Explore Warwick Castle, the medieval castle begun by William the Conqueror in 1068 beside the River Avon

Watch the trebuchet, Britain's largest working siege machine, and the Falconer's Quest birds of prey show

Visit St Mary's Church in Warwick, and the Beauchamp Chapel with the 15th-century tomb of Richard Beauchamp

William the Conqueror began Warwick Castle in 1068 beside the River Avon, and it now has Britain's largest working trebuchet and a birds of prey show. In the town, St Mary's Church holds the Beauchamp Chapel and the 15th-century tomb of Richard Beauchamp.

Warwick Castle and the Beauchamp Chapel

See the Royal Pump Rooms on the Parade and the art gallery and museum inside

Walk the Regency terraces of the Parade and Lansdowne Circus

Spend an afternoon in Jephson Gardens by the Leam

Walk through the Pump Room Gardens and Victoria Park

Leamington Priors was a small village until its water got a reputation for medicinal qualities in the 18th century; it grew into a spa town, renamed Royal Leamington Spa in 1838, which is why parts of the Parade, Clarendon Square and Lansdowne Circus have especially fine Regency architecture. The Royal Pump Rooms still stand on the Parade, now home to the town's art gallery and museum, with Jephson Gardens and the Pump Room Gardens beside them.

Royal Leamington Spa: Regency Terraces and the Pump Room

Visit Shakespeare's Birthplace on Henley Street, the house where he is believed to have been born in 1564

Watch a play at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, beside the Avon

Visit Anne Hathaway's Cottage at Shottery, the farmhouse of Shakespeare's wife

Stand in the garden of New Place, the site of Shakespeare's last home, and see Holy Trinity Church, where he is buried

William Shakespeare is believed to have been born in 1564 in the house on Henley Street, and he is buried in Holy Trinity Church by the Avon. The garden of New Place marks the site of his last home, his wife's family farmhouse is Anne Hathaway's Cottage at Shottery, and the Royal Shakespeare Theatre stands on the river.

Stratford-upon-Avon: Shakespeare's Birthplace and the RSC

Walk through the ruins of the old cathedral, the medieval church of St Michael, destroyed on 14 November 1940, and into Basil Spence's new cathedral, consecrated in 1962, with Graham Sutherland's giant tapestry Christ in Glory

Visit the Coventry Transport Museum, home to the Thrust SSC that set the land speed record in 1997

Walk Spon Street, the medieval street where timber-framed houses were moved from elsewhere in the city

Coventry's old cathedral, the medieval church of St Michael, was destroyed in the air raid of 14 November 1940, and its ruins stand beside Basil Spence's new cathedral, consecrated in 1962, with Graham Sutherland's giant tapestry Christ in Glory. The Coventry Transport Museum holds Thrust SSC, which set the land speed record in 1997, and on Spon Street timber-framed houses moved from elsewhere in the city have been rebuilt together.

Coventry: The Two Cathedrals and the Transport Museum

Walk through the linked garden rooms one after another

Find the White Garden and the Fuchsia Garden among the rooms

Look at the box, hornbeam and yew hedges that make the walls

Walk out into the Cotswold countryside the garden looks over

Hidcote, at Hidcote Bartrim near Chipping Campden, is one of the best-known and most influential Arts and Crafts gardens in Britain, laid out as linked 'rooms' divided by hedges, each with its own planting of rare trees, shrubs and herbaceous borders. It was made by Lawrence Johnston, an American who took British citizenship and fought in the Boer War, on an estate his mother bought in 1907. The National Trust has it now.

Hidcote: The Garden Made of Rooms

Walk the towpaths from Gas Street Basin around the Birmingham Canal Navigations, which have more miles of canal than Venice

Visit the National Sea Life Centre at Brindleyplace, beside the canal

Tour the Museum of the Jewellery Quarter, in the preserved Smith and Pepper jewellery factory

Book a guided tour of the Birmingham Back to Backs, the city's last surviving court of back-to-back houses, now cared for by the National Trust

Birmingham's canals, the Birmingham Canal Navigations, run to more miles than Venice's, and the towpaths lead out from Gas Street Basin; the National Sea Life Centre stands beside the water at Brindleyplace. In the Jewellery Quarter, the Smith and Pepper factory is preserved as it was left as the Museum of the Jewellery Quarter, and in the city centre the National Trust keeps Birmingham's last surviving court of back-to-back houses.

Birmingham: Gas Street Basin, the Jewellery Quarter and the Back to Backs

Try to count the stones of the King's Men — the accepted count is 77, but legend says no one will ever count them three times and get the same number

Stand at the King Stone and recite the witch's prophecy: "Seven long strides shalt thou take, and if Long Compton thou canst see, King of England thou shalt be" — then take seven paces toward the valley and try to locate Long Compton village below; the hill crests just enough to block the view

Walk the 400m from the circle to the Whispering Knights portal dolmen — four standing stones around a fallen capstone, named in legend for knights who lagged behind whispering treachery against the king; they mark a Neolithic burial chamber that predates the circle by approximately 1,000 years

Three separate prehistoric monuments stand on the ridge along the Oxfordshire–Warwickshire border near Chipping Norton: the King's Men stone circle (77 stones, 33 metres diameter), the King Stone single monolith, and the Whispering Knights portal dolmen — the oldest of the three at around 5,500 years. All three are connected by the legend of a witch who turned a marching king and his entire army to stone with a single prophecy.

Rollright Stones: The Witch's Army

Walk the trails of Wyre Forest National Nature Reserve, one of the largest ancient semi-natural woodlands in England

Visit the Wyre Forest Discovery Centre at Callow Hill

Walk the Dowles Brook valley through the forest to the Severn

Wyre Forest is one of the largest ancient semi-natural woodlands in England, now a National Nature Reserve. The Discovery Centre at Callow Hill is the way in, and the Dowles Brook runs down through the forest to the Severn.

Wyre Forest: Ancient Woodland Down to the Severn

Walk the streets of the Black Country Living Museum, the open-air museum of the Black Country industrial village opened in 1978

Take a narrowboat trip into the Dudley Canal Tunnel from the museum

See the Tecton buildings at Dudley Zoo, the listed modernist enclosures by Berthold Lubetkin of the 1930s

Climb the ruins of Dudley Castle above the zoo

The Black Country Living Museum, opened in 1978, is an open-air museum of the industrial villages of the Black Country, with narrowboat trips into the Dudley Canal Tunnel. Beside it, Dudley Zoo keeps Berthold Lubetkin's Tecton buildings of the 1930s, listed modernist animal houses, below the ruins of Dudley Castle.