Medieval and Tudor The name Kenilworth derives from the
Old English cynehildworð meaning 'Cynehild's
enclosure'. A settlement existed at Kenilworth by the time of the 1086
Domesday Book, which records it as
Chinewrde.
Geoffrey de Clinton (died 1134) initiated the building of an
Augustinian priory in 1122, which coincided with his initiation of
Kenilworth Castle. The priory was raised to the rank of an
abbey in 1450 and suppressed with the
Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1530s. Thereafter, the
abbey grounds next to the castle were made
common land in exchange for what
Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, used to enlarge the castle. Only a few walls and a storage barn of the original abbey survive. During the
Middle Ages, Kenilworth played a significant role in the history of England: Between June and December 1266, as part of the
Second Barons' War, Kenilworth Castle underwent
a six-month siege, when baronial forces allied to
Simon de Montfort, were besieged in the castle by the Royalist forces led by
Prince Edward, this is thought to be the longest
siege in Medieval English history. Despite numerous efforts at taking the castle, its defences proved impregnable. Whilst the siege was ongoing
King Henry III held a Parliament at Kenilworth in August that year, which resulted in the
Dictum of Kenilworth; a conciliatory document which set out peace terms to end the conflict between the barons and the monarchy. The barons initially refused to accept, but hunger and disease eventually forced them to surrender, and accept the terms of the Dictum. During the
Wars of the Roses in the 15th century, Kenilworth Castle served as an important
Lancastrian base in the Midlands: The Lancastrian King
Henry VI and his wife,
Margaret of Anjou, spent much time here. , where
Elizabeth I worshipped in 1575 and
James I visited in 1616
Elizabeth I visited
Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, at Kenilworth Castle several times, the last in 1575. Dudley entertained the Queen with pageants and banquets costing some £1,000 per day that surpassed anything seen in England before. These included fireworks. Near the castle there is a group of thatched cottages called 'Little Virginia': According to local legend they gained this name because the first
potatoes brought to England by Sir
Walter Raleigh from the
New World were planted and grown here in the 16th century. Modern historians however consider this unlikely, and have suggested that the name may have originated from early colonists to America returning to England from
Virginia.
17th and 18th centuries During the
English Civil War, Kenilworth Castle, was occupied by
Parliamentarians, after the
Royalist garrison was withdrawn. After the end of the war, the castle's defences were
slighted on the orders of Parliament in 1649, after which the castle became a ruin. In 1778
Kenilworth windmill was built. In 1884, it was converted into a
water tower, by the addition of a large water tank on the top of the tower in the place of the sails. It continued to be the town's main water supply until 1939, and finally became disused in 1960. It is still a local landmark, but is now a private home.
19th century to present With the demise of the defensive role of the castle, Kenilworth had ceased to be a place of national significance, but
Sir Walter Scott's 1821 novel
Kenilworth brought it back to public attention, and helped establish the ruins of the castle as a major tourist attraction. In the early 19th century Kenilworth was known for its horn
comb making industry, which peaked in the 1830s. The railway station was located to the south of the
Finham Brook valley, and this caused the focus of settlement at Kenilworth to move south, away from the castle, and nearer to the railway station. Industrialists from
Birmingham and
Coventry arrived, developing the area around the town's railway station with residential and commercial buildings. In the 19th century Kenilworth had some fine large
mansions with landscaped gardens; these were demolished after the
First World War and
Second World War to make way for housing developments. The railway also brought a number of new industries to Kenilworth, such as
tanning,
brick making, and chemicals, and also caused substantial growth in Kenilworth's
market gardening, which became known for producing crops such as tomatoes and strawberries. During
The Blitz in
World War II on the night of 21 November 1940, a German aircraft dropped two
parachute mines on Kenilworth; the large explosions in the Abbey End area demolished a number of buildings, killing 25 people, and injuring 70 more. The bomb damaged area of the town was redeveloped in the 1960s. The Society sets out to promote awareness of Kenilworth's character and encourage its preservation.
British Rail withdrew passenger services from the Coventry to Leamington Line and closed Kenilworth Station in January 1965 in line with
The Reshaping of British Railways report. In May 1977, British Rail reinstated passenger services, but did not reopen Kenilworth station, which became derelict and was eventually demolished. In 2011 Warwick Council granted
John Laing plc planning permission to build a new station. It finally reopened in 2018. In the early 1980s, the town's name was used by one of the first generation of computer retailers, a company called Kenilworth Computers based near the Clock Tower, for its repackaging of the
Nascom microcomputer, with the selling point that it was robust enough to be used by agriculture. Kenilworth was struck by
an F0/T1 tornado on 23 November 1981, as part of the record-breaking nationwide outbreak on that day. ==Geography==