I love food, I love to eat and I love to cook, so it is perhaps no surprise then, that when thinking of an object that connects me to the history ...
Before 1947 there were some gruesome stories of how pit ponies were treated. Warning: these stories contain graphic accounts of animal cruelty.
Pit Ponies were used in mining from the mid 18th Century to the late 20th Century, with the last pit pony leaving the mines of Ellington, Northumberland in 1994. At ...
Warwickshire’s coalfield had been worked since the 13th century, but had yet to boom. It was not until the commercialisation of the steam engine in the 1830s did Warwickshire’s coal ...
I have been prompted to revisit the book ‘Exploring Shakespeare Country 100 years ago’ by Stuart Ludlum. This was published in 1985 and so I was surprised to see the ...
Wanting something to pass the hours during this time? Try solving some of our jigsaw puzzles of photos on our website. We used Jigsaw Explorer to create these puzzles, and hope ...
Coal mining has been engrained in Warwickshire’s heritage for centuries. Stretching from Tamworth to Warwick, the Warwickshire coalfield covers 385 square kilometres and has been worked on since the 13th ...
2022 is the 50th anniversary of the Ugandan Exodus, as it came to be known. My identity card is from 1972 when my family was expelled from Uganda – at ...
As we know, part of the 2022 Commonwealth Games will take place in Leamington. The Commonwealth Games began life as the British Empire Games in 1930 and now features teams ...
Previously, I gave a brief background to my family’s Warwickshire ties. In this section, I would like to talk about feeling a connection to Scotland, England and Warwickshire, even though ...
My family research has taken me down some very unexpected roads.
Warwickshire origins
I have been researching for over twenty years and from my research I learned of the strong ties of ...
After VE day and VJ day at the end of WW2, the Royal Navy had staff stationed in India. My dad, Chief Petty Officer Percy John (PJ) Hodges was stationed ...
One night in early 1940, my mother and her family we woken by Soviet soldiers. She was six at the time. They were told to gather their belongings and were ...
(Continued from part one)
No. 6 Willes Road
During the 1920s the basement flat in 6 Willes Road was home to the Turpin family. The father, Lionel Turpin, was born in British ...
In the 1970s I was able to spend 18 months in Port of Spain, Trinidad so that I could get to know my Trinidad relations. My family background had seen ...
The first woodlands
Following retreat of the last ice sheets, roughly 12,000 years ago, the climate warmed and woodlands spread over much of central England, colonising the rich fertile soils, nourished ...
I was by birth a gentleman, living neither in any considerable height nor yet in obscurity.
Oliver Cromwell.
Oliver Cromwell was brought up in modest circumstances and at 17, as the eldest ...
My visit to Pauls Jaunzem’s sculpture park in Riga, Latvia inspired the exploration of sculptures and monuments in Leamington which were under my nose. For decades I had passed them ...
I’ve recently been perusing the Warwickshire County Record Office postcard collection on the lookout for some interesting images depicting Warwickshire’s past. This particular collection comprises approximately 7,910 postcards of Warwickshire and ...
My ancestors, Eli and George Turner, were born and bred in Leamington and went on to lead interesting lives to say the least.
Enlisting with the Union side in the American ...