Self Catering Holiday Accommodation
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Use
the drop-down menus above to find
and book some of
the finest self-catering holiday and short-term rental properties in Warwickshire
-- including Shakespeare
Country and the
North
Cotswolds.
As well as
booking holiday cottages & apartments
directly with the owners via our sister site, Warwickshire
Tourist Guide, you can also check the availability
calendar and securely book many of the holiday cottages
directly
online using the secure booking
services of our booking partners, including
Stilwells, Hoseasons & English Country Cottages. |
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Self Catering Holiday Accommodation
in Warwickshire |
Described
by
residents such as Shakespeare
and J R R
Tolkein as 'leafy Warwickshire', a trip through its
verdant countryside
soon confirms the appellation. The area is also world-renowned for its
heritage
and culture -- birthplace of the world's greatest dramatist, William
Shakespeare
-- as well as some extremely
fine historic buildings and stately homes.
There are two
wonderful mediaeval castles at Warwick and
Kenilworth,
as
well as some exceptional historic buildings, such as Ragley Hall; Stoneleigh
Abbey; Coughton
Court; Charlecote Park;
Compton
Verney; Baddesley
Clinton; Chesterton
Windmill; Anne
Hathaway's Cottage; Farnborough Hall; Halls
Croft; Harvard House; Hill Close Gardens;
Lord Leycester's Hospital; Lunt Roman
Fort; Arbury
Hall; Polesworth Abbey; and
many more. |
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Self Catering Holiday Accommodation
in
Stratford-upon-Avon & Shakespeare Country |
Shakespeare
Country is the area of Warwickshire centred around Stratford-upon-Avon
and the villages,
buildings and history associated with the Bard of Avon. Local places
associated
with Shakespeare include Aston
Cantlow, Bidford-on-Avon,
Broom,
Charlecote Park,
Compton
Wynyates, Hampton Lucy, Luddington, Shottery, Snitterfield,
Temple Grafton, Wilmcote
and Welford-on-Avon.
Other places which are well worth a visit include: Henley-in-Arden
with many Tudor buildings still in evidence; the old coaching town of Southam with its
restored Holy Well and mediaeval
mint; Coughton
and Dunchurch
with their connections to Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder plot; the magnificent Abbey at Stoneleigh, with its Jane Austen
associations, part of the
grounds of which are now home to the Royal
Showground |
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Self Catering Holiday Accommodation
in the North Cotswolds |
Warwickshire is home to the northernmost
section of the
Cotswolds, one
of the most unique and unspoilt regions of England,
stretching over six
English counties. The three main Cotswold counties are Warwickshire,
Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, with incursions into Wiltshire,
Somerset &
Worcestershire.
The
Cotswolds - which cover
an area of 2,038 square kilometres (787 square miles) - is the largest
designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in England
and Wales.
With sheep-strewn
pastures & enclosures (cots),
gentle
hillsides (wolds),
honey-coloured stone buildings,
unhurrried
villages, cathedral-sized 'wool' churches and
mile after
mile of golden dry stone walling (oolitic
limestone), it is no wonder
the
Cotswolds is thought of as the quintessential English countryside --
and this
being so, it is the perfect place for afternoon tea and a trawl through
the
many antique and ephemera shops. |
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| Some Warwickshire Footnotes |
The Gunpowder Plot of 1605
“Remember,
remember the fifth of November | Gunpowder,
treason & plot”
The
Gunpowder Plot
was a conspiracy to blow up the King James 1 and the Houses of
Parliament on 5th November 1605. The conspirators were closely
associated with Warwickshire,
particularly the Throckmorton family whose ancestral home is at
Coughton Court and the village of Dunchurch, where the conspirators
waited at the Red Lion Inn for news of the success of the plot.
The
evening of 5th November is known in England as ‘Guy Fawkes Night’,
‘Bonfire Night’ or ‘ Fireworks Night’ and was, until 1859, an official
day of thanksgiving for “the
joyful day
of deliverance”, enforced by an Act of Parliament.
To this day, the cellars of
the Houses of Parliament are still searched by the Yeomen of the Guard,
before
each State Opening in November to ensure that there is no latter-day
Guy Fawkes
in hiding.
The
origins of the plot are unclear but it has always been generally
accepted
that it was an attempt to overthrow the government of King James 1 and
return
England to Catholic rule. The plotters were certainly Catholic but
their
actions would seem to have set the Catholic cause back considerably,
leading to
even more persecution.
However,
some historians suspect that
the plot was the work of a group of agents-provocateurs,
who were
anxious to
discredit the Jesuits and reinforce the ascendancy of the Protestant
religion... and who may also have kidnapped Shergar... who they then
used to spirit away
Lord Lucan... before transporting them both in
a London bus driven by Elvis
Presley to their new home on
the moon... or possibly not. |
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Robin Hood: a Warwickshire lad
through & through?
There
has never been any really firm evidence that the legendary Robin Hood -
the outlaw who robbed from the rich to give to the poor - ever lived in
Sherwood Forest or, indeed, ever existed.
The modern version of the Robin Hood story is set in the reign of King
Richard I Coeur de Lion
(Richard the Lionheart), when Robin is also called 'Robin of Loxley'.
Because of the northern connections in the ballads, historians always
assumed this meant the Yorkshire Loxley. But there is another Loxley –
in Warwickshire, near Stratford-upon-Avon. And here the trail leads to
the ancestor of one of the Norman invaders who came over with William
the Conqueror.
In 1193, the lord of Loxley manor was Robert
Fitz Odo (also known as Fitzooth), a descendent of Bishop Odo of
Bayeux, the half-brother of William and the man who commissioned the
Bayeux Tapestry. Because 'Fitz' indicated an illegitimate descendant,
it was sometimes dropped, which would leave 'Robert Odo' – a relatively
close corruption of Robin Hood (Robin being an accepted nickname for
Robert).
A 12th-century charter exists in which Robert Fitz
Odo granted lands to the priory of Kenilworth. The Register of Arms of
1196 states that Fitz Odo was no longer a knight – but he wasn't dead.
There's a record of a Robert Fitz Odo alive in nearby Harbury seven
years later, in 1203, although he seems to have been stripped of his
title.
Our Robin Odo became an outlaw, robbing people and
generally causing trouble in the surrounding woodlands. He was finally
given back his lands when Richard Lionheart returned from the Crusades.
So to quite a degree he does match the Robin Hood of the modern legend |
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Lady Godiva: The Naked Tax Rebel
Unlike
Robin Hood, Lady Godiva
definitely existed and is a genuine historical figure who lived in the
11th century. She was the beautiful wife
of Leofric III, Earl of Mercia and lord of Coventry and is listed in
the Domesday Book of 1086 as holding many estates in Coventry and
Warwickshire, which she inherited from Leofric when he died in 1057.
Her
connection with Coventry began in 1043 when she and Leofric founded an
Abbey after noting the lack of educational facilities for the clergy.
As the town of Coventry grew, so Leofric began assuming a greater role
in its public affairs. He began handling the town's financial matters
and initiated grand public works.
According to the story, the
people of the city were suffering from Leofric’s oppressive taxation
(he apparently even put a tax on manure). Lady Godiva appealed to her
husband, who refused to reduce the burden. Eventually, tired of her
entreaties, he said he would grant her request if she would ride naked
through the streets of the town. Lady Godiva took him at his word, and
after issuing a proclamation that all persons should keep within doors
or shut their windows, she rode naked and unashamed, clothed only in
her long hair.
Unfortunately, the story of her naked ride through the streets of
Coventry is almost certainly a myth. The
earliest written record of it comes from Roger of Wendover more
than a century after her death. This medieval scribe is renowned
for exaggeration and politically biased embellishment and he is
regarded more as a storyteller than a genuine historian.Some
11th and 12th century chroniclers mention Godiva as a respectable
religious woman of some beauty but do not mention any naked public
excursions. There are several alternative definitions of
the word ‘naked’: the lack of any adornment (representing her position
and power); defenceless or unprotected (riding alone through the
streets); or, simply, ‘pure’ as any respectable religious woman would
be expected to be. |
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Is
Boudicca, Warrior Queen of the Iceni, buried under a
Birmingham burger bar?
Boudicca
(also known as Boadicea)
was the Maggie Thatcher of her day and was
married to Prasutagus, ruler of the Iceni people of East Anglia. She
came very close to driving the Romans out of Britain but met her end
near Birmingham and is apparently buried there under a burger bar. |
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The
Shakespeare Secret
Did or didn't William Shakespeare write
the 'Shakespeare' plays? A conspiracy theorist's delight which is
Warwickshire's very own da Vinci code.
It is certainly true
that although William Shakespeare is arguably the most famous writer in
history, very little is known about his personal life: how was a
penniless actor/playwright in London - at the same time - also a
prosperous merchant in Stratford? |
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Dick
Turpin: notorious highwayman
The A5 'Roman road'
passing through Northern Warwickshire was the haunt of the
infamous
Highwayman Dick Turpin, Sadly, it appears that Dick
Turpin didn't ride from London to York on Black Bess in order to create
an alibi. It was, apparently, some other gentleman of the highway,
whose deeds have, over the centuries merged with other folk tales into
the Dick Turpin legend. |
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Jane
Austen at Stoneleigh Abbey
Jane Austen was related to
the Leigh family of Stoneleigh Abbey. When she visited in 1806, she was
so inspired by the house, by its parkland and by its family intrigues
that she wove descriptions of the interiors, views of the grounds and
cameos of the family into her novels. |
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George
Eliot
Eliot was one of the leading writers of the
Victorian era and her novels, largely set in provincial England, are
well known for their realism and psychological perspicacity. She used a
male pen name, she said, to ensure that her works were taken seriously
- but it may have been more a desire to shield her private life from
the scandal of her relationship with a married man. |
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J
R R Tolkien
The world-famous author of Lord of the Rings based Middle
Earth
on Warwickshire - and the name "hobbit" comes from the folklore name
Hob, still seen in street names in Balsall Common & Kenilworth. |
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The Whispering Knights
These
remains of a portal dolmen burial chamber dating from around
4100bc can be as evocative as their name suggests,
looming from the mist in an autumn Warwickshire morning. They stand 5-8
feet in height and the four upright stones probably at one time
supported the fallen stone
to form a chamber within a mound which has long since weathered away.
The Whispering Knights were said to go and drink from the local stream
by the light of the full moon. |
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Sir Guy of Warwick
Sir Guy is one of England’s most famous
knights, whose legend dates from the mid-13th century and whose daring
exploits include slaying a dragon, fighting a giant and
battling in holy wars. Warwick Castle holds the porridge pot
and sword used by him; Queen Elizabeth I even paid for them to be
guarded - unfortunately, Sir Guy of Warwick never existed. |
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The Battle of Edgehill: the first battle of the English
Civil War
On 23 October 1642 the Royalist Army of King Charles I engaged the
Roundheads at Edgehill in what was the first major battle of the
English Civil War. The famous charge by the cavalry of Prince Rupert
routed a large part of the Parliamentarian army. It is said a ghostly
replay of the battle haunted the site in the
years following the war and the battlefield is said to be still haunted. |
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Lions in the
Cotswolds
It is thought that the Romans introduced sheep to the Cotswolds over
2,000 years ago, when they settled the important Roman stronghold of
Corinium,
modern-day Cirencester. During the medieval period of 13th to 15th
centuries, the Cotswold sheep were famous throughout Europe for their
heavy fleeces and high quality of wool -- they were known as 'Cotswold
Lions', probably because of the golden colour of their
fleece. The flocks of sheep on the hillside is still a
classic Cotswold image.
Cotswold wool is what generated the wealth of the
Cotswolds in the Middle Ages and resulted in wealthy landowners and
traders vying to outdo each other in the splendour of their
houses
and their endowments to the Church. The wonderful churches all over the
Cotswolds are known as “wool churches”, and some are the size of
cathedrals. |
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For more self catering accommodation and holiday cottages in the Cotswolds, visit our sister site Self Catering in the Cotswolds.co.uk
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