Visit Warwickshire

Warwickshire is a captivating mix of the famous and the yet-to-be discovered in beautiful countryside threaded by rivers and canals.

Grabbing the headlines of course there’s Shakespeare’s Stratford-upon-Avon, magnificent medieval Warwick Castle, Kenilworth Castle and Elizabethan Garden, plus the elegant Georgian, Regency and Victorian streetscapes of Royal Leamington Spa: fantastic days out, one and all.

Scattered between and around such iconic visits are also historic market towns and villages full of allure, including Roman Alcester, enchanting Welford-on-Avon with its thatched black-and-white cottages, and Southam on the River Stowe with ‘green men’ in the church and a Holy Well – just one of many intrigues tucked away in the county’s quiet country corners.

Or let the less-explored ‘town and country’ of North Warwickshire surprise you: setting off in the steps of local girl Mary Anne Evans, aka renowned Victorian novelist George Eliot, to scenes that inspired her writing; also uncovering links to a once-celebrated Tudor poetry circle featuring Ben Jonson at Polesworth Abbey. Alongside Warwickshire’s claims to fame as Shakespeare Country and George Eliot Country, did you know that Rugby is a hotbed of literary links ranging from Tom Brown’s Schooldays to Lewis Carroll, Rupert Brooke and Salman Rushdie? The town is also the birthplace of the game of rugby, celebrated by the school and in Rugby Art Gallery & Museum.

Why not take a walk in the county and take inspiration from the new Rail Trails page?