Edgar Ronald Gardner (known as Ronald) was exempted from combat in World War One, working instead as an agricultural labourer. By World War Two he had become a film-maker and was ...
Ronald had previously worked as an agricultural labourer during World War One.
A film making career beckons
As an electrical engineer Ronald was always interested in amateur cinematography and in 1935 produced ...
After his time serving in the Royal Engineers during the First World War, Kenneth returned to Stratford.
Back to the family home and business
Kenneth married Eva in 1925 with a daughter ...
Kenneth and Carl Huxley were born in Stratford to parents Thomas and Elizabeth. They had two sisters and the family were living in Evesham Road, Stratford, in 1911, when Carl ...
In 1915 it was becoming clear that the new ‘industrialised’ style of warfare used in World War One needed a much bigger army than the country could raise by volunteer ...
I now live in Stratford, but I was born in Birmingham in 1938 and lived with my parents in Yardley, Birmingham until 1948. Our street, Barrows Lane, was about half ...
Musicians have played in their local churches since Medieval times. From the 16th century church bands began to accompany services , which led to galleries being constructed to house musicians. ...
This row of cottages in Lapworth was often referred to as the ‘Almshouses’ but was really more of a parish ‘poor house’ or what I like to call an ‘improper ...
Whitnash has been settled since pre-Christian Celtic times. The present day church of St Margaret is on a mound which may have been of pagan importance in pre-Christian times. It ...
I married Ken Ashford on 23rd December 1939. He was a Coventry kid. We met at my Grandmother’s house. I moved to Coventry where we lived with Ken’s father and ...
On Sunday 10th February 2019 commemorations were held for the hundredth anniversary of the death of trade unionist and MP, Joseph Arch. Coming from a family of agricultural labourers, he ...
I was still at school in Warwick when World War 2 was declared. At first it didn’t make much difference, except having to carry our gas-masks and putting the black-out ...
The Almshouses at Shustoke were founded in 1699 by Thomas Huntbach the younger of Shustoke Hall, who died in 1712. They form a handsome row of stone cottages and are ...
There are two sets of almshouses in Mancetter.
Cramer’s Almshouses
These were founded by James Cramer, a local man who made his fortune in London as a goldsmith. The building was erected ...
I grew up in the Dugdale Arms, Nuneaton. Our family had run “The Dug, or The Duggie”, as it was known, since 1911, but its history extended further back than ...
The Dugdale Arms in Nuneaton had been in my family since 1911. My mum and dad took over as landlords in 1957, having lived next door to The Dug (as ...
The Dugdale Arms in Nuneaton, also known as The Dug, had been a pub since the 1860s.
For the first 9 years of my life we lived at 36 Dugdale Street, ...
Sunday school attendance dipped sharply after the Blitz when children were evacuated and never recovered to its former numbers of over 100. For several Sundays after the Blitz the Sunday ...
Meon Hill was said to have been caused by Old Nick himself: he was watching the construction of Evesham Abbey from Ilmington Hill when, in a fit of annoyance, he ...
In the last ten years, scholarship has a cast a bright light on ‘absentee’ slaveowner, British residents – both men and women – who profited from the enslavement, subjugation, and ...
The first Earl of Warwick to experience the effects of slavery first hand (whereas previous Earls had experienced slavery at a distance) was also the same Earl to be listed ...
Today, Rupert Brooke is possibly best known as a War Poet and is included on the Poets of the First World War memorial in Poets’ Corner, Westminster Abbey, alongside fellow poets, Wilfred Owen, Edmund ...
The almshouses were founded in the 1570s by Thomas Oken, who has been called ‘Warwick’s most famous son’. He was a silk merchant – a self-made man without children who ...
In part one, I mentioned Romilly Lunge’s overseas adventures. His life in film had seen him mix with many famous people. Hitchcock once interviewed him, and they both admitted to ...