Southam (ˈsaʊðəm) is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district of Warwickshire, England. Southam is situated on the River Stowe, which flows from Napton-on-the-Hill and joins Warwickshire's River Itchen at Stoneythorpe, just outside the town.
In the 2021 census, the population of Southam was 8,114, increased from 6,567 in 2011.
Southam was a Royal manor until AD 998, when Ethelred the Unready granted it to Earl Leofwine. When Coventry Priory was founded in 1043, Leofwine's son Leofric, Earl of Mercia granted Southam to it. The Domesday Book records the manor as "Sucham". The Priory, which in the 12th century became the first Coventry Cathedral, kept Southam until the 16th century when it surrendered all its estates to the Crown in the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
Southam developed at the intersection of several roads: the main road between Coventry and Oxford (now the A423 road), the main road from Warwick to Northampton via Daventry, and the ancient drovers' road known as Welsh Road. In 1227, the monks of Coventry Priory were granted a market charter for their manor at Southam, causing it to develop into a market town. Southam later received charters to hold three yearly fairs: Medieval fairs were special markets, held only a few times a year, which attracted buyers and sellers from longer distances than the normal weekly market.
Southam's Holy Well, in the picturesque Stowe river valley, is Grade II listed and a Scheduled Ancient Monument, and was first recorded in the year 998. The Well was used in medieval times by local monks and for hundreds of years as the town's principal water supply. Water from a natural mineral spring feeds the semi-circular Well and pours through the mouths of carved stone gargoyles into the river. The water from the Well was said to cure eye complaints. The Holy Well and paths were renovated during 2005–2007 using a National Lottery grant.
The current Manor House is Grade II * listed and dates from the early 17th century. The present parish church of St James was built in the 14th century.