Good Morning, I collect ocean liner ephemera and I have a few items with a Warwickshire interest which you may not be aware of or even interested about but I ...
John William Joseph Vecqueray, the founder of Hillbrow School, handed over to Thomas Bainbridge Eden (b. 27.4.1845), who brought with him his small school, Orwell House, from Clifton upon Dunsmore, ...
Hillbrow School was a prep school founded in 1859 by the Modern Languages teacher at Rugby School, John William Joseph Vecqueray (1826-1901), a Prussian from Aachen by birth. In 1922 ...
In part one, we looked at Sam Robbins’ roots and the journey from humble beginnings to a flourishing business empire in Rugby. Here, we look at the legacy he left ...
Ask any of the older folk in Rugby town and they’ll probably know the name Sam Robbins, or at least remember some of the shops and buildings in his (and his ...
Here – as promised on our Twitter ‘Silver Takeover’ last week – are some photos of the early buildings of St Cross Hospital in Rugby.
Nursing home precursor of St Cross
A ...
Holy Trinity church was opened in 1854 as a Chapel-of-Ease to St. Andrew’s, building work having started in 1852. The total cost was £7,250. Designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott, ...
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 Brotherhood House in Gas Street Rugby has an interesting and varied history. It was built as a Particular Baptist Chapel around 1803 with a vestry and a 3-stalled stable; by ...
The British Thomson-Houston (BTH) Company was founded in 1894 and production started at Rugby in 1900. The main factory buildings (on what used to be Glebe Farm) opened beside the railway ...
Early years
James Speight was born on 25th February 1879, the youngest son of Edward Hall Speight and Louisa Gulliver (m.1861). Edward Hall Speight was originally from Ambleside in Cumbria; he ...
Edward Hall Speight, Photographer
The Speights were a family of talented photographers. Edward Hall Speight (originally a Wesleyan schoolmaster) set up his photography business in Rugby around 1872. All of his ...
A general background
My great grandfather was a master photographer based in Rugby, he started the Redding studio in the town which lasted for 100 years. John Frearson writes1 how Redding ...