Warwickshire County
(Historic)
Map Reference: (52.329559, -1.505312)
Warwickshire is an inland county in the English Midlands. The far south of the county lies in the Cotswold Hills and includes many fine Cotswold villages. North of this lies the Felden, an open, agricultural landscape strongly influenced by the post-mediƦval enclosures of former strip fields. Dunsmore, the area of the former great Dunsmore Heath, lies between Rugby, Coventry and Leamington Spa and retains a character of historic heathland and woodlands. The market town of Rugby is famous for its school, the birthplace of Rugby football. Royal Leamington Spa is a gorgeous Georgian spa town. That part of Warwickshire to the north and west of the River Avon is known as Arden. Once covered by the Forest of Arden, Arden today is a landscape of farmland and parkland, within which lie several small towns and the cities of Birmingham and Coventry. Stratford-on-Avon is to some a tourist destination, to others a place of pilgrimage. Shakespeare's birthplace remains almost as he would have known it. Warwick is home to two of England's greatest glories: Warwick Castle and the Beauchamp Chapel. Coventry is famous for its three cathedrals, its recovery from wartime devastation and its message of peace and reconciliation. Nuneaton is known for its associations with the poet George Eliot. The north-west of the county is dominated by Birmingham and its suburbs. Birmingham was a powerhouse of the Industrial Revolution and is the centre of the greatest network of canals in Britain. At the far north-west of the county is Sutton Coldfield with its magnificent former Royal Forest of Sutton Park.
