"The places you'd never believe were once in Warwickshire"

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"The places you'd never believe were once in Warwickshire"

Postby dutchman » Mon Jul 10, 2017 3:22 pm

Like Yorkshire and many others, Warwickshire’s borders have not remained static

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Most people might be familiar with the geography of Warwickshire but the county once contained some places that might surprise you - including Solihull, Sutton Coldfield, Erdington and even part of Tamworth.

Warwickshire covers 763 square miles, making it the 31st largest county out of the 48 that make up England - North Yorkshire being the largest at 3,212 square miles.

But like Yorkshire and many other counties, Warwickshire’s borders have not remained static.

Now divided into the districts of North Warwickshire, Nuneaton and Bedworth, Rugby, and Stratford-on-Avon and Warwick, the county’s boundaries as they are today were set in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972.

But it was not always the case. The historic county boundaries also included Coventry and Solihull, as well as much of Birmingham and until 1888 parts of Tamworth were also in Warwickshire.

Coventry was part of Warwickshire for some of its history, but not all of it, and as such would have been the only city in the county.

As it stands now Nuneaton is the largest town, though Warwick has the honour of being the County Town.

As well as Coventry and Solihull, areas that were historically part of Warwickshire include Sutton Coldfield, and even such unlikely suburbs of Birmingham as Erdington, Aston and Edgbaston.

The Edgbaston connection is evidenced by the fact Warwickshire County Cricket Club is based there.

These became part of the metropolitan county of West Midlands (and Sutton Coldfield became part of Birmingham) following the local government shake-up of 1974.

In 1986 the West Midlands County Council was abolished and Birmingham, Coventry and Solihull became metropolitan authorities.

However, the West Midlands county name has not been abolished and recently had new life breathed into it with the creation of the new West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) and the election of its mayor Andy Street.

Coventry remains in the centre of the Warwickshire area, and its ties with the county remain strong.

In many respects they are ‘twin’ areas, sharing a chamber of commerce, a local enterprise partnership (LEP) and a BBC radio station.

Coventry has been a part of Warwickshire for only some of its history. In 1451 Coventry was separated from Warwickshire and made a county corporate in its own right, called the County of the City of Coventry.

In 1842 the county of Coventry was abolished and Coventry was remerged with Warwickshire.

From time to time calls are made for Coventry to again become part of Warwickshire, though they have yet to come to fruition.

If it were to happen Warwickshire’s population would increase by more than a third-of-a-million as Coventry is the UK’s 11th largest city.

Interestingly the town of Tamworth was historically divided between Warwickshire and Staffordshire, but since 1888 has been entirely in Staffordshire.

And, as another aside, some parts of Warwickshire only became part of the county in the first half of the 20th century.

In 1931 Warwickshire gained the town of Shipston-on-Stour from Worcestershire and several villages, including Long Marston and Welford-on-Avon, from Gloucestershire.

Other Warwickshire absorptions in Birmingham include Harborne, which in 1891 became part of the County Borough of Birmingham and as such was transferred from Staffordshire to Warwickshire.

The same year saw Balsall Heath, originally part of the Parish of King’s Norton in Worcestershire, also become part of the County Borough of Birmingham and therefore Warwickshire.

In 1909 Quinton followed in their wake from Worcestershire while in 1911 the Urban District of Handsworth, in Staffordshire, and the Rural District of Yardley along with the greater part of the Urban District of King’s Norton and Northfield, both in Worcestershire, were absorbed into Birmingham, and thus Warwickshire.

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