History of Warwickshire

This is about the history of the County of Warwick situated in the English Midlands. Historically, bounded to the north-west by Staffordshire, by Leicestershire to the north-east, Northamptonshire to the east, Worcestershire to the west, Oxfordshire to the south, Gloucestershire to the south-west, an exclave of Derbyshire to the far north, and less than 400 yards from the border with Shropshire in the far west.

Areas historically part of Warwickshire include Coventry, Solihull, Sutton Coldfield, much of central Birmingham (including the city centre, Aston, Edgbaston and Erdington), Meriden, Knowle, Dorridge, Balsall Common, Berkswell and Hampton-in-Arden, which all became part of the metropolitan county of West Midlands (Sutton Coldfield becoming part of Birmingham) following local government re-organisation in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972.^[1] The county also included the eastern half of Tamworth (including the castle) and its suburbs, and the parish of Ipsley which nowadays comprises roughly half of suburban Redditch, which were ceded to Staffordshire in 1888 and Worcestershire in 1931, respectively, as well as the Tutnall and Cobley exclave, which was ceded to Worcestershire as part of the Counties (Detached Parts) Act 1844.

Much of northwestern Warwickshire, including that area now forming part of Coventry, Solihull and Birmingham, was covered by the ancient Forest of Arden which was still the case at the time of the Domesday Book but much of which was later cut down to provide fuel for industrialisation. Thus the names of a number of places in the northwestern part of Warwickshire end with either the Old English "ley" or "leah" meaning a clearing in a forest or latterly the phrase "-in-Arden", such as Henley-in-Arden, Hampton-in-Arden and Tanworth-in-Arden. Historically, the "-in-Arden" suffix has also been used variously for many other places in the area, primarily for parochial purposes. Stoneleigh-in-Arden is perhaps the most notable example, while other examples such as Coleshill-in-Arden, Kenilworth-in-Arden and Knowle-in-Arden were seldom used. Even at the time of the Domesday Book the forested area has been calculated to be a quarter of the whole county or half of the northern area, the "Arden".^[2] The remaining southern area, not part of the forest, was called the Felden – from fielden.^[3] Historically, two towns dominate the county, Warwick, the county town and Coventry an important medieval city.