admin The Dell is a small public open space below street level in the Leamington suburb of Milverton. It is bounded by Warwick Terrace, Beauchamp Hill, the rear of Albany Terrace and Warwick Street / Warwick Place, opposite the venerable Star and Garter public house. It was originally a steep-sided brook valley through farmland. Before … Read more
ONE OF OUR EARLY ARTICLES Robert William Collier set up his linen draper shop at number 21 Bath Street in late 1860. He was born in Cheltenham in about 1824, and was apprenticed to Robert Whitehouse, draper, of Lower Union Parade, Leamington where he appears on the 1841 census. He would have lived with other … Read more
Population growth In 1781, Leamington Priors was a village of 300 people built around a muddy mineral spring and the modern Althorpe Industrial Estate was primarily agricultural land owned by the Church. The next fifty years saw the population of Leamington Priors grow significantly as the Industrial Revolution in Britain gained momentum. The building of … Read more
[divider] Beginnings In 1784 Benjamin Satchwell and William Abbotts discovered a spring in Bath Lane in the hamlet of Leamington Priors, and 2 years later opened Abbotts Original Baths. At this time, much of the hamlet and surrounding land was owned by a handful of wealthy families, including the Wise family. In 1783 Bath Lane … Read more
Leamington has lost, over the last hundred years or so, three towers. None of these has been of any great architectural merit, although they all have had a measure of curiosity value. The earliest is the so called ‘Pepper pot chapel’, although the Milverton Chapel was its formal title. The chapel, as it was not … Read more
With special thanks to Jeff Clarke for his contribution to this history of Clemens Street Clicking on the images will bring up a larger more detailed picture. Leamington or ‘Lamintone’ was listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as “240 acres of land worth £4 with two mills worth 24 (old) shillings”. On an early … Read more
1875-1880 Mr Charles Pratt Charles Pratt was a Picture Dealer who had been born in Leicester in 1825. In 1871 Charles was living at 10 London Road Leicester were he owned an old China and Earthenware shop, Working for him as a servant was Elizabeth Ann Westbury, aged 22. She had come to Leicester to … Read more
Many people refer jokingly to discoveries, inventions, memoirs, as jottings ‘on the back of an envelope’. This is the real thing. In 2011 Leamington History Group inherited an intriguing little archive from local historian Toby Cave. At first sight it was just a small brown cardboard box full of all kinds of scraps of paper … Read more
Do you recognise this building with its decorative carved columns? It’s one known to generations of Leamingtonians as Sabin’s, – the Leamington bread shop and bakery in years gone by. Mona Radford, nee Sabin, was born at the shop in Farley Street, into a family business started by her great grandfather Joseph, who seems to … Read more
James Hill bought the plot of leasehold land in Bath Street and the buildings thereon from the Surcombe estate in 1832, and built numbers 21 to 23 Bath Street. Hill also purchased Elizabeth Surcombe’s land at Newbold Comyn which had been mortgaged to Robert Campion. James Hill was born in about 1801 in Warwick, the … Read more
Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist and short story writer. In July 1853 he was appointed US consul in Liverpool by President Franklin Pierce, and during the ensuing 5½ years in England spent 2 periods in Leamington, in 1855 and 1857. At the end of his term of office, the family toured France and Italy, … Read more
Elizabeth Surcombe the Elder The Surcombes came from the village of Lifton near Tavistock, Devon. William Surcombe married Mary Crocker and they had four children: Mary, Ann, William and Elizabeth who was born about 1766. It is not known when Elizabeth Surcombe came to Leamington Priors but an early rate book of 1813 shows her … Read more
Contact the Secretary, Margaret Rushton: secretary@leamingtonhistory.co.uk
June 9, 2026
Nelly (later known as Eleanor Velasco) Thornton was born in Stockwell, London, on 15th April 1880 to Frederick and Sarah Ann Thornton, who was also known as ‘Nellie’. They had...
May 26, 2026
This is Mark’s own brief personal and professional story about how he became interested in the history of Leamington Spa and producing films about the town’s full, varied and fascinating...
May 6, 2026
Acknowledgements to Contributors Writers of Articles Stella BolithoNigel BriggsPeter CoullsBarry FranklinMichael JeffsAllan JenningsMichael PearsonDr Sylvia PinchesMargaret RushtonSidney SysonRichard TaulbutDr John Wilmot Substantial Contributors to Articles. Kay Bugg; Alan Griffin; Dr...