Henry James Stretton-Ward was born in Coventry in 1895. He was the son of James Ward (a lodging house keeper) and Florence Rose Squirrell (the eldest daughter of the Rev. ...
In Regent Grove, Leamington Spa, and under the memorial to Alderman Henry Bright, can be found this cover plate. More interesting than most this shows itself to be the cover ...
Elephant Wash
The wonderful picture of elephants outside Woolworths in Nuneaton (on the home page of ‘Our Warwickshire’) reminds me of the connection between Leamington and elephants. Did you know that ...
The Regent Hotel was officially opened on 19th August 1819. Proving itself to be a popular place for visitors taking the Spa waters, the Regent saw a number of celebrities ...
All over the county there are many beautiful gardens and parks. For example, you may know of the famous Jephson Gardens in Leamington Spa, and the charming grounds at Charlecote ...
As part of a volunteer research project for Warwickshire County Record Office, I’ve been looking through back copies of the Rugby Advertiser to look for items, 100 years since women achieved the ...
(Continued from part one)
Prison life
On the night of Tuesday 1st July, Agnes Lake was re-arrested and was once again taken to Warwick Prison. She was forbidden to write to her ...
The Regent Mews were originally built as stabling for the guests of John William’s Bedford Hotel – purposefully built opposite, rather than next to, the hotel. The mews provided stabling ...
Does anyone else remember looking over the Mill Suspension Bridge at all the money that had been thrown on to the steps of the weir below?
A pre-decimal practice
This was in ...
In addition to being the home of the World’s oldest tennis club, Leamington played a pivotal role in the development of ‘Lawn Tennis’ – a game which appears to have ...
William and Ernest Renshaw (b. Jan. 3, 1861, Brandon Parade, Royal Leamington Spa) dominated the All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club’s tournament in Wimbledon during the 1880s and are credited ...
The first Women’s Institute in Warwickshire was formed in April 1917, now known as Tysoe WI, the original title was “Compton Wynyates in association with Tysoe”, as the Marchioness of ...
In the Leamington Spa Courier dated Saturday 30 December 1843, there is an advertisement for a series of lectures on Native Americans. We learn that the Mesquakie chief Joc-o-sot, or Walking Bear, ...
People are broadly aware of the historic criminalisation of male homosexual activity – cases of certain famous individuals like Oscar Wilde and Alan Turing spring to mind. Until the Sexual ...
In part one, we learnt that Samuel Butler and Harry Sidwell had a sexual encounter in 1888. It was a time when homosexuality was illegal, and these two men were caught ...
This document is one of a number of medical recipes preserved in the collection relating to the Willes family of Newbold Comyn. This bundle consists of documents written in various ...
Today we may be more familiar with the concept of a drag queen, but drag kings (or ‘male impersonators’) have a history dating back over the centuries. Performers such as ...
One of the difficulties of writing about the contribution of Black soldiers during the First World War is identifying who was Black and who wasn’t. If they served in the ...
The review and performance may have been written 160 years ago, many of the stylistic presentations of the story may have altered but, ultimately, what actually changes in 160 years?
John Machen was born in Scotland, the son of a Glasgow merchant and magistrate. He became a surgeon by profession, and started in practice in Dartmouth, Devon. On 8th August ...
From the beginning of the industrial revolution at the end of the 18th Century, until around the time of the Great War, there was a large migration of people from ...
I was born in 1984 and lived in Johannesburg, South Africa until the age of 15 when my family moved to the UK. We moved around a lot at first, ...
Find out how the residents and authorities of Leamington coped with an outbreak of cholera in the 19th century by viewing the video clip.
This article is part of a series ...