Warwick in historic gazetteers

Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887). John Bartholomew

Warwick.-- parl. and mun. bor., and co. town of Warwickshire, on river Avon, 108 miles from London by rail - mun. bor. (including the pars. of Warwick St Mary, pop. 6387; Warwick St Nicholas, pop, 5397; and Guy's Cliffe, pop. 16), 5512 ac., pop. 11,800; parl. bor. (Warwick and Leamington), 9717 ac., pop. 37,879; 3 Banks, 1 newspaper. Market-day, Saturday. Warwick seems to have been a place of some note, with a fortress, in Saxon times. It appears in Domesday Book as a borough with 261 houses. Its castle made it an important place during the middle ages, but the fire of 1694 swept away the majority of the old houses, and the town is mostly modern. Industrially Warwick is of little importance, but it has a considerable trade in cattle, corn, and provisions. The principal objects of interest are the castle, seat of the Earl of Warwick and Brooke, one of the few real old baronial residences still kept up and inhabited; St Mary's Church, with the Beauchamp chapel; the Earl of Leicester's hospital for aged brethren; and the 2 town gates, each surmounted by an ancient chapel. Warwick returns 1 member to Parliament; it returned 2 members from Edward I. until 1885, when the parl. limits were extended so as to include the mun. bor. of Leamington and the local government districts of Milverton and Lillington.