HENLEY-IN-ARDEN

Henley-in-Arden is a charming and friendly small town in the heart of the old Arden region. Henley has a long winding High Street, about a mile long, with well-preserved old buildings on either side. These are small human-scale buildings, unlike the grandiose High Street in Chipping Campden, and the shops are not as commercialised here as in, for example, Broadway.

A castle was originally built here, sometime before 1140, probably with help from the Earls of Warwick. The oldest building in Henley, shown here, houses the Henley-in-Arden Heritage Centre.

Next door to the Heritage Centre is the popular Henley Ice Cream Parlour. Henley lies on the road between London, Stratford and Birmingham, and a trading town grew up along the road, forming the High Street.

Many of the people living along the High Street take a pride in the floral displays outside their homes.

At the mid-point along the High Street is the church of St John The Baptist, and just beyond the church is the Guild Hall.

The well preserved Guild Hall near the mid-point of the High Street is evidence of the tradesmen who made this town important.

The wide pavements are used for outdoor tables by several pubs and cafes. These give the main street a relaxed atmosphere.

Several inns along the modern High Street were old coaching inns. This is the White Swan, a 16th century coaching inn.

Henley was for a long period the major market town in the Arden region. Until a few years ago there was a thriving livestock market here. The market is still held today but is now little more than a car-boot sale. Live poultry can still be bought here. In the Spring of 2007 the site on which the market is held was sold for property development, so the market will not be able to continue.

This is all that remains of the town's Market Cross.

	Time Team Excavation at Henley-in-Arden Behind the High Street rises a hill which was once the site of Henley's castle. There is no surviving stonework of this castle above ground, but the site was recently excavated by the Channel 4 Time Team program. These pictures are screen captures from the TV program. This is an aerial view of the mount behind the town, which was the natural site of the early castle.
	Local residents show Time Team various artifacts that had been found by them on the mount. These were mainly pottery and decorative floor tiles. The site is a scheduled monument, and excavation is strictly controlled.
	Time Team digging excavation trenches on the mount.
	High quality masonry unearthed beneath the mount's surface.
	This model is a reconstruction of how the early settlement on the mount may have appeared.
	Henley's Guild Hall was used as a base for the team. Here historian Robin Bush examines old records.
	There is no reference to the castle in the Doomsday Book. The earliest reference is this one, in Dugdale's Antiquities of Warwickshire. It grants a market to Thurston de Montfort (you can see his name in the book) in 1141, so the castle was built between 1086 and 1141. It's owner, Peter de Montfort was killed in the Battle of Evesham in 1265, and much of the castle may have been dismantled soon after. Part of it was rebuilt between 1306 and 1411, but it is believed to have fallen into disrepair, and the stone was probably sold, by the Earls of Warwick to stonemerchants in Stratford or Coventry.
	The model shown here is on show in the Henley-in-Arden Heritage Centre in Henley High Street. This is a very friendly little shop.

Just behind the town is the Norman Church of St Nicholas, built at the same time as the castle. There is more about the church, and a very good description of Henley's history at Henley-in-Arden Churches.

This is the view from the Castle Mount, looking towards the town, showing the two churches.

This is the view from the Castle Mount, looking in the North-East direction, showing the surrounding countryside.

Henley-in-Arden Community Website

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