Kenilworth Snippets
Eight monarchs are thought to have certainly (or probably) visited Kenilworth during the time of the Abbey: Henry III, Edward II & III, Henry V & VI, Richard III, Henry VII and Elizabeth I. Queen Victoria passed through by train in 1853, and later used Kenilworth railway station when visiting Stoneleigh, as did Elizabeth II a century later. In addition, in 1892 the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) and the Duke of York (later George V) visited the castle together; George V returned in 1915, passing through by train and saluting soldiers on the platforms.
The High Street and up to the castle is often referred to as ‘Old Kenilworth’, inferring that the area south of the Abbey Fields is ‘New Kenilworth’. This new borough was established in 1140, only 20 odd years after the start of the Castle and Priory, and so ‘New Kenilworth’ is approaching 900 years old.
‘New Street’, originally ‘New Way’, and confusingly a continuation of ‘Old Kenilworth’, is at least 640 years old. The ‘old way’ it replaced has never conclusively been ascertained.
High Street is not the high street. The term ‘high street’ is the main road of a town for retail, catering and other businesses; in Kenilworth’s case, the high street (lower case) includes Abbey End, The Square and part of Warwick Road. High Street (upper case) is named, unusually, due to its altitude; it was originally Alta Strata being on the higher ground behind the Abbey.
Other than at pedestrian crossings and until Sainsburys came to town, Kenilworth had only one set of (permanent) traffic lights, at the New Street crossroads. In the early years of the motor car, the crossroads was a notorious accident blackspot; from 1913 an RAC motor scout was placed there, a watchman’s hut was built for him but it was destroyed in a gale in 1923 – with the watchman in it. Finally, traffic lights were installed and brought into use on 7th January 1932. The general opinion at the time was that the RAC watchman was better.
It is sometimes claimed that they were the first traffic lights in Warwickshire, but there were at least some in Coventry (then in Warwickshire) four years earlier.
A former windmill becoming a dwelling is not uncommon, and even concrete reservoirs becoming a dwelling is surprisingly widespread. However, Kenilworth is the only town that has both.
Kenilworth has a surprisingly high number of ‘traditional’ pubs with what appear to be unique names: the Wyandotte, Queen & Castle, Virgins & Castle, The Gauntlet, and The Tiltyard. The now closed Earl Clarendon was also apparently unique (by omitting ‘of’).
Kenilworth’s earliest known resident was that found cremated in an urn dating from 3800 to 4500 years ago, discovered in the grounds of 25 Clinton Lane in 2014. The remains were re-buried in consecrated ground, the urn can be seen in the Barn Museum.
There are at least 10 other Kenilworth’s across the world, all named after the original. They are in: Queensland (Australia); Edmonton and Ontario (Canada); Cape Town and Gauteng (South Africa); and Illinois, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Utah and Washington DC (United States).
In return, our town has two places named after locations from the United States: Little Virginia and The Wyandotte (named after the place, now part of Kansas City). Another area was known as California; just where it was has been lost.
The clock tower weighs 400 tons.
Kenilworth’s fire brigade was formed in 1862; it has existed continually ever since.
When Kenilworth’s first fish and chip shop opened in 1911, a petition was started to stop it as it was claimed it would lower property prices.
There are tantalising glimpses of Roman, or Romano-British, occupation around Kenilworth:
‘Ches’, as in Chesford, is possibly derived from the Old English word ‘ceaster’, which referred to a Roman town or camp, but where was it? (* See note at foot of page)
In a pre-bypass investigation in 1971, an enclosure of about 3 acres, with occupation from late first to mid-fourth century was discovered 800 yards north of Glasshouse Woods. Evidence of two timber buildings were found but they had been deliberately taken down; a cart track had been constructed across the site.
In 1964 a Roman coin – a third brass of Constantine II, minted between AD323 and 337 at Trier – was found in the garden of 196 Warwick Road, an early Victorian house next door to the former Malt Shovel Inn.
There have been a number of suggestions over the years implying that the Pleasance of the Castle stands on the site of a Roman Castrum, or fortress.
Excavations at the Cherry Orchard brickworks in 1964 revealed some Romano-British roofing tiles, three of which were stamped T C M. Only one tile had the full set of letters. These tiles are hard and blue-red in colour. The associated pottery is 3rd or 4th century.
Roman activity in Chase Woods has been long known about. Sometimes believed to have been a Villa, a 1923 excavation confirmed it to be a Romano-British tile kiln. The kiln measured some 18ft by 10ft on the outside, and was of usual construction. Pottery associated with the kiln was dated by the British Museum as approximately second century. A 1957 excavation however concluded ‘that none of the coarse pottery recovered need be earlier than 250 A.D., and is most likely 300 – 350 A. D.’, later than the 1923 assessment.
Several loose bits of possibly Roman tile have been recovered from the Abbey Fields. Priories have often been constructed on a Roman site, and possible Roman tiles have also been seen as ‘infill’ in the surviving Abbey remnants.
Kenilworth’s gas works was completed in 1853, the first street lights were installed in 1859 (Warwick Road, Abbey Hill and Station Road), the complete sewer system was built in 1880-82, the water system between 1883-85, and mains electricity became available in 1923.
Kenilworth’s railway opened on 9th December 1844. It could have been earlier as Robert Stephenson, no less, designed a Kenilworth branch line from his London & Birmingham Railway in 1836, which was two years before Coventry station opened.
Following the construction of the town’s new railway station in Priory Road, it would seem that Station Road is now a misnomer. However, the frontage of Kenilworth’s first railway station survives at the opposite end of Station Road to where it once stood, as The Station House (previously Pomeroys, and even more previously She, and further back The Vaults).
There is however, no longer a school in School Lane.
Kenilworth’s first cycle club was established in 1877.
The first edition of a Kenilworth newspaper, the Kenilworth Advertiser, was published by Walter Parsons on 19th August 1858.
Cricket was being played in Kenilworth in the 1840s, and probably much earlier. The club’s pitch was lost when Station Road was built across it in 1844.
The earliest discovered association football match played in Kenilworth was in 1873 on the Bowling Green Field, now the St Nicholas School playing field alongside Priory Road. Dr Wynter’s team beat Mr Pennington’s 3-0.
The first certain mention of rugby being played in Kenilworth was with the Albion Club in 1891.
In 1897, there was a small zoo in the grounds at the rear of The Globe Hotel.
Manufacturers often toured showing off the benefits of new products. In February 1906 there was a vacuum cleaner demonstration at the Kings Arms, and Persil came to town on 31st December 1909.
Prior to the Great War and known since 1840, Little Chase Farm was the setting for horseracing events, including point-to-point and steeplechases.
As the current one was no longer useable, in 1905 Crackley Brickworks was used as the town’s tip for the first time, and Cherry Orchard brickworks quickly followed. From 1918 Castle Farm was also used, as was a field alongside Dalehouse Lane in the 1930s. In the 1950s the pit at the Whitemoor brickworks began to be used.
The earliest record (I have found) of a bus in Kenilworth is May 1885 when an omnibus’s horse bolted in Station Road. Kenilworth’s first wooden bus shelter, that on Abbey Hill was built in 1951; the others (Coventry Road, St Johns, and Bridge Street) date from 1953.
A reform school opened on Knowle Hill in 1908. It initially housed 14 girls with an average age of 13½. Within weeks, one absconded; she was caught and jailed for 6 weeks. In 1910 all 50 girls had a tea with Lord Leigh; in the 1920s the girls went on strike.
The first telephones are recorded in town in 1912; the Police Station in Albion Street had telephone number 1. Poles were going up from Park Road to Coventry Road, and The Square. From 1914 the cables were put underground. The first telephone kiosk was put up in The Square near to the Clocktower in 1924.
The first permanent cinema in Kenilworth opened in August 1912 on the upper floor of the building in Station Road now called The Station House.
The first known theatre in Kenilworth (other than in travelling shows) was the Victoria Theatre, issued with a licence in 1911; its location is uncertain but may have been in the Assembly Rooms at The Kings Arms.
From 1912 the Parochial Hall was used as the town’s theatre; the first recorded pantomime was held there in January 1912; Red Riding Hood followed in 1913.
The Abbey Hotel was issued with a theatre licence in 1920; The Kenilworth Players (who became the Priory Theatre in 1946) gave their first performance there in 1931.
The Rover Players, (formed by Rover employees who worked in wartime Kenilworth) built their theatre in an old shed at Kenilworth’s tannery in 1942; it was later named the Talisman Theatre. The current theatre dates from 1969.
The first record I have found of a motor car in town is December 1895 when a man driving faster than the 12 mph limit was fined £5 (about £550 today).
A traffic census in 1933 revealed 1,000 cars an hour passed along Warwick Road. Town centre traffic congestion in 1951 contributed to plans for a bypass for Kenilworth and Warwick; it would be more than 20 years until it was open.
Perhaps motivated by the under construction bypass potentially taking traffic away, in 1971 the KUDC drew up a plan to pedestrianize the town centre; it was defeated by 11 votes to 4.
* Chris Blunt has provided this alternative explanation of ‘Chesford’ :
CHESFORD BRIDGE is pont. de Chesford 1279 Nott, pont. de Chefforde 1285 Ass, Chestford 1291 CartMisc, pons de Chestford, de ponte de Chesterford 1370 Works, Chesford brugge 1427 AD i. The first element is probably OE ceast, ME cheste, ‘strife, contention, quarrelling.’ The right to use the ford may have been occasion of some forgotten quarrel. The single Chesterford is probably an error due to the influence of the common element ceaster.
From THE PLACE-NAMES OF WARWICKSHIRE, 1970