Kenilworth Street Names

Part one

 Caesar Road

Kenilworth Castle Keep, after which Caesar Road was named.

Kenilworth Castle Keep, after which Caesar Road was named.
Photograph from www.gwynnorrell.co.uk

Caesar Road commemorates Caesar Tower, the 16th  century name for the Keep of Kenilworth Castle. It was registered in 1963 (the road, not the tower!).

Rouncil Lane

This is the longest street in Kenilworth, at 5.6 km and also the oldest, its destination being the Domesday Waste of Rincele, from the Old English rune  (counsel) + sele (hall). It has undergone many name changes, e.g. Rinsell (1243), Runcill (1692) and Rouncil (1840), rationalised to Roundshill from 1883 to 1931.

Queen’s Road

The road was originally proposed in 1888, when it was a trackway leading to the Kenilworth Cricket Club ground. K.U.D.C minutes for 16th October 1900 recalls a letter from Mr. Bowen, a builder from Leamington, saying that the new road called Queen’s Road is finished and asks that it be adopted. It was named at a time of great patriotism during the Boer Wars, and just three months before Queen Victoria’s death. It was the site of a nursery started by 63 year-old Robert Grindrod in1919, part remaining as Guest’s Garden Centre until autumn 2002.

Willoughby Avenue

Willoughby Avenue in autumn, brown and orange trees and many leaves on the road

Willoughby Avenue, Kenilworth.
Photograph by Sam Sexton.

The road was developed in 1965 and commemorates Lord Willoughby de Broke, Lord Lieutenant of Warwickshire until 1968. Sir Robert Willoughby was the 15th century Lord Brooke of Beauchamp Court, Worcestershire. His grand-daughter married Sir Fulke Greville, after whom Greville Road and Brooke Road were named.

Part two may be found here.

[mappress mapid=”690″] Caesar Road

This is part of a short series of edited extracts from the third edition of A Portrait of Kenilworth in Street-Names by the authors named above and are reproduced with permission from Robin Leach. 

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