Daniel Cuttiford - Coventry & Kenilworth

Kenilworth:

The first mention of Kenilworth is in the ninth century when it was the site of the stronghold of a Mercian king called Kenelph. In the Domesday Book it is a small village, with a population of only ninety, in a clearing in the Forest of Arden. In 1115, King Henry I gave the manor of Kenelphsworth (giving Kenilworth its present name) to Geoffry de Clinton, who founded the Castle. The Castle was strengthened and enlarged by kings and nobles in the following years and in the Middle Ages the Castle and Abbey would have been very impressive and housed many people. The rest of the village of Kenilworth would then have grown around the Castle because of the protection that it offered. King Henry VIII dissolved the Abbey but the Castle still remained until the Civil War, when it was largely destroyed and the lake surrounding it drained.

In 1801 Kenilworth's population was 1,968; by 1841 it had increased to 3,149. This increase was big enough to justify a railway station, and more importantly, another church. The southern part of the town, known as Castle End, was where the poorer residents of Kenilworth lived. The registers of the 1850's show that most of the inhabitants of this part of the town had occupations such as "agricultural or builders' labourers, domestic service, cobblers and so forth". The wealthier residents of Kenilworth went to St. Nicholas' Church but "those sunk in iniquity and vice" had nowhere to worship. So a fund was launched and between three and four thousand pounds were raised to build the church.

Source: http://www.btinternet.com/~stjohn.kenilworth/history.html

Coventry County Hall

Coventry Gaol