As a resident of the small village of Weston Under Wetherley, near Leamington Spa, I became fascinated by the historical accounts of its reported ‘goings on’ in the historical pages ...
The Warwick House of Correction or Bridewell stood on the corner between Saltisford Rock (now Theatre Street) and Bridewell Lane (formerly Wallditch and now Barrack Street); the site is roughly where ...
Coventry had a gaol from the mid-14th century onwards. In 1675 it was located near the Cathedral between Gaol Lane (now Pepper Lane) and Cuckoo Lane. It was rebuilt in ...
From the 17th century up until the mid 19th century people were being hanged for stealing as little as 5 shillings in value, this law was later referred to as ...
Quarter Sessions were set up in 1371 to deal with more serious non-capital offences. Trials were held 4 times a year (hence the name) in front of two or more ...
This building was erected in 1783-4 by architect Samuel Eglinton and used for the county court and quarter sessions. It remained in use as a court until 1988 and then stood ...
Crimes were originally divided into less serious ‘misdemeanours’ and more serious ‘felonies’. Felonies included murder, treason, rape, assault, and stealing anything worth more than a shilling. (This was raised to ...
A gaol was built in Warwick in the early 13th century and part of the castle was used as a gaol around 1600. The gaol in Northgate Street where the dreadful ...
The age of criminal responsibility in England has always been low. In the 18th century it was seven years old (and even today it is only 10, whilst in almost ...
The old County Gaol is the building next to Shire Hall, and was here until a new gaol was built at the Cape in 1860. After that part of the ...
Not much is known for certain about this intriguing little document. It sits in a collection of political and administrative papers belonging to the Loveday Family of Arlescote and is ...
The Black Horse Inn of Saltisford in Warwick records the exploits of highwayman Bendigo Mitchell thus: ‘Bendigo Mitchell was an 18th century highwayman. He plied his trade on the Warwick ...
The sentence of transportation was passed on a very great number of people found guilty of a wide variety of crimes during the 18th and 19th centuries. Periods of 7, ...
William Booth was born on Hall End Farm near Beaudesert, Warwickshire in 1776. Son of a church warden and farmer, he was one of eight children. In around 1799, he ...
Everyone who works, or has worked, in an archive will tell you that you go looking for one thing, and you come across something entirely different. This happened to me ...
This striking sculpture, at the time of writing, stands outside Coventry Cathedral. The British Ironwork Centre started a campaign ‘Save a Life, Surrender your Knife’ in 2014 and commissioned this ...
Taxation like death is one of life’s certainties. As one would expect, Warwickshire County Record Office has numerous tax records within our holdings from copies of the earliest subsidy rolls ...
In Part one, I looked at the interaction between ribbon weaving in Coventry and Nuneaton and the unrest which arose with the onset of industrialisation in the early 19th century .
However, ...
The ‘quaint little village of Polesworth’ may seem an unlikely place to find the ‘shades of departed monks’, but read on to hear a chilling and ghostly tale first told ...
LGBTQ+ histories are often called ‘hidden histories’, but when we uncover them we can find that familiar places come alive with even more stories. For example, who would have thought ...
The Warwickshire newspapers of 1936 bear witness to a saddening tale of love and heartbreak in the long aftermath of war.
The tale revolves around Francis Arthur Roughead, occupant of Wasperton ...
Browsing the Calendar of Prisoners Index, as you do, I came across an entry which intrigued me. The crime was listed as ‘Assault and Rescue of a Prisoner’.1 Now, I ...
Henry Smith of Kenilworth was accused, in 1827, of stealing a chicken. Ultimately, for this crime, he received a sentence of two months hard labour – not a small amount. ...
The Murder of Charles Pinchback and the subsequent bringing to justice of the two criminals who murdered him has been recorded in the Burial Register for the Parish of St ...