Stays near Stoneleigh and Stoneleigh Park

Stoneleigh, also called Stoneleigh-in-Arden, is a small village on the River Sowe, four and a half miles south of Coventry and five and a half miles north of Leamington Spa, about 600 yards from where the Sowe meets the Avon. The parish had 3,636 residents at the 2011 census and its church is dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

Stoneleigh Abbey, south-west of the village, was founded by the Cistercians in 1154 and was home to the Leigh family from 1561 to 1990. In 1996 the fifth Baron Leigh passed the abbey and its 690 acres of grounds to a charitable trust and it was extensively restored by 2000 with help from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Stoneleigh Park, also south-west of the village and once called the National Agricultural Centre, is an exhibition and conference centre. For years it hosted the Royal Show, a huge national agricultural event, as well as the Town and Country Festival and it still brings exhibitors and visitors from across the country.

The village has a famous quirk: it has no pub, because Lord Leigh closed all three more than a century ago after drinkers laughed at his daughter riding to church on a tricycle. It also saw the strongest tornado of the national outbreak of 23 November 1981, which wrecked a caravan park.

Humber Hub is about 5 miles by road from Stoneleigh, Stoke Lodge and Stoke House about 5 miles and Sullivan Heights about 7 miles. For exhibitors and teams at Stoneleigh Park, a whole house gives everyone a room and a kitchen at the end of a long show day.