Stays near Whitnash

Whitnash is a town and civil parish south-east of Leamington Spa and Warwick, joined on to both. It had 10,743 residents at the 2021 census, a long way from the 586 counted in 1931.

Domesday records it as Witenas and by 1326 it was Whitenasshe. The name is usually taken to mean at the white ash, though place by the wood, sacred ash and meeting place of the wise have all been suggested. Tradition places a Celtic fortification in Castle Hill Field just east of the town.

St Margaret's Church is of Anglo-Saxon origin and stands on a mound that may once have been a pagan site. Sir George Gilbert Scott largely rebuilt it between 1855 and 1880. Seventeenth-century half-timbered buildings survive around the old village core, among them the Plough and Harrow inn.

Whitnash once had a holy well about 400 metres east of the town. Legend says a church bell fell into it on the way to being consecrated and gained the power to answer questions: one ring for yes, two for no. The bell still appears in the town's crest.

Humber Hub is about 13 miles by road from Whitnash, Stoke Lodge and Stoke House about 13 miles and Sullivan Heights about 15 miles. Humber Hub is the nearest base for a stay that covers Coventry and the Leamington side of Warwickshire.