Ben Earl’s contribution on this website about Lawrence Sheriff School (LSS) in Rugby brought back memories of my time there during 1941-1946. At the end of his article Ben mentions ...
After Brownsover the Rev. Dew detoured from the river Avon to include several pictures of Rugby School (most of which I am not reproducing because the school buildings have changed ...
Gabor Denes (who later anglicised his name to Dennis Gabor) was born in Budapest in June 1900 and studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Budapest and at the ...
Rupert Brooke’s father William was a teacher at Rugby School who ran his home, 5 Hillmorton Road, as a boarding house for boys from the school. This is where Rupert ...
St Peter and St John’s Church in Clifton Road Rugby may be relatively modern, but it has an intriguing history. As part of a Church open day on Sat August ...
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 Black Path was so called because it was originally surfaced with cinders. It was a footbridge built in the early 20th century across the railway to help workers living ...
This memorial commemorates former workers at the British Thomson-Houston factory who gave their lives during the two world wars. The inscription reads: ‘In Memory of the Men of the British ...
Returning to the course of the river Avon: there was a mill at Rugby worth 13s 4d in the Domesday survey. Rugby Mill continued as an active corn mill longer ...
Cataloguing the Willans Works archive material at Warwickshire County Record Office is revealing some interesting facts, partly because of the efforts of volunteers who are helping with the collection. Their ...
The records of a Rugby-based engineering firm that pioneered the manufacture of steam engines and turbines for electricity generation are being catalogued by Warwickshire County Record Office in a project ...
A collection of over 300 glass plate negatives has recently been catalogued and prints are now able to be consulted at the Warwickshire County Record Office. Some of these photos ...
Drama! Excitement! Derring-do!
We take air travel pretty much for-granted nowadays, but it’s not so long since the exploits of magnificent men in their flying machines could capture the public’s imagination. ...
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 ...
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, ...
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 ...
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 ...