Short lets for a few nights near Southam

Southam grew up where the Coventry to Oxford road, now the A423, crossed the road from Warwick to Northampton and the old drovers' route known as Welsh Road. The monks of Coventry Priory won its market charter in 1227 and three yearly fairs followed.

The main shops are along High Street and Market Hill, with Our Lady and St Wulstan's Catholic church and the Congregational chapel on Wood Street nearby. The Holy Well's paths were restored between 2005 and 2007 with a National Lottery grant.

Sullivan Heights, the smallest of the four, sleeps six and is about 14 miles from Southam: room for a few nights with a kitchen for breakfast and parking outside.

Arrive from 4pm, leave by 10am; the live calendar on each house page gives the minimum number of nights and the full price for the dates you pick.

Southam has been twinned with Marolles-en-Hurepoix in France since 1992. The Leamington Observer covers the town's news.

In the stagecoach era Southam was an important stop on the Coventry to Oxford coach road. Many of its old coaching inns still stand.

Southam's history is kept in the Cardall Collection. A web of footpaths crosses fields and woodland to the surrounding villages with little need to walk on roads.