Warwickshire

Warwickshire (pronounced, ) is a landlocked in central. The is, although the largest town is Nuneaton in the far north of the county. The shape of the administrative area Warwickshire differs considerably from that of the. Commonly used abbreviations for the county are Warks or Warwicks.

Warwickshire is perhaps best known for being the birthplace of from. The county has also produced other literary figures such as (from near ),  (from ), and  from.

Geography
Warwickshire is bounded to the northwest by the  and, by  to the northeast,  to the east,  to the west,  to the south and  to the southwest. An average-sized English county covering an area of almost 2,000 sq.km, it runs some 96 km / 60 miles 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, , , and. Major industries included, , , and production, but heavy industry is in decline, being replaced by distribution centres, light to medium industry, and services. Of the northern and eastern towns, only Nuneaton and Rugby (as the birthplace of Rugby football) are well-known outside of Warwickshire. The prosperous towns of central and western Warwickshire include, , , , and harbour light to medium industries, services and tourism as major employment sectors.

The south of the county is largely rural and sparsely populated, and includes a small area of the. The only town in the south of Warwickshire is. The highest point in the county, at 261 m (856 ft), is on the border with, GR SP187426 at its southwest extremity.

The north of the county, bordering Staffordshire and Leicestershire, is mildly undulating countryside and the northernmost village, No Man's Heath, is only 55 km / 34 miles south of the Peak District National Park's southernmost point.

There are no cities in Warwickshire since both and  were incorporated into the West Midlands county in 1974 and are now metropolitan authorities in themselves. The largest towns in Warwickshire as of 2004 are: Nuneaton (pop. 77,500), Rugby (62,700), Leamington Spa (45,300), and Bedworth (32,500). Stratford, Warwick, and Kenilworth all house populations in excess of 20,000 inhabitants, while the smaller towns of, , , , , , , , the village of , and  have populations between 5,000 and 12,000.

Historically much of western Warwickshire, including the area now forming part of Birmingham and the West Midlands, was covered by the ancient (although most of this was cut down to provide fuel for industrialisation in  the 17th to 19th centuries). For this reason, the names of a number of places in the northwestern part of Warwickshire end with the phrase "-in-Arden".

Historic boundaries
Areas historically part of Warwickshire include, , and most of. These became part of the of  following local government re-organisation in 1974.

In 1986 the was abolished and Birmingham, Coventry, and Solihull became effective, however the West Midlands county name has not been altogether abolished, and still exists for , and so these cities still remain outside Warwickshire.

Some organisations, such as, which is based in , in Birmingham, still observe the boundaries.

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 and  as well as other institutions, ie,.

Coventry has been a part of Warwickshire for only some of its history. In 1451 Coventry was separated from Warwickshire and made a in its own right, called the. In 1842 the county of Coventry was abolished and Coventry was remerged with Warwickshire. In recent times, there have been calls to formally re-introduce Coventry into Warwickshire, although nothing has yet come of this. The county's population would explode by almost a third-of-a-million overnight should this occur, Coventry being the UK's 11th largest city. The town of was historically divided between Warwickshire and, but since 1888 has been fully in Staffordshire.

In 1931, Warwickshire gained the town of from  and several villages, including  and, from.

Settlements
A list of the main settlements in Warwickshire, including towns, or villages with a population of over 5,000.







History


Warwickshire came into being as a division of the kingdom of in the early 11th century, the first reference to Warwickshire was in 1001, as Waeinewiscscr named after Warwick  (meaning "dwellings by the ").

During the Warwickshire was dominated by, which was at the time one of the most important cities in England due to its textiles trade in the heart of England

Warwickshire played a key part in the, with the and other skirmishes taking place in the county.

During the Warwickshire became one of Britain's foremost industrial counties, with the large industrial cities of  and  within its boundaries.

1974 boundary changes removed Birmingham and Coventry from Warwickshire, leaving the present day county with a rather odd shape, which looks as if a large chunk has been bitten out of it.

Boundary changes

 * 1844: The transferred a township to, and two parishes from, the county.
 * 1888: Those parts of the town of lying in Warwickshire were ceded to.
 * 1891: became part of the county borough of  and thus transferred from Staffordshire to Warwickshire by the Local Govt. Bd.'s Prov. Orders Conf. (No. 13) Act, 54 & 55 Vic. c. 161 (local act).
 * 1909: was formally removed from Worcestershire and incorporated into the county borough of Birmingham, then in Warwickshire, on 9 November.
 * 1911: The Staffordshire town of and the  towns of,  and  became part of Birmingham and thus Warwickshire.
 * 1928: was ceded to Birmingham, from Staffordshire
 * 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 . The town of was gained from Worcestershire and several villages, including  and, from.
 * 1974: Under The, Birmingham, , and  were ceded to the new , the latter town also becoming part of Birmingham.

Economy
This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Warwickshire at current basic prices published (pp.240-253) by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling. Footnotes:
 * 1) components may not sum to totals due to rounding
 * 2) includes hunting and forestry
 * 3) includes energy and construction
 * 4) includes financial intermediation services indirectly measured

Local government
Like most English shire counties, Warwickshire has a two-tier structure of. The county has a based in, and is also divided into five  each with their own district councils. These districts are :, , , , and (see map). The county and district councils are responsible for providing different services.

is the headquarters of the North Warwickshire district, whereas is the headquarters of the Warwick district.

In addition many small towns and villages have their own although these have only limited powers.

Warwickshire is policed by the

Education
In the state sector, children start school in the school year (1st September to 31st August) 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 the few local authorities in England to still maintain the Grammar school system in two districts: Stratford on Avon and Rugby, although Southam claims to have a comprehensive school. In the final year of primary school, children are given the opportunity of sitting the eleven plus exam in order to compete for a place at one of the Grammar schools, with two in Stratford and Rugby and one in Alcester (including ;, a boys school; and Alcester Grammar School (mixed)). The exam is sat on three different days and consists of two verbal reasoning and mathematics papers and one extended writing paper. In order to maintain standards, there is a bank of papers that are used in rotation. In 2006, it was revealed in a local newspaper, the Stratford Herald, that some private eleven plus tutors had copies of the exam papers and that they were using them as practice papers for their pupils. This meant that, in some cases, pupils sitting the exam had seen the paper in advance.

Those students who do not gain a place at a grammar school can attend one of the numerous high schools. Students must stay at school until they are sixteen, when they take GCSE exams, or alternative qualifications. They can then leave school, stay in the school, if it has a sixth form, or go to college.

There are five independent schools including some prestigious public and other independent schools in the county, namely, , and  in Warwick.

In England, at GCSE, 45.8% of pupils get 5 grades A-C including English and Maths. In Warwickshire, it is 48%, which is quite good. Of the comprehensives, the best school at GCSE is Kenilworth School and Sports College, but this is a lower result than the best secondary modern, St Benedicts Catholic High School in Alcester. At A level, the best school is the in Stratford-upon-Avon, followed by  with outstanding results. The best comprehensive at A-level is in Warwick, followed by the. The independent schools are also very good, with being the highest, although slightly less than the state-funded King Edward VI School.

GCSE results by district council (%)

 * Stratford on Avon 65.2
 * Rugby 51.1
 * Nuneaton and Bedworth 47.1
 * Warwick 41.9
 * North Warwickshire 40.4
 * (Coventry Unitary Authority 37.8)

Roads
Several major s run through Warwickshire. these include:


 * The which connects  to, runs through the centre of the county, and serves Leamington Spa, Warwick, and Stratford.
 * The, which connects the north west of England and the midlands to the (and then on to London). Runs through the north of Warwickshire, and serves Rugby, Nuneaton, and Bedworth on its way to Birmingham.
 * The Coventry to Leicester motorway which serves Nuneaton.
 * Other motorways pass briefly through Warwickshire including the (a short spur south of Rugby connecting to the M1), the southern end of the, and the  which passes through the county at several points.

Other major trunk routes in Warwickshire includes the (Rugby-Coventry-Birmingham and east into Northamptonshire route). The (connects the M40 to the M6 via Warwick, Kenilworth and Coventry) and the  (Leamington to Birmingham route).

Rail
Two major railway lines pass through Warwickshire.


 * The, the former route from London to Birmingham passes through the centre of Warwickshire on a route similar to the M40 motorway, and has stations at Leamington Spa, Warwick, (and ) and . Rail services are provided by  and  (Birmingham to Leamington only). There are also two branches off the Chiltern line, one from Leamington to Coventry, and another from Hatton near Warwick to Stratford.
 * The (WCML) runs through Warwickshire. At Rugby the WCML splits into two parts, one runs west through to Coventry and Birmingham, and the other the "Trent Valley Line" runs north-west towards  and the north-west of England. This section has stations at, , and  (North bound services only). There is one branch off the WCML from  to , and there is a station at  on this branch.

Other railway lines in Warwickshire include the Birmingham-Nuneaton section of the, which continues east of Nuneaton towards and. Nuneaton has direct services to Birmingham and Leicester on this line, and there is one intermediate station at near  in the extreme north-west of the county.

There is also a branch line from Birmingham to. This line used to continue southwards to but is now a dead-end branch. There are several stations on this line at and at several small villages. Stratford also has direct rail services to London via the branch line to Warwick (mentioned earlier).

The only major town in Warwickshire not to have a station is. Although the Leamington to Coventry line passes through the town, its station was closed in the 1960s as part of the. There is a concerted campaign to re-open the station, although currently there are no local services operating on the line, as it is used only by cross-country services.

Canals and Waterways
s in Warwickshire, include: 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 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.Saltisford Canal Trust
 * The, which runs through Leamington and Warwick and onwards to Birmingham.
 * The, which runs from near Coventry and then eastwards around Rugby, and then through the rural south of the county towards.
 * The which runs through the north of the county from  through, , , and , and then onwards to.
 * The which runs from the Grand Union west of Warwick to Stratford.
 * The passes briefly through Warwickshire from a junction with the Coventry Canal at.

The is navigable from just north of Stratford. It has been proposed for decades to extend the navigation to Warwick and Leamington, creating a new cruising ring and linking up with the Upper Avon Navigation. This would create many benefits to residents, boaters and wildlife but due to a vocal campaign by a few local residents has yet to come to fruition.

Places of interest