Atherstone is a town at the very North of Warwickshire near the borders with Staffordshire and Leicestershire. Atherstone is in between Nuneaton and Tamworth and is also close to the site of the battle of Bosworth, which may have actually taken place in fields near Atherstone and not Bosworth.
Settlement in Atherstone dates back to Roman times with a Roman settlement in the adjoining village of Mancetter and the Roman road Watling street running through the town. Atherstone was listed in the Domesday Book and was granted a yearly fair by King Henry III in 1246 [1].
Atherstone became an affluent market town surrounded by agricultural lands and in later medieval times a centre for cloth and textile manufacture, being well known for it's hat industry. During the Industrial Revolution Atherstone was linked to the canal network by the Coventry Canal and the rail network by the West Coast Main Line though was eclipsed by the likes of Birmingham and Coventry industrially.
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| Church of St Mary |
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| Former wharf on the Coventry Canal |
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| Lock house on the canal |
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| This part of the Roman road Watling street goes under the West Coast Main Line |
[1] "Parishes: Atherstone." A History of the County of Warwick: Volume 4, Hemlingford Hundred. Ed. L F Salzman. London: Victoria County History, 1947. 126-131. British History Online. Web. 23 February 2019. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/warks/vol4/pp126-131.
