Warwickshire: The Land of Shakespeare

by Clive Holland

COMPTON WYNYATES.

To those who have never visited Leamington such a description may not evoke any visions of beauty, but the regularity which marks the laying out of the town has been wisely tempered by the preservation and planting, wherever possible, of rows of elms, lindens, and plane trees, which not only break up the monotony of streets, but impart to the town an almost garden–like aspect. Notwithstanding, however, the fact that in the byroads, streets, and avenues of the residential quarters, more especially of Milverton and Lillington, grass plats separate the footpaths from the road, adding materially to the beauty and distinction of the place, the business quarter is no less business–like than that of other towns. Nathaniel Hawthorne, the American novelist, has written enthusiastically of Leamington; and those who have resided in this beautiful spot all the year round can testify that his statement, that it is a place of charm which is “always in flower,” is not far from the truth.

The rise of Leamington has been of considerable rapidity, as until the end of the eighteenth century it was merely an obscure village, and in the year 1801 the population was only just over three hundred souls, and the number of houses but sixty–seven.

Its full tide in former years was Leamington Priors, derived from the fact that the town is built on the banks of the River Leam, and once belonged to the priors of Kenilworth. In modern days it has become known as Leamington Spa, the late Queen Victoria, in memory of a visit she paid to the place in 1838, giving it the title of the Royal Leamington Spa.

The town is very unlike in appearance its ancient and more celebrated neighbour Warwick. In fact, whilst the latter has its chief attraction in antiquity, Leamington has its chief interest as a modern and fashionable health resort. It is wrong, however, to suppose that Leamington has no history, and is as entirely modern as its appearance would lead one at first sight to presume.

The name of the river upon which it stands is of ancient Celtic origin, and means the elm–tree or elm–bordered stream, and doubtless in ancient times it was well–wooded for the greater part of its course on both banks. There are many Celtic river names to be met with in Warwickshire, and generally these survivals have indicated an ancient settlement, or at least camp of the invaders, although as regards Leamington no traces of one now remain if it ever existed.

The town was in ancient times a portion of the very wide possessions of Turchill, the last and most powerful of all the Saxon earls of Warwick. In the Domesday Book the estate is put down as containing two hides, or about two hundred acres of land, the value of which was £4. There is also a mention of two mills situated on the stream within its boundaries. Turchill’s son was robbed of this part of his patrimony, and it was granted by William the Conqueror to a Norman baron, Roger de Montgomery, who was afterwards created Earl of Shrewsbury.

In those early days the town, or rather perhaps should we say the hamlet, known as Leamington underwent great vicissitudes of ownership, for although Roger de Montgomery’s son Hugh inherited the estates, his brother Robert, to whom they descended during the reign of William Rufus, called De Beleseme from the name of a castle which belonged to him, was declared a traitor, and all his possessions, including Leamington, were seized, and the latter was given to the Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry. After a few years the possession of it passed to Geoffrey de Clinton, and was by him granted to Gilbert Nutricius of Warwick and his heirs, who held it by the service of half a knight’s fee. For some reason, however, it speedily reverted to the De Clintons, and Geoffrey de Clinton, son of the original owner, gave it to the canon and priors of Kenilworth about the year 1166, in whose possession it remained until the Dissolution of the Monasteries. It remained the property of the Crown till 1563, when Elizabeth granted it to Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick. He dying without an heir male, his title became extinct, and from this period Leamington had many owners, ultimately coming into the possession of the Earls of Aylesford.