This page is an introduction to the more comprehensive Research Paper which is available on this website HERE The history of the Flavel family in manufacturing has been traced back over three hundred years. After that date the firm was steered by members of the family in Leamington Spa for nigh on 140 years. William … Read more
Automotive Products was the major employer in Leamington for around 40 years in the 20th century. It was generally referred to locally as AP or Lockheed although the company used many other brand names. This is an introduction to a longer history of the company which can be seen HERE Origins. The Automotive Products company … Read more
ONE OF OUR EARLY ARTICLES As 19th Century Leamington metamorphosed from village into prestigious spa town, and eminent medical men advised exercise in addition to taking the waters, many sports associations sprang up here. Leamington could boast a Real Tennis Club, the first venue for Lawn Tennis (on the site of the present Manor Court … Read more
Among a host of anniversaries celebrated in 2016, the thought occurred to me that the date also coincides with eighty years of the first public transmissions of television pictures from Alexandra Palace in London in the Autumn of 1936. Most people know that the first person to demonstrate a working television was Scotsman John … Read more
While the history of Leamington’s pubs is comprehensively covered in the 2014 publication ‘Pubs of Royal Leamington Spa – Two Centuries of History’ [by Allan Jennings, Martin Ellis & Tom Lewin], we should not overlook the breweries that were once part of Leamington’s social fabric, albeit a great many years ago; their respective histories were … Read more
The streamline cycle, shown here in an early press photograph, used a new energy-storing device calculated to revolutionise cycling by storing energy when travelling downhill and releasing it on climbing. It was designed by Ben Bowden, a well-known Leamington industrial designer and consulting engineer, to be displayed at the Britain Can Make It exhibition in … Read more
The Duggins family were originally blacksmiths in Berkswell, and Barston, but Joseph Duggins and his wife Ann came to settle in Cubbington in about 1856. Edward, their third child and second son, was born there in 1857. Copies of the Leamington Courier of the time reveal that the blacksmith’s extended family became prolific prize winners … Read more
Musician & orchestra leader It is rather sad to think that a man whose accomplishments were such that a Leamington street was named after him is almost forgotten within a few years. Berenska Drive was named after Jan Berenska a multi-talented musician whose orchestra had a huge following in the heyday of radio. During the … Read more
Concert pianist & writer When Denis Matthews left Warwick School in 1935 to take up a scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music in London, one of his erstwhile masters said “They tell me that you are going in for music Matthews but what do you intend doing with the rest of your time?” The … Read more
My great-great-grandparents were born in County Mayo, Ireland, John Jennings in 1838 at Killadoon, Ballintubber, and Anne in 1844 at Arthavalley, Ballintubber. I think that it is highly likely that the great potato famine after 1845 was the reason that John and Anne’s families decided that they needed to move in order to feed their … Read more
The photograph is plainly of a mid Victorian gentleman: dark suit and waistcoat, high turnover collar, dark circle of cravat, and yet not over-tidy, rustic almost; a shortish man with a short neck, chunky rather than burly; leaning forward as if in conversation, fair hair flying as if he drags his fingers through it when … Read more
Alexander Marshall Lodge (aka Alec) was the third son (of six sons and six daughters) of Sir Oliver Lodge, British Physicist and noted inventor, and the first Principal of the new University of Birmingham at Edgbaston. As did two other brothers, Lionel and Noel, Alec and his older brother Brodie eventually went into business using … Read more
Contact the Secretary, Margaret Rushton: secretary@leamingtonhistory.co.uk
July 22, 2026
June 9, 2026