Warwickshire
The heart of England's heritage and countryside
Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a ceremonial county in the West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire to the south, and Worcestershire and the West Midlands county to the west. The largest settlement is Nuneaton.
- area
- 763 sq mi (1,980 km2)
- population_2024_estimate
- 632,207
- largest_settlement
- Nuneaton
- county_town
- Warwick
- highest_point
- Ebrington Hill, 261 m (856 ft)
- notable_native
- William Shakespeare (born Stratford-upon-Avon, 1564)
- notable_native_2
- George Eliot (born near Nuneaton, 1819)
Lore & Background
The region was part of Roman Britain and later the Roman road called Watling Street became the boundary between the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia and the Danelaw. The county was relatively settled during the rest of the Middle Ages and Early Modern period; Coventry developed as a major centre of the textiles trade. The playwright William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564, living much of his life there, and the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 was planned near Snitterfield. During the Industrial Revolution, the Warwickshire coalfield was exploited and Coventry and the west of the county became manufacturing centres; Leamington Spa developed as a tourist resort at the same time. The Victorian novelist Mary Ann Evans, better known as George Eliot, was born just outside Nuneaton in 1819.
Reader's Guide
Warwickshire is a flat, lowland county, but its far south contains part of the Cotswolds, which have been designated a national landscape. The River Avon, a major tributary of the Severn, flows through the south of the county. The county is largely rural, with an area of 763 sqmi. It contains a number of towns, including Nuneaton and Bedworth in the north-east, Rugby in the east, Stratford-upon-Avon in the south-west, and Warwick and Leamington Spa adjacent to each other in the centre. For local government purposes, Warwickshire is a non-metropolitan county with five districts. The county historically included the city of Coventry and the area to its west, including Sutton Coldfield, Solihull and the city centre of Birmingham.
Did You Know?
- The highest point in Warwickshire is Ebrington Hill at 261 m, on the border with Gloucestershire.
- The northernmost village in Warwickshire is No Man's Heath, only 34 miles south of the Peak District National Park's southernmost point.
- The flag of the historic county of Warwickshire, registered in October 2016, features a bear and ragged staff on a red field.
- Warwickshire has a growing video game industry, with Codemasters operating out of Southam since 1986.
More in English Counties 1-24
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