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Warwick
offers to visitors today the opportunity of
exploring not only the architectural gems of
medieval history but also those of the more recent
past and the modern vibrant life of the county town
of Warwickshire. The town of Warwick was founded on
the banks of the River Avon in 914 AD by Ethelfleda,
sister of Edward the Elder, as a defence against the
Danish invaders, on a site overlooking earlier
riverside settlements. It is built on a small hill
which controlled not only the river valley but also
the river crossing on the road to London and the
roads to Stratford, Coventry and the salt way to
Droitwich. The Anglo-Saxon town was surrounded
partly by a wall and partly by a ditch.
The
medieval core of the town was prevented from
expansion by the open spaces that surround it: the
Common and Racecourse, the grounds of the Priory, St
Nicholas Meadow, the River Avon, and later, Warwick
Castle. Within a relatively small area there are
many buildings of historic interest, of which the
Castle is the most important.
Many
of the central streets of the town were destroyed by
the Great Fire of 1694. The buildings which were
burnt, and many which were not, were re-built in the
handsome style of the late 17th and early 18th
centuries. St Mary's Church, which dominates the
surrounding countryside, had a new nave and tower at
the same time.
Several important medieval buildings survived the
fire and can be seen to this day, notably the town's
medieval Guildhall, now the Lord Leycester Hospital,
as well as a group of timber - framed buildings
around Oken's House.
LORD
LEYCESTER HOSPITAL
The
historic group of buildings that now comprise the
Hospital, is now dominated by the ancient Chantry
Chapel of St James, built over the West Gate into
Warwick by Thomas Beauchamp, 12th Earl of Warwick,
in the latter half of the 14th Century.
WARWICK
CASTLE
This
is one of the most dramatic and complete medieval
castles in the country. It has been inhabited
continuously since the Middle Ages, and was the home
of the Earls of Warwick until recently.
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