On a recent visit to Avoncroft Museum I was delighted to find at least three items from Warwickshire (and may have missed others). This museum has historic buildings (rescured from ...
I worked at Wilson and Staffords for nearly 20 years. I worked in the settling shop, rolling the felt up and putting in the water. Then I moved from there to ...
I used to work at the hat factory and the slipper factory, mostly Christmas for the slipper factory. It was ladies’ side and men’s side, so we didn’t mix and ...
(Continued from part four)
In 1939 came the second world war. Jimmy was very busy taking workers to AP (Lockeed), Flavel’s, Tachbrook Aero, Ford’s and other factories. One day, two gunners came ...
(Continued from part three)
Life came back to normal in the village after the war. But men who had seen Gay Paree found it hard to settle down. Bishop’s never had a ...
(Continued from part two)
When the war broke out in 1914, Jim was in a reserved job, farm worker, at first (he wore an armband to show that the was in ...
(Continued from part one)
The family were chapel goers. They all went to the Wesley Chapel at Bishops Itchington. Years ago there were three chapels as well as the church, but there ...
This is the last remaining former ribbon-weaving factory in Coventry; it stands in New Buildings and was occupied by Exchange and Mart in the 20th century. It had been standing ...
This fine pub still exists at 69 Coten End. It is first listed as a pub in 1880 but the building is much older and is described in detail in ...
Frank Whittle was born in Earlsdon, Coventry, in 1907. His family moved to Leamington Spa where he attended Milverton School and then Leamington College for Boys. He worked in his ...
The Weaver’s House has been restored to show how it would have looked in 1540. This shows how John Croke, a Coventry narrow-loom weaver and his family would have lived and ...
Donald Healey may be associated with the car company that bears his name, and that was based in Warwick, but his early life started in the south of the country.
An early ...
I started a five year student apprenticeship at Rugby, straight from school and home in Sussex in 1956. Competition for a place was strong. I believe there were 1,200 apprentices ...
The Michaelmas Quarter Sessions of 1855 saw charges of passing on counterfeit coins against Richard Broome and Robert Kent. The depositions from the archives reveal what appears to be a ...
This pub is first recorded on the 1806 map of Warwick and was situated on Bridewell Lane, although it was later listed as being at 13, Barrack Street. This area of ...
An interesting set of information survives in the 19th century court records: the calendar of ‘Victualler’s Recognizances’. These have been transcribed by volunteers at the Warwickshire County Record Office and ...
Just two months into my first year at Coton House I was just getting used to motorbiking to work when the Suez crisis erupted and petrol rationing was introduced. Funds ...
After realising that I needed help from the apprentice welfare office, I was worried. I had in my mind that by failing to be self-supporting my whole future again threatened ...
Coventry and Nuneaton, alongside Bedworth, were great hubs of ribbon weaving in the 18th century. However, the life of a ribbon weaver was not all roses, particularly in the early 19th century.
While ...
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 ...
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, 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, ...
Butchers shops
Mr. Alcock’s at the corner of the High Street is now Phoenix House. An earlier butcher there was Mr. Horley. Next door, at the house opposite the Co-op, was Mr. ...
Interviews with John Gardner on Donald Healey as a designer and setting up his own company and with Tony Marshall talking about Donald Healey’s connections with Fiat.
John Gardner had various ...