Local Area Guides
Coventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. With a population of 303,475 at the 2001 Census (306,000 est. 2007), Coventry is the ninth largest city in England and the eleventh largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city after Birmingham in the English Midlands by population, although both Nottingham and Leicester have larger urban areas.
Coventry is situated 95 miles (153 km) northwest of London and 19 miles (30 km) east of Birmingham, and is notable for being further from the coast than any other city in Britain. Although harboring a population of almost a third of a million inhabitants, Coventry is not amongst the English Core Cities Group due to its proximity to Birmingham.
Coventry was also the world's first 'twin city' when it formed a twinning relationship with the Russian city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) during World War II. The city is also twinned with Dresden, Germany and 27 others around the world.
Coventry Cathedral is notable by way of it being amongst the most modern cathedrals in the world, having been built following the World War II bombing of the old cathedral by the Luftwaffe. Coventry has since developed an international reputation as one of Europe's major cities of peace and reconciliation, centered around its Cathedral, and holds an annual Peace Month. Coventry is also notable because Coventry motor companies have contributed significantly to the British motor industry, and also because it has two universities, the city centre-based Coventry University and the University of Warwick on the southern outskirts. Coventry is also famous for the legendary 11th century exploits of Lady Godiva.
Their football team is Coventry City F.C who are in the Coca-Cola Championship and were founded in 1883.
Coventry is traditionally believed to have been established in the year 1043 with the founding of a Benedictine Abbey by Leofric, Earl of Mercia and his wife Lady Godiva. Current evidence suggests that this abbey was probably in existence by 1022, therefore Leofric and Godiva most likely endowed it around 1043. In time, a market was established at the abbey gates and the settlement expanded.
By the 14th century, Coventry had become an important centre of the cloth trade, and throughout the Middle Ages was one of the largest and most important cities in England. Coventry was granted city status in 1345, and later became a county in its own right.
Hostile attitudes of the cityfolk towards Royalist prisoners held in Coventry during the English Civil War are believed to have originated the phrase "sent to Coventry", which in Britain means "to be ostracised"; literally, although Cromwellian Civil War era prisoners' physical needs were catered for, nobody spoke to them during their captivity.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, Coventry became one of the three main UK centres of watch and clock manufacture and ranked alongside Prescot (Liverpool) and Clerkenwell (London). As, the industry declined, due mainly to competition from Swiss and American manufacturers, the skilled pool of workers proved crucial to the setting up of bicycle manufacture and eventually the automobile, machine tool and aircraft industries.
In the late-19th century, Coventry became a major centre of bicycle manufacture, with the industry being pioneered by Rover. By the early 20th century, bicycle manufacture had evolved into motor manufacture, and Coventry became a major centre of the British motor industry. Over 100 different companies have produced motor vehicles in Coventry, and industry that came to an end in 2006 as the last ever car rolled off the production lines at Peugeot.
Coventry suffered severe bomb damage during World War II, most notoriously from a massive German air raid (the "Coventry Blitz") on November 14, 1940. This destroyed most of the historic city centre and Coventry's historic Cathedral. Aside from London, Hull and Plymouth, Coventry suffered more damage than any other British city during the Luftwaffe attacks, with huge firestorms devastating most of the city centre. The city was targeted due to its high concentration of armaments, munitions and engine plants which contributed greatly to the British war effort. Following the raids, the majority of Coventry's historic buildings could not be saved as they were in ruinous states or were deemed unsafe for any future use, although several were later demolished simply to make way for modern developments.
In the postwar years Coventry was largely rebuilt under the general direction of the Gibson Plan, gaining a new pedestrianised shopping precinct (the first of its kind in Europe on such a scale) and the much-celebrated new St Michael's Cathedral in 1962 (incorporating the world's largest tapestry). In 1967, the Eagle Street Mosque opened as Coventry's first mosque.
Coventry's motor industry boomed during the 1950s and 1960s,but during the 1970s the British motor industry underwent decline and Coventry suffered badly as a result. By the early 1980s, Coventry had one of the highest unemployment rates in the country. In recent years, the city has recovered with newer industries locating there, although the motor industry continues to decline. As of 2008, only one motor manufacturing plant remained operational, that of LTI Ltd, producing the popular TX4 taxi cabs.
Unlike other major UK cities, Coventry does not have an extensive 'greater' urban area. This is partly because the city boundaries were drawn so as to include practically all of its suburbs, and partly because Coventry has comparatively little in the way of contiguous satellite towns and dormitory settlements.
The M6 motorway directly to the north of Coventry acts as an artificial boundary which precludes expansion into the Bedworth-Nuneaton urban area, as does the protected West Midlands Green Belt which surrounds the city on all sides. This has circumvented the expansion of the city into both the administrative county of Warwickshire and the metropolitan borough of Solihull, and has helped to prevent the coalescence of the city with surrounding settlements such as Kenilworth, Leamington Spa, Warwick, Rugby, Meriden and Balsall Common.
Kenilworth
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.
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 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 is 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.
