Coventry university visits from Northampton

Northampton nearly had one of England's oldest universities. Henry III founded a University of Northampton by royal charter in 1261, but suppressed it in 1265 after its members sided with Simon de Montfort. The name returned in 2005, when University College Northampton, founded in 1924, gained full university status.

Its Waterside campus by the Nene replaced the older sites in 2018 and the Moulton Park weather station, one of the highest points in the town, stands on university land.

For a family whose son or daughter is studying in Coventry, Stoke Lodge and Stoke House are about a mile from Coventry University's campus. The University of Warwick, on the south-western edge of the city, is a few miles further.

A moving-in weekend or a graduation is easier in a whole house: room for everyone, a kitchen and free parking for the car loaded with boxes.

Had it survived, the medieval university would have been England's third oldest after Oxford and Cambridge. Today Northampton College teaches vocational courses, GCSEs and A levels on two campuses, while Moulton College, just north of the town, specialises in land-based subjects, sport and construction.

The medieval university sat inside the town walls among its many churches and monasteries.