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.HMSO. Local Government Act 1972. 1972 c.70 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".The Forest of Arden, William George Fretton, Editor, published in The Old Cross, 1878 The remaining southern area, not part of the forest, was called the Felden – from fielden.Historic Warwickshire, Its Legendary Lore, Traditional Stories and Romantic Episodes, J. Tom Burgess, 1876 Historically, two towns dominate the county, Warwick, the county town and Coventry an important medieval city.
Prehistoric The Warwickshire area has almost certainly been inhabited since Prehistoric times, with the arrival of the first people half a million years ago during the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. Small family groups roamed the thickly wooded landscape in search of food using simple stone tools such as hand-axes and scrapers. The total population of the area in those days may have been as low as 40. There is evidence of a temporary camp site at Waverley Wood Farm Pit, near Leamington Spa, whilst elsewhere, particularly in north Warwickshire, large numbers of hand-axes have been found suggesting repeated visits. This early phase came to an end with the onset of the Ice Age during which there is no evidence of a human presence in Warwickshire. Between 100,000 and 20,000 years ago, most of Warwickshire would have been submerged beneath Lake Harrison.
Human groups returned to the area around 10,500 years ago at the beginning of the Mesolithic period or Middle Stone Age. As the climate became warmer and the ice sheets retreated, the habitat changed and the forest was re-established. These people were hunter-gatherers who used bows and arrows and had domesticated dogs to help them in the chase. This period is characterised by the use of microliths, small delicately worked points set into arrowshafts. Other flint tools were used for working wood and bone and for cleaning skins. Some 20 sites are known in Warwickshire of which the most important is Blacklow Hill, near Warwick. Excavations here have revealed a substantial tool-making site. Other sites are known in the Avon valley and intensive fieldwork around Nuneaton has produced a large number of finds and evidence of several settlement sites.
Around 6,000 years ago the hunter-gatherer way of life was gradually being replaced by a simple farming economy, thus further modifying their habitat. These Neolithic or New Stone Age people raised sheep, pigs and cattle, and grew cereal crops. They used fire and stone axes to make clearings in the woodland where they could build farms and lay out fields. A flint arrowhead from this period has been recovered from Wolston.
The Bronze Age was a time of change, the scattered farming communities were coming together into tribal groups with powerful leaders. Metal was now in use and objects were being made out of copper and bronze. There are a number of weapons such as swords and spearheads cast in bronze found in Warwickshire. There is also evidence of people taking care of their appearance, two bronze razors have been recorded recently in South Warwickshire. Warwickshire being a rich agricultural area farming continued to expand and by 1500 BC much of the woodland had been cleared and settled.
In the Iron Age, the area contained small farmsteads such as the settlement at Wasperton, near Warwick. The main building was a thatched round house where the family and some of the livestock lived and around it workshops, storehouses and stock pens. The whole settlement was surrounded by a deep ditch which kept out wild animals. During times of trouble the population may have taken refuge in one of a number of hillforts such as Meon Hill near Stratford or Oldbury near Nuneaton. The remains of around twelve Iron Age hill forts have been found in the Warwickshire area.
Roman period
For the first few decades following the Roman invasion of Britain in AD 43, the Warwickshire area found itself at the frontier of Roman rule. The Watling Street and Fosse Way Roman roads were constructed, the Fosse Way marking the western frontier of Roman rule in Britain for several decades. The area was heavily fortified during this period and several military settlements were founded to defend the roads. Ryknild Street was constructed across the Warwickshire area and a fort was established in what is now the grounds of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. The fort was built in about 48 AD by the Roman army as a base camp for its conquest of the Birmingham areaVictor Skipp, The History of Greater Birmingham – down to 1830, 1980. and part of a network of forts across the Midlands linked by roads. It stood by Birmingham's earliest known road junction at the point where Icknield Street was met by Roman roads coming in from Droitwich and Penkridge. From here the road runs north to another fort over the county border into Staffordshire at Wall, Roman Etocetum near Lichfield.
Following the revolt in AD60/1 of the Iceni under their Queen Boudica most scholars have assumed that, after the burning of Colchester and London, Boudica followed Suetonius up Watling Street as he headed for his supply bases and lines of communication near to the milItary frontier.Michael Wood, In Search of the Dark Ages, BBC Books 2005 Suetonius offered battle in a strong defensive position described by Tacitus and many fruitless attempts have been made to be more precise regarding the site of the Battle of Watling Street, the last battle of Boudica. The historian, Dr Graham Webster has suggested it took place near Manduessedum ("the place of the war chariots"),A Dictionary of English Place Names, A.D. Mills, 1998 modern day MancetterGraham Webster, Boudica: The British Revolt against Rome AD 60, 1978 and military finds of armour and military coinage relating to the 14th Legion, whom TacitusTacitus, Annals 14.34 records formed part of Suetonius' army, have been found in the region, giving weight to Webster's hypothesis. Another possible site put forward by Jack Lucas is the area east of Rugby, and whilst other theories exist for locations outside of Warwickshire, the exact location is unknown. After the defeat of the Iceni reinforcements were sent by the Romans from GermanyTacitus, Annals 14.38 and a great supply base was set up at a place called the Lunt in Baginton near Coventry which has the unique feature of a circular arena or gyrus for the breaking in of horses and which could have been a collecting point for Iceni horses after the battle.
Of Roman settlements in Warwickshire one of significant size was Alauna (modern day Alcester). Alcester was an important Roman settlement of around eighteen hectares laying bestride Ryknild Street in a loop of the River Arrow to the west of its confluence with the River Alne, underlying the modern town. Town defences have been confirmed only on the east side of the settlement's circuit, where they consist of a clay rampart dated to the "second century or later", fronted by a 2.75-metre wide wall which was probably not contemporary with the bank. There is also a suspected Roman fort around one kilometre to the south-east of the known Roman settlement located on Primrose Hill which overlooks both the confluence of the River Arrow with the River Alne and the junction of Ryknield Street with the road south from the Roman settlement at Salinae Droitwich Spa, known as the Salt Way after the main export from the area in Roman times. Items of bronze were recovered include a harness ring with a masked loop typical of those used by auxiliary cavalry. The earliest occupation date based on these findings appears to be Flavian. Other significant Roman settlements included Tripontium near Rugby and Manduessedum near Atherstone. www.Roman-Britain.org Manduessedum The area around Manduessedum is known to have had an extensive pottery industry, which extended to near what is now Nuneaton, the remains of up to thirty pottery kilns having been found in this area.A History of Warwickshire, by Canon Doctor Terry Slater (1981)
Anglo-Saxon period
Covering the period from the fall of the Roman Empire to the Norman Invasion of 1066.
After the Romans left Britain in the 5th century, the Warwickshire area was settled by Anglo Saxon tribes with the southern half initially belonging to the Hwicce and the northern half a core part of the Kingdom of Mercia. While its earliest boundaries will never be known, there is general agreement that the territory that was called "the first of the Mercians" in the Tribal Hidage covered much of south Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Staffordshire and Northern Warwickshire.Brooks, Nicholas Anglo-Saxon myths: state and church, 400-1066Hill, D. Atlas of Anglo-Saxon England, Oxford (1981), map 136Hooke, Della Anglo-Saxon Territorial Organisation: The Western Margins of Mercia, University of Birmingham, Dept. of Geography, Occasional Paper 22 (1986) pp.1-45
Following the decline of the Mercian kingdom during the early 9th century, large parts of Mercia to the east of Warwickshire were ceded in 878 to Danish (Viking) invaders by King Alfred's Treaty of Wedmore with the Danish leader Guthrum. Watling Street, on the north-eastern edge of Warwickshire, became the boundary between the Danelaw to the east and the much reduced Mercia to the west.