Everything about Kenilworth totally explained
Kenilworth is a town in central
Warwickshire,
England. In 2001 the town had a population of 22,582 (24,000 est.2006). It is situated 10 km (6 miles) south of
Coventry, 10 km (6 miles) north of
Warwick and 145 km (90 miles) northwest of
London.
History
Kenilworth is perhaps best known for
Kenilworth Castle, although other significant local landmarks include Kenilworth Clock, Abbey Fields park and
St Nicholas' Church. A settlement has existed at Kenilworth since at least the time of the
Domesday Book, the book refers to Kenilworth as
Chinewrde. However, the main development of the town occurred to serve
Kenilworth Castle and
St Mary's Abbey. The original development by
Geoffrey de Clinton II in 1140 being along what is now Warwick Road, from the present St John's Church to the clock tower. After the
Dissolution of the Monasteries the Abbey grounds, adjacent to the Castle, were designated as
common land, in exchange for the common land used for expansion of the Castle by
Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. Only a few walls and a storage barn of the original Abbey now exist.
The first
potato grown in England, brought back from
South America by
Sir Walter Raleigh, is thought to have been planted in the Little Virginia area of the town, near the castle.
Just off the Coventry Road, Kenilworth, is a field known as '
The Parliament Piece', traditionally said to be the site where Henry III held a Parliament in August 1266 while he was besieging Kenilworth Castle, where the late Simon de Montfort's followers, led by Henry de Hastings, were still holding out against the King's forces. This Parliament led to the "Dictum of Kenilworth", a settlement that offered the rebels a way of recovering the lands that the Crown had seized from them. One copy of the Dictum is endorsed "in castris apud Kenilworth" - in the camp at Kenilworth.
Queen Elizabeth visited
Robert Dudley at
Kenilworth Castle several times, the last of which was in 1575. Dudley entertained the Queen with pageants and banquets that cost some £1000 per day, presenting diversions and pageants surpassing anything ever before seen in England. Members of the public have free access to Parliament Piece, which is owned by the Open Spaces Society and leased by Warwick District Council. The Council own and manage land across the Coventry Road at Tainter's Hill. This area of public open space was designated "for the poor of the parish" under the 1756 enclosure acts and is now registered as common land.
The arrival of the railways in 1844 brought industrialists from
Birmingham and
Coventry who developed the residential area around the town's railway station. In the nineteenth century the town had some fine large mansions with landscaped gardens, these were demolished after the
First World War and the
Second World War for housing developments. The names of these mansions still survive in the names of some roads and areas of the town (for example, Towers Close, built upon the grounds of Rouncil Towers) and some large trees from their grounds still survive (for example
sequoiadendrons from The Moorlands and Rouncil Towers). The original railway station (1844) was partially rebuilt as the Kings Arms and Castle public house (later called Drummonds) when the new station was built in 1883.
Sir Walter Scott stayed in the Kings Arms when he wrote
Kenilworth. Drummonds was redeveloped during 2007 and now houses a restaurant chain. The building's hallmark pillars have been retained on its Warwick Road frontage.
The railways also boosted Kenilworth's market gardening. There were reputedly 40 nurseries growing
market garden produce in Kenilworth and all have now been used for housing developments (the last nursery, Guests Nursery, was developed as 23 houses in 2002). The railway transported the produce to
London where Kenilworth tomatoes had a reputation for quality. The
Victorian period saw a large expansion of the town to the West of Abbey Fields and in the land surrounding Warwick Road. Most of the buildings along Warwick Road date from this period and later, although a few cottages still exist. Warwick Road is now the main commercial centre of the town.
Most of the older existing buildings of Kenilworth are on Castle Green, New Row and the High Street (formerly Alta Strata, meaning the high dry ground above the Abbey). The age of these buildings make it appear that this is the original settlement, but in fact this is simply the oldest existing part of the town. The original settlement along the present day Warwick Road having been subject to continuous redevelopment since the 12th century and now retains little of the original town. Many of the houses around Castle Green are made of stone salvaged when the castle walls were torn down after the
English Civil War.
Modern Kenilworth
Modern Kenilworth is frequently regarded as a dormitory town for commuters to
Coventry,
Birmingham and
Leamington Spa. Despite its proximity to the
University of Warwick on Coventry's southern outskirts, it has only a small student population of mostly postgraduate students, although many staff at the university choose to live in Kenilworth.
The town has good transport links - the
Birmingham International Airport, and
M6,
M42 and
M40 motorways are within 16 km (10 miles) of central Kenilworth. The town's railway station was closed in the 1960s as part of the
Beeching rail cuts, but there's a regular bus service to Coventry and Leamington railway stations, and
Warwick Parkway railway station is less than 10 minutes' drive away on the
A46 bypass (which was built in June 1974).
The town is soon to undergo a significant facelift as its central retail areas in and around Talisman Square have been criticized for being too dated and for attracting too many thrift shops and
downmarket stores. The scheme boasts increased shop sizes, contemporary looks rivalling neighbouring cities/towns and a brand new
Waitrose supermarket. There are also plans to renovate the existing library buildings, with the town's youth centre being moved to a new building as part of the supermarket project.
Local debates continue about the expansion of Coventry airport and the need for a new railway station.
In the early-1980s there was a
Z80 based computer named after the town produced by a shop near the clock tower with the selling point that it was robust enough to be used by agriculture.
Suburbs
St John's, Whitemoor, Windy Arbour, Ladyes Hill, Crackley, Castle End, Abbey End
Image:Kenilworth Abbey Fields.jpg|Abbey Fields, Kenilworth
Image:St johns church 27o06.jpg|St John's Church, Kenilworth
Town twinning
Kenilworth participates in
town twinning with the following places:
Further Information
Get more info on 'Kenilworth'.
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