Warwickshire summary

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Below is the article summary. For the full article, see Warwickshire.

Warwickshire , Administrative (pop., 2001: 505,885) and historic county, central England. As an administrative and geographic unit, the county dates from the 10th century, with the historic county town of Warwick lying roughly at its centre. In Saxon times Warwickshire formed a border zone between the kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia. During the Middle Ages two major centres grew up in the county, at Warwick and Kenilworth. Historical structures surviving in the area include Norman and early English churches, along with buildings at Stratford-upon-Avon associated with William Shakespeare. The Battle of Edgehill (1642), the first serious clash of the English Civil Wars, was fought in Warwickshire near the Oxfordshire border. Farming, dairy farming, fruit growing, market gardening, and coal mining are important economic activities.

England Summary

England, predominant constituent unit of the United Kingdom, occupying more than half of the island of Great Britain. Outside the British Isles, England is often erroneously considered synonymous with the island of Great Britain (England, Scotland, and Wales) and even with the entire United

United Kingdom Summary

United Kingdom, island country located off the northwestern coast of mainland Europe. The United Kingdom comprises the whole of the island of Great Britain—which contains England, Wales, and Scotland—as well as the northern portion of the island of Ireland. The name Britain is sometimes used to