Some of the earliest records of civilisation in Warwickshire are Old Stone Age axes (earlier than 3000BCE) which have been found around Coventry. That's 50000 years ago, while the pyramids were being constructed in Egypt.
There are a few New Stone Age (3000BCE) monuments in the area, including long barrows near Warwick and the Rollwright Stones on the border with Oxfordshire. Some New Stone Age pottery has also been found between Warwick and Coventry, and New Stone Age axes have been found over a wide area of the county.
The lower lying land in Warwickshire, South of the Avon, has been farmed from Neolithic times, possibly from 3000BCE. The area of Warwickshire North of the Avon was largely wooded and formed the Forest of Arden.
Bronze Age "beaker" pottery (1000BCE) has been found at Baginton and Brandon, near Coventry.
The lower lying land in the valley of the Avon (near Stoneleigh), was populated a long while before the higher land.
By Iron Age times (600BCE) there were many organised settlements, and interconnecting trackways.
The major settlement of the area began between the 7th and 10th Centuries, by two groups of Germanic settlers - the Angles coming from the East and the Saxons from the South. There are several Anglo-Saxon pagan cremation and burial sites in the county.
From around 850 Danes entered the Eastern part of England. A method of fortifying communities against the Danes was the Burh. This is the origin of the name Bur-ton. Burton is an Anglo-Saxon name meaning fortified farm or village.
Christianity spread through the region from about 660AD until the 10th Century. There was a nunnery at Coventry in the 10th Century (near Trinity Church in Broadgate). In 1043 Leofric and his wife Lady Godiva established a Benedictine monastery on the site of the nunnery. This monastery became the first Coventry Cathedral.
The Norman Conquest occurred in 1066. The Domesday Book was compiled in 1086 and contains a list of villages in Warwickshire. There is no reference to Burton Green, though Berkswell is listed. St John's Church Berkswell is a very fine Norman Church.
At the time of the Domesday Book, Kenilworth was a settlement of about 100 people in a clearing in the Forest of Arden. The earliest parts of the Castle were built in 1129 by Geoffrey de Clinton (hence the name of the road into Kenilworth - Clinton Lane). Geoffrey de Clinton also founded an Augustine Abbey at Kenilworth in 1122 (hence the Abbey Fields).
There was an Abbey at Stoneleigh, founded by the Cistercian Order in 1154. The Cistercian Order was a Roman Catholic order of monks living according to principles of austerity and manual labour. In many parts of England the Cistercian Order was responsible for the introduction of farming. The monks from Stoneleigh cleared a lot of the local woodland. Some of the fields in the old part of Burton Green are known to have been farmed by the monks from Stoneleigh Abbey. The Place Names of Warwickshire gives the earliest recorded reference to Burton Green as 1585. The monastery at Stoneleigh was dissolved in 1540. It seems likely that woodland at Burton Green was cleared and settlement established sometime between 1200 and 1500.
A pound by the railway bridge in Cromwell Lane is where animals used to be kept and at its centre was the old village well, which was 120 feet deep. It was only covered with boards until 1975, when a thick slab of concrete was placed over the well to prevent accidents.
The junction of Cromwell Lane, Hob Lane and Red Lane was a point on the old cattle droving road from the Welsh hills to London. This track runs down from Brownhills, through Stonebridge, Berkswell, via Burton Green, then through Kenilworth, Chesford, and to London. The cattle had usually been on the hoof for some days before they reached the area. Here they were rested in order to feed and gain strength for the remainder of the journey.
There is evidence that the area was used by charcoal burners. In the fields which now belong to the electricity sub-station can be found five or six circles, abut nine feet in diameter and 20 yards apart, which have a darker coloured soil than the surrounding area. This is where local people covered the wood they had gathered with clay and then burned it slowly in order to produce charcoal. The circles can be easily identified because the grasses and plants growing on these charcoal rings are visibly taller than the rest. Charcoal burning was part of the process of tile manufacture, and this may have a connection with Tile Hill.
Many local Parish Churches were Puritan and were on Cromwell's side during the Civil War. (Though Westwood Church lies in the parish of Stoneleigh, on the estate of Lord Leigh, who was a Royalist).
For much of the war Kenilworth Castle was in Parliamentary hands. It changed hands twice, but without much fighting. The damage caused to the Kenilworth Castle, which is visible today, was caused after the Civil War, when the castle was partially dismantled, under Cromwell's instructions.
In May 1645 Cromwell assembled an army of upto 10,000 soldiers in the Kenilworth and Coventry area, a few weeks before the Battle of Naseby. Lodgings for the soldiers were obtained over a wide area, as far away as Meriden and Solihull. There is a cottage in Cromwell Lane named Cromwell Cottage.
The map at the right shows Burton Green as it appears in the first edition of the Ordnance Survey. This survey was initially undertaken around 1830, and the map shown here includes some revisions, for the new railways, upto around 1870.
You can see that there were no houses on the East side of Cromwell Lane, and that woodland extended up to the road.
You can also see that the road now named Copt Oak Close was the original entry into Charter Avenue.
The shading on this map shows the slope of the land. It clearly shows the brook which has is source at the lowest point of Hodgetts Lane, and which flows down past Tile Hill station, and then towards Canley.
The white buildings in this photo show the University, viewed from the elevated part of the Greenway.
Local History of Burton Green
The following section is based on information in A History of Warwickshire, by Terry Slater.
The map at the right, showing the area in Anglo-Saxon times, is from A History of Warwickshire. Two Roman roads cross the area - the Fosse Way and the Whatling Street. The map shows some settlements dating from Roman times. The Lunt Fort at Coventry is a Roman construction dating from 60AD, and there is a Roman Temple at Grimstock Hill, near Coleshill. On this map, the area in which Burton Green lies is simply labelled Forest of Arden.
The picture at the right shows bluebells in nearby Park Wood. In Saxon Times the entire area would have been wooded like this.
Cromwell and The English Civil War
At the time of the Civil War Coventry was the major commercial centre of the Midlands. At the beginning of the Civil War Coventry soon became aligned with Cromwell's side. Warwick Castle was also a Parliamentary stronghold, the home of Lord Brooke, a foremost Puritan intellectual.
Burton Green 1830-1870
20th Century History of the Area
In the 1930's Burton Green was a long straggling village. There were single houses, semi-detached bungalows and groups of houses, with many gaps between which, since the Second World War, have been filled in.
The population has grown gradually since the Second World War. Some of the older residents temporarily sheltered in the village during the bombing of Coventry and later put downs roots here.
Around 1960 The University of Warwick was built at Gibbet Hill, some 2 miles away.