Kenilworth | |
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Kenilworth Clock on Warwick Road |
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Kenilworth shown within Warwickshire | |
Population | 22,413 (2011 Census) |
OS grid reference | SP2971 |
Civil parish |
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District | |
Shire county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | Kenilworth |
Postcode district | CV8 |
Dialling code | 01926 |
Police | Warwickshire |
Fire | Warwickshire |
Ambulance | West Midlands |
EU Parliament | West Midlands |
UK Parliament | |
Website | Kenilworth The Best Kept Secret in Warwickshire |
Kenilworth (pronounced /ˈkɛnᵻlwərθ/) is a town and civil parish in Warwickshire, England, about 5 miles (8 km) south-west of the centre of Coventry, 5 miles (8 km) north of Warwick and 90 miles (140 km) north-west of London. The town is on Finham Brook, a tributary of the River Sowe, which joins the River Avon about 2 miles (3 km) north-east of the town centre. The 2011 Census recorded a parish population of 22,413. Kenilworth is notable for the extensive ruins of Kenilworth Castle. Other sights include the ruins of Kenilworth Abbey in Abbey Fields park, St Nicholas' Parish Church and Kenilworth Clock.
A settlement existed at Kenilworth by the time of the Domesday Book of 1086, which records it as Chinewrde meaning "farm of a woman named Cynehild".
Geoffrey de Clinton (died 1134) initiated the building of an Augustinian priory in 1122, at the same time as he initiated the building of Kenilworth Castle. The priory was raised to the rank of abbey in 1450 and suppressed in the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1530s. Thereafter the abbey grounds next to the castle, were made common land in exchange for common land that Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester used to enlarge the castle. Only a few walls and a storage barn of the original abbey survive.