Meriden, United Kingdom

In the late 11th century, the village was small and impoverished, with a population of only nine families (45 persons). The first mention of it as a separate hamlet was in 1230. By the time of Edward I (1272–1307) there was a thriving community 'worth encouraging' in the eyes of the Lord of Alspath. By the reign of Henry VIII, the village was growing more substantial and stretched from the foot of Meriden Hill to where the Bull's Head is now. Ogilivy's Traveller's Guide Book in 1675 describes Meriden as "... A scattering village consisting chiefly of inns". By 1686 the population had grown to 290 people. By 1772 there were 93 cottages and houses. In 1811 the village had 152 homes, 171 families and 817 people."

Meriden was a local distribution point in the 16th-century cattle-driving trade, with the pool at the centre of the old village used to water the animals. Cattle would rest in Meriden before continuing either to the cattle pens at the top of Meriden Hill for the Coventry cattle market, or towards the cattle market then held in Berkswell.

The path of the London–Chester and Holyhead road gained strategic and commercial importance over time. The section which ran through Coventry to the bottom of Meriden Hill became a turnpike in 1723. Thomas Telford renovated the whole route to Holyhead in 1810, lowering Meriden Hill and thus bypassing the Queen's Head pub and the 'old road'. This 'Telford road' remained the main Coventry to Birmingham Road until 1958, when the village was bypassed by the A45 dual carriageway. The old, narrow road past the Queen's Head is the site of the pre-Telford turnpike.

The shape of the current centre of the village, around the green, was another product of enclosure post-1785. Whilst the west end of the village had previously been the meeting place of lanes coming in to the main London-Chester road from Fillongley, Maxstoke and Packington; the ultimate shape was completed with another enclosure provision "staking out a new road to Hampton-in-Arden across the Heath".

Following the Norman Conquest, the overlordship of Alspath passed successively through the hands of the Earls of Chester (1080), the Segrave family (1220), the Mowbray Earls of Norfolk (late 14th century), the Stanley Earls of Derby (1468/1501), and the Earls of Aylesford (1784).

Of the lords of the manor owing fealty to those overlords, two in particular who contributed to events in English history or to the parish church. Ivo of Alspath was the first Norman holder of the knight's fee that was Alspath. He took his name from the village. Under the overlordship of the Earl of Chester, he built the core of the current church of St. Laurence (circa 1150) for reasons covered below. After his death the manor was split amongst his four daughters:

A manor based on the original siting, around the church and occupied since 1481 by the building of Moat House farm.

The manor of Alspath Hall, the remains of which are sited in a field off the access to the A45 from Showell Lane.

The building and land known as Walsh Hall (formerly and alternately as Wyard's Place).

The fifth subdivision (Marbrook Hall) near Hollyberry End, near the junction of Shaft Lane and Becks Lane, is now considered a later claim.

The second was Gerard (or Gerald) II of Alspath (d. 1282). He was involved with the escape from the Tower of London of Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March. His wife Millicent gave the name to what is now known as Millisons Wood, at the far east end of the village, at the top of Meriden Hill.

Meriden has never itself been a significant location in English and British history. It is, however, located within a narrow band of castles with significant historical interest. 3 miles (5 kilometres) to the north is Maxstoke Castle, one of the three seats of the Stafford Dukes of Buckingham in the mid-to-late 15th century and deemed to be a favourite residence of Lady Margaret Beaufort after her second marriage into the Stafford family. 8 miles (13 kilometres) south is Kenilworth Castle, site of the longest siege in English history; and 15 miles (24 kilometres) south is Warwick Castle, the seat of Warwick the Kingmaker, Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick.