Being born in London in 1809, the Rev’d William Wight had seen first hand the conditions its inhabitants had to live in. He viewed London as an example of what was ...
In 1751 Thomas Nelson had started building a new Vicarage at Hatton Green. It must be one of the best documented houses in the county, because a few months ago ...
When I was around two years old a bomb was dropped in the back garden. Oddly and luckily, it didn’t destroy the house at all. However, it did move the ...
Not quite, but it was a late ’50s trip to the Golden Lion… bus stop.
When I was around ten years old we went on a Sunday school trip to Easenhall ...
It was on 22nd March 1916 at St. Mary Immaculate Roman Catholic Church that John Ronald Reuel Tolkien married Edith Mary Bratt. Edith had converted to Catholicism in order to ...
One of the best-known features of the little church of St Milburga in the scattered hamlet of Wixford near Alcester, is the enormous yew tree outside the south porch. In ...
(Continued from part one)
The disagreement between Rhoades and Moultrie came out of the blue on Christmas morning 1872 when the rector wrote a peremptory note to his curate:
Dear Rhoades, I ...
John Moultrie is probably Rugby’s most gifted and prolific 19th century poet, though now rarely read and to most not even a vaguely remembered name. He was an upholder of ...
Tombstones are not a permanent record; they become worn with the weather and pollution, vandalised and removed for the landscaping of the churchyards and for ease of maintenance. Time, therefore, ...
The Victorian stained glass of the west window of St Michael’s Church, Whichford is a beautiful example of the craftsmanship of the time. However, an altogether different design had been ...
This tower still stands looking rather forlorn (though it appears to be in a better state than it was in 1900). It was originally attached to the handsome church of ...
(continued from part one)
It is not clear why the Benedictine nuns chose Princethorpe in Warwickshire. The site certainly had (and still has) attractive features: it was raised up, surrounded by ...
Princethorpe College, which is located in a former Benedictine priory, owes its existence to the French Revolution. However, its story really begins in the 17th century.
On 13th May 1630 Marie Granger ...
Most of this has been told to me by my Dad who lived in Stockton, and has been passed down via his parents, grandparents and other ancestors. My uncle (Mr. Syd ...
Travel to Baddesley Ensor and Baxterley nowadays, and the area is the epitome of rural Warwickshire. Its mining heritage is not forgotten, however, even though the mine closed in 1989. ...
Archdeacon Colley was rector of Stockton from 1901-1912 and a splendid eccentric who produced the unique children’s Speak Pipe. Locals mention that Rectory Close used to be called ‘The Radical’ after ...
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 ...
Archdeacon Colley, rector of Stockton, created a fascinating feature in his garden called a speak pipe that connected his summerhouse to children down below. He offered a reward to children for ...
John Sandford (1801-1873) came from a typical upper-middle class family which included university professors, bishops, archdeacons, military men and holders of civil posts in government and education at home and ...
There is a great deal more music relating to English parish churches than has previously been surmised. It is only in the last 15-20 years that it is recognised that ...
In the middle of Nuneaton parish churchyard lies a substantial flat stone memorial to the mid 19th Century clergyman, Canon Robert Savage. The tombstone, like so many in our graveyards, ...
In part one, I gave the background to my hunt for George Mandyoli Konah Macomo. In this section, I deal with his time in Nuneaton.
Sir George Grey’s decision to send these ...
In the previous section, I looked at the chiefs’ time in Nuneaton. This section concludes the story.
Savage’s son Alfred, who would have been 12 years old when the chiefs arrived, had ...
In the 17th Century the Puritans swept away flowery instruments like organs. This was ‘enforced’ by the Long Parliament in an act of 16441 called ‘Further Ordinance for the demolition of ...