Historic county of England
Warwickshire
Avon and Feldon south, Arden north, industrial Birmingham beyond.
Warwickshire contains one of the Midlands’ strongest contrasts. South of Warwick, the Avon runs through open agricultural country towards Stratford-upon-Avon and the northern edge of the Cotswolds. Further north lies Arden, historically a much more wooded landscape. Then, in the north-west, Birmingham transformed part of that country into the heart of one of Britain’s greatest industrial conurbations.
Warwick gives the county its name; Stratford-upon-Avon gives it an international literary association; Coventry adds another major urban centre; and Birmingham gives the north-west a scale utterly unlike the rural south. These are not competing versions of Warwickshire. Their contrast is the county’s defining geographical story.
- Warwickshire: Warwicscire: weir settlement
- Warwick founded 914
- Castles and market towns
- Area: 918 sq miles
- Population: 1,632,885
- County Top: Ebrington Hill shoulder
County geography
Current Census
Contemporary Census profile
England and Wales Census 2021. Detailed contemporary statistics are available in the Geographic County Census Explorer.
- Population density
- 1,919.3 people per sq mi (741.1 people per km²)
- Population
- 1,762,082
Avon and Feldon
The Avon provides southern Warwickshire with its strongest natural thread. Around it lies the more open agricultural country traditionally known as Feldon, extending towards the Cotswold edge.
This is the Warwickshire of broad fields, river valleys and market towns — markedly different from the wooded country further north.
Arden
North and west lies Arden, once much more extensively wooded and still recognisable through its parkland, farms, woods and older settlement pattern.
The distinction between Feldon and Arden gives Warwickshire a useful internal geography which predates the enormous urban growth of the industrial period.
The industrial north-west
Birmingham and the wider industrial landscape of north-western Warwickshire developed on an entirely different scale.
That urban transformation is every bit as much part of Warwickshire as Shakespeare country. Reducing the county to its rural south leaves out one of the most important episodes in its landscape history.
County questions
Questions about Warwickshire
Is Birmingham really in Warwickshire?
Yes. Birmingham is geographically in Warwickshire, although its wider urban area extends into Staffordshire and Worcestershire. Council and lieutenancy geography is a separate layer.
Why do many maps labelled “Warwickshire” leave out Birmingham and Coventry?
Because they are showing a Warwickshire-named council area rather than the geographic county. Administrative boundaries do not define Warwickshire.
County record
Names and continuity
- Formal name
- County of Warwick
- Foundation
- c. 1001
Warwickshire and County of Warwick are forms of the same county name. From Avon and Feldon through Arden to Birmingham, its extraordinary rural–urban contrast belongs within one geographic county.