The best running trails around Ashow

Good route through the university.

This outcrop tells a story of when Kenilworth lay just north of the Equator in a semi-desert climate with market wet and dry seasons. Many buildings in Old Kenilworth, notably the Castle, the Abbey and St. Nicholas Church, are built of the local Kenilworth Sandstone that you can observe here.

Cuts off the Kenilworth Road and traffic lights but only when it is dry…

Ok if it is dry otherwise it’s muddy…

Kenilworth Greenway is a former railway line, now a 6.5km multi-user path, which runs between Kenilworth and Berkswell through scenic countryside. Some of the Greenway is due to be removed by HS2, but diversions are in place.

The church of St John the Evangelist was built during the Imperial period when a new parish was created. It is situated 400m north west of the cricket ground, Kenilworth. Chancel, nave, S aisle, vestry, and W tower. Erected at the S end of the town in 1852, when a new parish was created. A mixture of Gothic styles, built of red sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings. The tower terminates in an octagonal spire.

The Virgins and Castle can lay claim to being Kenilworth’s oldest pub, possibly past its 440th year, and in June 1760 when its ownership passed to one John Brown it was known, as it had been from its earliest record, as The Two Virgins and was described as having “..a barn, stable, brew house, gardens and backside.” Upon Brown’s death, the inn passed to his brother-in-law John Ball, and later to William Ball; the Ball family were from Aston. In early 1825 the inn was in a poor condition - “The whole of the premises (are) in a very ruinous state for want of repair.” The following month, Ball received £400 from his brother in law, but it is not clear if this was for a mortgage or repairs.              By 10th October 1826, Abel Miles had become the licensee and on Boxing Day that same year he married Kenilworth girl Sarah Lenton at St.Phillips Church in Birmingham. This was an expensive Christmas for Miles as four days previously he had spent £290 on household furniture and brewing equipment, a very large sum considering a good weekly wage was then under £1. The following year, with the pub now in a better state of repair and with a new licensee in place, the name was changed to The Castle Tavern, and in January 1831 ownership of the inn was conveyed from William Ball to Abel Miles.               Miles had a degree of financial success. During his time at The Castle Tavern he bought five nearby cottages which were alongside The Vicarage, two cottages in Albion Row(Street) and a two acre field with a trackway leading from it to Pipers Lane (part of Whitemoor Road).               By the 1850’s Abel Miles’s health was failing, and on 3rd September 1851 he let The Castle Tavern on a seven-year lease to Thomas Pettifor who was married to Abel’s niece, Keren. Just five days later Abel died aged 52, and remarkably his wife Sarah outlived him by only twelve days; she was 55. Abel and Sarah lie together in St.Nicholas churchyard, beneath one of the sepulchral slabs unearthed from the Abbey ruins.              Under the terms of his will, Abel Miles’s property came up for auction on 11th May 1852, but during those few months Thomas Pettifor had also died, leaving his widow Keren as licensee. Her auction bid of £700 was successful. It is the documentation concerning the death of Abel Miles, and Keren’s successful bid, that contains the details confirming The Two Virgins  and The Castle Tavern were the same premises. There are several documents containing the phrase “Castle Tavern (or Two Virgins)”, and an Abstract of Title stating “Castle Tavern, formerly the Two Virgins.” The auction poster itself refers to it as “The Virgins Inn and Castle Tavern” and so it would appear that it was the Pettifors between September 1851 and May 1852 who decided to amalgamate the two names. The conveyance to Keren Pettifor reverses the name to “Castle Tavern and Two Virgins” and a number of variations have been used over the years. Today it is simply The Virgins and Castle.

Blackdown Mill, a watermill for which there are documentary records from the Medieval period. It was in use until the 1920s and the waterwheel and some of the machinery survive. It is on the south side of Hill Wootton Road. A mill, probably this site, is recorded in 1086. Later it became the property of Coombe Abbey. Information on ownership exists for the 16th to 20th centuries. The mill operated until the mid 1920s. The buildings are now the premises of an antiques dealer. The mill is a mixture of 18th and 19th century buildings. The older part is a three-storey brick structure with a large wooden extension housing the waterwheel. The appearance of this building has been considerably altered this century. The waterwheel is in place, but most of the machinery has been removed. In the yard behind the mill are traces of a steam engine which was installed in the mid 19th century.