the town between the
A425 road
and
A452 road.
ConocoPhillips and their petrol station
group,
JET, have their UK base also on
the Technology Park.
IBM and
Volvo Group UK have bases on the
Wedgnock Industrial Estate in the
north of the town, near to the A46 trunk road.
Public services
Warwick
Hospital, Royal Leamington Spa Rehabilitation
Hospital and St Michael's Hospital (a psychiatric that superseded Central
Hospital, Hatton) are situated within the town.
Town twinning
- Warwick
, Rhode
Island
, USA
- Saumur, Pays de la
Loire
, France
- Verden, Lower Saxony
, Germany
- Warwick
, New
York
, USA
- Warwick
, Queensland
, Australia
Associations
J. R. R.
Tolkien seems to have been very
influenced by Warwick (where he was married in the Catholic Church
of Saint Mary Immaculate) and by its Mercian connections: Lynn
Forest-Hill, in an article in the
Times Literary Supplement
(TLS 8 July 2005 pp 12–13) argues cogently that two important
settlements in Tolkien's work were modelled on Warwick —
Edoras closely on the early town, and
Minas Tirith more remotely on the Norman; and
that aspects of the plot of
The Lord of the Rings are
paralleled in the romance known as
Guy of
Warwick.
Warwick and its historic buildings have featured in a number of
television series, including the
BBC's drama
series
Dangerfield,
the period dramas
Pride and
Prejudice and
Tom
Jones and
Granada
Television's
Moll
Flanders. Parts of the town subbed for
Elizabethan and
Jacobean era London in the third-series episode
two (
The Shakespeare Code) of
Doctor Who which ran 7 April 2007.
Warwick
has many long established sports clubs including Warwick Hockey
Club which was founded in 1920 and Racing Club
Warwick F.C.
founded a year earlier.
Notable people
References
- ONS Neighborhood statistics
- Allen, Geoff, (2000) Warwickshire Towns &
Villages, ISBN 1 85058 642 X
- Slater,
Terry (1981) A History of Warwickshire, ISBN 0-85033-416-0
External links
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